Category: Daily Updates

By Dave Meltzer
dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re looking for your thoughts on the weekend’s New Japan Dominion show and yesterday’s WWE Best from the East shot, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports from Raw tonight in Chicago, with dark matches, Superstars matches and anything else not evident on the live broadcast. Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, on Monday.  Guess which two were pushed on USA network ads last night?

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.  No John Cena advertised, so the top stars advertised are Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The latest Wrestling Observer: July 6, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jose Aldo injury fallout, TNA/GFW mystery

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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 looks at the injury to Conor McGregor, what UFC attempted to do to save the fight, why the fight didn’t happen, McGregor building up a later fight, how much does this change hurt, the positives of Mendes in the spot and the mentality of the PPV buyer.  We look at the key issues involved in the fight not happening.

We also look at why the TNA/GFW alliance took place, why TNA made the call to Jeff Jarrett, plans or non-plans going on, why this is beneficial to both, departures from TNA, where that talent would go next and more.

We look at why Saturday’s UFC show in Hollywood, FL was the end of an era on several accounts, both from the uniform standpoint, as well as drug detection and weight cutting standpoints.  We also make a suggestion of something that is already done in other sports that UFC should implement, although it will never happen, as well as an example of why weight-cutting is done the way it is.

We also look at a lawsuit against WWE for making allegedly misleading claims that led to the stock price going way up, and then falling.  We look at a unique thing that came up regarding the key witness, stories changing, and if stories were legit to begin with.

We also look at the death of the bill to legalize MMA in New York, and how it went down.

We also have early notes on next year’s WrestleMania, an update on Sting, how the main event planned is unique because it’s out of WWE’s control if it happens, more on Reign vs. Wyatt, the Japanese tour, ideas for the network in 2016, Japanese pro wrestler tryouts, Dolph Ziggler on his contractual situation, The Rock at the house show in Boston, Rock movie news, update on Tyson Kidd, update on WWE network, update on lawsuits against WWE, and notes on the new season of Total Divas.

We also look at awards WWE is nominated for, Randy Orton, WWE announcing, and notes on the weekend NXT and WWE house shows and business notes and highlights from all of the shows.

We’ve got coverage of the UFC show in Hollywood, FL, how the card fell apart beforehand, business notes on the show, and what should happen next for Yoel Romero.  We also look at TNA Slammiversary.

We’ve got a story on the new season of Tough Enough, what has and hasn’t worked so far, notes on the ratings, notes on the competitors, who are said to be the favorites, what on the show is misleading and more on what is involved.

We also have our monthly business review for WWE & TNA, looking at monthly business in a number of categories.  We look at what categories are up, how far down are the ones down, and what one category with WWE that is significantly up and one that is collapsing.

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:

–New promotion that has had success dumps its two biggest stars

–A look at the All Elite show in Mexico City with several American stars brought in and others scheduled who had to pull out

–CMLL announces its next major big show main event

–Updates on reaction to the Busca de un Idolo tournament

–Notes on the last shows at Arena Mexico

–Notes on this year’s TripleMania and why it is taking place so late in the year

–Some major injuries to Lucha Underground stars

–AAA signs a longtime CMLL star

–Rey Mysterio Jr. headlines for AAA’s last TV tapings

–Why the Great Muta U.S. tour fell through

–An international promotion having money problems and having to cut back and losing wrestles in the process

–Notes on Dragon Gate’s next major show including some U.S. tours appearing

–Notes on the NOAH upcoming junior heavyweight tournament

–Updates on New Japan business

–New Japan World G-1 notes

–Notes on New Japan’s biggest main event of the week

–Notes on the New Japan U.S. television show

–Update on the original tiger Mask

–Genichiro Tenryu’s final match

–Hiroshi Tanahashi appears on DDT major show

–Update on Bruno Sammartino

–Dave Bautista likely to land another major movie role

–Notes on this past week’s PWG show including celebrities and four-star matches

–Notes on the next two PWG shows

–Young Bucks face Mysterio for the first time and notes no the show

–More talent appearing for Jarrett on shows

–Lots of news regarding the new NWA streaming service and Houston wrestling tape collection

–Another major streaming service announced

–Former WWE star set for a new E! reality show

–Another former WWE performer gets  into legal trouble

–Notes on pro wrestling books

–Update on former WWE star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore

–Update on the WWC’s last major show

–Former pro wrestler competing in high level bodybuilding contest

–One of the most reviled men of the last 50 years in wrestling is coming out of retirement once again

–Latest on Lucha Underground

–Notes on the ROH stadium show in Brooklyn

–Complete lineup for ROH’s next iPPV show

–Notes on the next ROH show in Las Vegas

–Updates on TNA titles after this set of tapings

–Everything on TNA television through mid-August

–Update on problems with production people

–Update on health of Kurt Angle

–Update on Jeff hardy

–Former WWE star working for TNA behind the scenes

–Controversy over Anderson Silva drug test result

–Ronda Rousey ESPY award nominations

–Crazy UFC schedule over an eight day period

–Official UFC 187 numbers

–Update on C.M. Punk training

–UFC’s return to Ireland announced

–Update Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Aftermath of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice

–Ken Shamrock talks about a fight with Frank shamrock

–More on Alexander Shlemenko suspension

–Foamer Pride star sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison

–An August battle of MMA legends falls through.

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.

MONDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

–Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, Gilbert Melendez as well as taking your e-mail questions that can be sent to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com  We have a show with about 90 minutes of questions being answered with Mike Sempervive and I that we recorded yesterday.  We may do another one next month after the G-1 finals.

–Ric Flair is in Chicago but as of a few minutes ago, was not scheduled for Raw.  He will be on the Dusty Rhodes special which is being done live after the completion of Raw.  WWE has announced Jerry Lawler hosting a special that features Flair and Arn Anderson.

–Randy Orton got engaged to girlfriend Kim Kessler over the weekend.  He returns tonight.

–Just for those who have asked, the reason Roddy Piper left Podcast One was because he asked out of his contract there.  Any other story is just, well, what can I say, fantasy.

–Speaking of which, even more fantasy is the stories of Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada doing a WWE tryout.  It was somebody’s idea of a joke on Twitter and somehow that became news.

–The Los Angeles Sports Arena, which was the home to many pro wrestling events over the years, including the AAA La Revancha and When World’s Collide shows, is being demolished for a new soccer stadium on the same grounds.  There is no timetable of when, but the decision has been made that it will be happening.  The building also housed several NCAA title wins by UCLA, was the home of the Lakers before the Forum, housed big matches with Freddie Blassie in the early 60s and Mil Mascaras in the late 70s, was the site of JFK’s nomination and the site of Muhammad Ali vs. Archie Moore.

–Steve Austin did some media to back up his being the cover guy on the 2K16 video game.  To me, it’s really telling that they went with Austin rather than an active star.  It would be one thing if it was HHH or Dwayne Johnson who still wrestle but aren’t full-timers.  They did John Cena last year.  Anyway, don’t think this means Austin is going to wrestle again, because it’s highly unlikely and he’s said so, although I do figure he’ll be in WrestleMania in some form on the next show.

–For a clarification on the Steve Austin stuff earlier today, he was doing U.K. media to promote the game.  He was not in the U.K. doing that media, as he’s shooting Broken Skull Challenge right now in the U.S. through around 8/3.  That’s the reason he couldn’t do Tough Enough this season is that he’d already committed to that show.

–Austin interview at http://talksport.com/wwe/wwe-steve-austin-says-brock-lesnar-and-paul-heyman-are-magic-one-two-punch-150706154953

–As noted yesterday, David Otunga worked the WWE show yesterday in Rockford, IL, losing to R-Truth.  He’s very muscular, even more so than the last time we saw him.

–New Japan announced the Young Bucks vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish for the IWGP jr. tag titles for 8/16 at Sumo Hall, which is the same card as the finals of the G-1 Climax tournament.  They haven’t announced the date yet for the big Kushida vs. Ricochet match.

–The opening G-1 show, so this is kind of how the cards will be, on 7/20 in Sapporo is which starts at 11 p.m. Pacific time on a Monday night:
Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Yohei Komatsu vs. Tomoaki Honma & Mascara Dorada & David Finlay & Jay White
Hirooki Goto & Captain New Japan vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall
Shinsuke Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga
Michael Elgin & Satoshi Kojima & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Doc Gallows
Togi Makabe vs. Toru Yano
Tetsuya Naito vs. Bad Luck Fale
A.J. Styles vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi

Unlike the last few years where the entire cards have been off the chain, this year they are focusing on two strong main events each card.

–I’m scheduled to be filming some UFC history interviews this weekend for UFC Fight Pass.  They’ll be for future packages.

–On Point Wrestling on 8/29 in Williamston, NJ is doing a Taipei death match with Matt Tremont vs. Jeff Cannonball with Ian Rotten as ref.  The idea is it’s the 20-year anniversary of the Axl Rotten vs. Ian Rotten Taipei death match in ECW.

–The Marvel Experience tour, which included voice overs of Hulk Hogan and HHH, a $30 million traveling theme park, announced after its first event in Philadelphia over the weekend, that the rest of the tour has been canceled.  The event was to take place over multiple days in several major cities including New York, Chicago and St. Louis.   

–Nanae Takahashi, who was a star with All Japan women during the last years of that promotion, and has wrestled ever since, will face ODB on the 7/17 ROH show in Las Vegas.

–Evolve on 7/11 in Orlando at the Barnett Park Gym
Drew Galloway vs. Trent Baretta
Chris Hero vs. Timothy Thatcher
Davey Richards vs. ? (Biff Busick is injured, we don’t have word what his situation is)
TJ Perkins vs Zack Sabre Jr.
Anthony Nese vs. Trevor Lee
Caleb Konley vs. Andrew Everett

–This coming Saturday wrestling returns to Royal Albert Hall in London, which was a famous wrestling venue of the 60s and also housed a UFC show and WWE shows in the past:
Blue Demoncito & Octagoncito vs. Mini  Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria
Fenix vs. Pentagon Jr. – Fenix is injured, not sure of his status
Bengala (Ricky Marvin) & Fabi Apache vs. Drago & Sexy Star
Blue Demon Jr. & La Parka & Psycho Clown vs. El Hijo del Fantasma & Villano IV & ?

–Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling on  7/18 in East Carondelet, IL at the Community Center featuring Ricky Cruz, Ron Powers and Gary Jackson.

–The IWS in Montreal announced partnerships with AAA and Lucha Underground and will start featuring talent from those groups regularly starting with the 9/5 show.  There will also be an IWS vs. CZW show on 10/17 with interpromotional matches.  They also announced a the Metropolis in Montreal on March 5, 2016, that Rey Mysterio Jr. will be appearing.  Speedball Mike Bailey is the current champion of the group (thanks to Pat Laprade)

–Kurt Angle will be in Waterloo, IA this weekend for the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Hall of Fame ceremony.  Actual Hall of Fame inductions will go to Jim Londos and Greg Wojciechowski (Great Wojo).  Angle will be getting a special ring from USA Wrestling at the Dan Gable Museum in honor of the 20th anniversary of his winning the 1995 world championship.  Also honored for contributions to wrestling are Brian Blair, Wade Keller (for journalism), Beth Phoenix (for charity work) and Matt Lindland (for using wrestling to succeed in MMA).  There will also be a show in town at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center headlined by Bob Holly vs. Colt Cabana.  Blair Wes Brisco and Nick Dinsmore are also wrestling on the show.  Also appearing will include Jim Ross, Jerry Brisco, J.J. Dillon, Larry Hennig, Baron Von Raschke and Jim Brunzell.

–The first ever Great American Bash took place 30 years ago today before a sellout of 27,000 fans at Charlotte Baseball Stadium with these results:

Ron Bass drew Buddy Landel
Ole & Arn Anderson b Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater to retain the National tag team titles
Manny Fernandez & Sam Houston & Buzz Tyler b Superstar Billy Graham & The Barbarian & Abdullah the Butcher
Jimmy Valiant b Paul Jones in a dog collar chain mach
AWA tag champs Road Warriors DDQ NWA tag champs Ivan Koloff & Krusher Khrushchev
Magnum T.A. b Kimala via DQ to retain the U.S. title
Ric Flair b Nikita Koloff with David Crockett as referee to retain the NWA world title
Dusty Rhodes b Tully Blanchard in a cage match to win Baby Doll for 30 days

–WWE stock dropped 22 cents a share today to $16.31

–The UFC Hall of Fame ceremony airs live on Fight Pass at 2 p.m. on Saturday.  Inductions will be held for Jeff Blatnick, B.J. Penn, Bas Rutten and the Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg fight.

–Valkyrie women’s pro wrestling on 7/9 at the Woodbury Heights Community Center at 7 p.m.

–In Australia, Mad Max:  Fury Road (Nathan Jones) was No. 11, Entourage (Ronda Rousey) was No. 14, Pitch Perfect (Lana) was No. 16 and San Andreas (Dwayne Johnson) was No. 17 at the box office (thanks to James Stanios)

–Invicta, headlined by Cris Cyborg, will be live on UFC Fight Pass at 11 p.m. Eastern on Thursday night. 

–Grand Slam Wrestling on 7/11 in Scranton, PA at Back Breakers Training Center.

–Eva Marie talks San Francisco Giants at http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/fighting/article26562550.html

–Mainstream news story about women in sports and author David Zirin listed his five must-see sports stars on television as Stephen Curry, Bryce Harper, Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and Sasha Banks.  He also mentioned Charlotte and Becky Lynch changing the face of women in pro wrestling.

Story is at http://www.thenation.com/article/why-im-done-defending-womens-sports/

–The new episode of the Winter Palace podcast is live featuring comics writer (and longtime Observer subscriber) Steven Grant talking SD Comic-Con, WWE Japan special and comics vs Hollywood and Steve “Dr Lucha” Sims talking Lucha in Tijuana in 2015 and En Busca de un Idolo.

http://tinyurl.com/WinterEp05

–Lex Luger and Nikita Koloff interviews at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQiwYaF0Mwc

WWE Network Schedule for Tuesday, July 7,2015 From Bert Duckwall

12:06 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Epic Smackdown Moments of all time!

1:06 AM 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.

2:06 AM ET
WWE TRIBUTE TO DUSTY RHODES Live from Chicago, WWE celebrates the life and career of Dusty Rhodes, as told by WWE Legends and Superstars.

3:06 AM ET
WCW GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1995 WCW’s annual summer spectacular features Nature Boy Ric Flair taking on Macho Man Randy Savage. Sting faces Meng for the U.S. Title.

6:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Epic Smackdown Moments of all time!

7:00 AM ET
FIRST LOOK MNW SHOTS FIRED! In this Network Exclusive, join Triple H and Sting as they sit down with Renee Young and discuss Monday Night War.

7:30 AM ET
WWE TOUGH TALK Join The Miz as he recaps all of the TOUGH ENOUGH highlights and sits down with the eliminated competitor whose WWE journey came to an end.

8:01 AM 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.

9:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Epic Smackdown Moments of all time!

10:00 AM ET
FIRST LOOK MNW SHOTS FIRED! In this Network Exclusive, join Triple H and Sting as they sit down with Renee Young and discuss Monday Night War.

10:30 AM ET
WWE TOUGH TALK Join The Miz as he recaps all of the TOUGH ENOUGH highlights and sits down with the eliminated competitor whose WWE journey came to an end.

11:01 AM 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.

12:00 PM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Epic Smackdown Moments of all time!

1:00 PM ET
FIRST LOOK MNW SHOTS FIRED! In this Network Exclusive, join Triple H and Sting as they sit down with Renee Young and discuss Monday Night War.

1:30 PM ET
WWE TOUGH TALK Join The Miz as he recaps all of the TOUGH ENOUGH highlights and sits down with the eliminated competitor whose WWE journey came to an end.

2:01 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE The legends play a polo match…WWE style! Back at the Legends House, Tony Atlas and ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan attempt to co-exist.

3:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE A bowling competition kicks things off! However, the real mayhem begins when the WWE Legends attempt to film a bizarre commercial.

4:00 PM ET
FIRST LOOK MNW SHOTS FIRED! In this Network Exclusive, join Triple H and Sting as they sit down with Renee Young and discuss Monday Night War.

4:30 PM ET
THE WWE LIST Highlighting the Royalist of Superstars that WWE has ever been graced with!

5:00 PM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR An industry icon’s transformation propels Nitro to prominence, and forever changes sports entertainment history.

6:00 PM ET
WWE BEYOND THE RING Witness some of the rarest matches from Hulk Hogan’s 30-year career. This special is an absolute must-watch for all Hulkamaniacs!

8:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE A bowling competition kicks things off! However, the real mayhem begins when the WWE Legends attempt to film a bizarre commercial.

9:00 PM ET
WWE TOUGH TALK Join The Miz as he recaps all of the TOUGH ENOUGH highlights and sits down with the eliminated competitor whose WWE journey came to an end. 

9:30 PM ET
THE WWE LIST Highlighting the Royalist of Superstars that WWE has ever been graced with!

10:00 PM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR An industry icon’s transformation propels Nitro to prominence, and forever changes sports entertainment history.

11:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE A bowling competition kicks things off! However, the real mayhem begins when the WWE Legends attempt to film a bizarre commercial.

Thumbs Up

Best Match: Styles vs Okada

Worst Match: Naito and Honman vs. Fale and Takahashi

This may have been a better show than the Tokyo Dome show. Amazing show even being over 4 hours long

Young Bucks vs. RPG Vice vs. reDRagon:
It was every triple threat/fatal 4 way match with any combination of these teams which means it was great. *** 3/4 stars

Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma vs. Bullet Club
Pretty much the beginning of a storyline with the Naito turning heel. I guess it was an effective start to the storyline cause I completely forgot Takahashi and Fale were ever in the match. ** stars

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata:
This was a technical wrestling masterpiece. Good idea putting Shibata over since he’s the one going to G1. **** 1/4 stars

Kenny Omega vs. KUSHIDA:
Fantastic match with fantastic psychology and selling. Aside from his corny heel antics Omega is such an underrated talent. **** 1/2 stars

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii:
This is the feud of the year and i’m disappointed they’re in seperate blocks in the G1. These two beat the hell out of each other. Makabe’s chest and neck halfway through the match were beet red. Sick chops, suplexes and lariats a true slobberknocker if you will. **** stars

Matt Taven and Brian Caraway Jr vs. Gallows and Anderson
A pretty good Americanized match. Taven is another underrated talent while Mike Bennett is Mike Bennett. Anderson and Gallows looked good and like the Shibata/Sakuraba match good idea to put the belts on the Bullet Club since both are in the G1. ** 3/4 stars

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano
A typical Yano match in that you’re always ready for the surprise finish and there were a ton of them. Tanahashi got the best match out of Yano and you would think this would end the feud but they’re facing each other in G1. THIS. FEUD. MUST. CONTINUE. ** 3/4 stars

Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura:
Nakamura, charisma wise, is so far ahead of everybody else it’s scary. Great physcial match with a great ending sequence with Goto blocking all of Nakamura’s signature moves and winning. Judging by the video package before and after the match I’m thinking Goto wants to win G1 and unify both the Intercontinental title and Heavyweight title. Good luck with that. **** 1/4 stars

AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada:
No pun intended but this match was phenomenal. Great back and forth match. Red Shoes needs to win Best Non Wrestler just for him telling AJ and the Bullet Club to suck it and the BC selling his crotch chops. Ending of the match with all the reversals was great and the finish left no doubt that Okada was the better man. **** 3/4 stars

Josh Hayes

WWE Beast in the East @ Tokyo Sumo Hall

Thumbs Up. Nice show overall. Just a spot show but a good one. The commentary here was better than in any other WWE programming, although that’s not much of a compliment, probably because it was just two people reacting to each other instead of randomly waiting for someone’s turn and also because there was no need to wait for Vince’s input to say something. Still, Cole blew some names and implied that Sumo Hall was bigger than Budokan.
Best Match: Balor vs Owens

Worst Match: None

1. Jericho vs Neville. Excellent opener. Great storytelling and execution. Jericho’s work was great, he started like a total babyface but was able to “turn” just by doing little things in the ring. Sad that Neville has no role on the roster. ****1/4

2. Nikki vs Paige vs Tamina. Just an above average Divas match. **1/2

3. Lesnar vs Kingston. The return of the old fashioned Squash. Nothing wrong with it but Kofi, as a tag titles challenger in the mid card, was the wrong choice for that.  (N/R)

4. Balor vs Owens. Great match all the way. So far Owens has been on fire with great matches in every ppv/special. Balor needs to change the name of his finisher; also, nobody should be kicking out of the Bloody Sunday. ****1/2

5. Cena & Ziggler vs Barrett & Kane. Why this was on last? Didn’t make any sense. It was good but it went forever for no good reason. ***

Leonardo Mendez
San Sebastian, PR

Thumbs way up
Best match: Shibata/Sakuraba and Okada/AJ (tie)
Worst match: Bucks/reDRagon/RPG Vice

I’ve been harsh when it comes to New Japan this year, but this show was pretty damn good save for one particular match.

The preshow tag match was good, way better than usual. The Jr. Tag Title match was horrendous. I swear I’ve seen every single thing they did a million times and this style of wrestling where everything looks clearly choreographed and doesn’t come off as an actual contest does absolutely nothing for me. 

The Naito tag was fine for what it needed to be, nothing really noteworthy there outside of Honma winning. Shibata/Sakuraba was a masterpiece and a perfect example of what strong style wrestling is. KUSHIDA/Omega had a really hot finishing stretch but kind of plodded early. Still a very good match. 

Ishii/Makabe was the usual slugfest which while I enjoy it, I’ve seen them do this three times this year. I’ve had enough. Wasn’t into the Kingdom/BC match but it wasn’t offensive at all. Tanahashi/Yano was fun if not actively good. 

Goto/Nakamura had an incredible finishing run, even better than Omega/KUSHIDA earlier in the show. It was slow early but got really great the deeper into the match they got. Very much a fitting IC Title match given the venue and the importance of the show.

AJ/Okada was excellent, the perfect main event for the show. The Bullet Club interference is beyond played out but once they got past that phase in the match, this got pretty damn great. Not sure I’d rank this above the G1 match from last year but it ain’t too far off. As I said, the perfect ending to a damn good show.

Ricky Schmidt

Thumbs In The Middle

Best Match: Sakuraba v. Shibata

Worst Match: The Kingdom v. The Bullet Club 

Opener was flat and sort of set the tone for much of the show. Without Sak and Shibata showing up and having a hell of a match, the last few minutes of the I-C title match, and AJ being AJ (i.e. the best wrestler on Earth) in the main event, this show would have been bad. It’s seriously hard to understate how much of an unmitigated disaster the middle portion of the show was, including Makabe throwing some of the worst strikes in wrestling history in a match that was a total waste of Ishii, a terrible tag title match that accomplished nothing, and the tiresome Yano v. Tanahashi blow off.  I was happy to see Kushida win the junior title match in an excellently paced match, but building the match around legwork when Kushida apparently only knows how to execute kick based offense was a poor choice. I did enjoy the Naito quasi-heel act even if that match was just sort of there. 

The big takeaways I have coming out of the show is that I don’t care about the Never title at all as long as Makabe is holding it, having a jr. tag title is pointless when the real tag division is a joke and it would be just as easy to plug the good junior teams into that spot, and there is no point in watching the first two thirds of any Goto match.

Dylan Hales
Charleston, SC

Hi Dave,

As a UK fan it was great to get a PPV or event or whatever we are calling them these days at time when we are actually awake!

Beast in the East Special

Thumbs Up

Best Match – Owens vs. Balor
Worst Match – Divas 3 way

Great show. Lots of subtle differences from normal WWE television. Commentary was much better than normal but that isn’t saying much. Jericho/Neville was a great opener and really fun to watch but I thought that Neville should have won. I’m sure Jericho would have no issues putting him over. The Diva match was awful. Paige needs to be taken to one side and told to shut up. Her spot calling is becoming ridiculous. Tamina was just a mess.Anything with Bella’s is just change the channel heat. The sooner this division is rebuilt the better. Lesnar was better than I expected. He is a star in a sea of mediocrity. Everything he does just looks brilliant and he needs to be protected. NXT title match was fantastic. Owens was such a great heel from his little ad libs to chucking the flowers. Finn Bálor IS A STAR. He needs to be brought up soon. This show made him look like a million dollars. As someone said on r/squaredcircle the image of Finn being showered in streamers will close out his DVD in a few years time. Clean finish as well. They have done everything right here. Then we went into full house show mode. Bit of nonsense really. Crowd were into Cena and on a normal house show of course this would be the main event but maybe they should have made allowances for it being broadcast and put NXT as the main event.

—
Paul Cargill
paulcargill.com

Dave,

Thumbs up for the WWE Beast from the East. It was an entertaining show, and the fact of the matter is that guys step it up more when it is a PPV or super-show. That is the problem with people like TNA right now giving away their best matches on TV. With the post-production, commercials, etc, it just doesn’t allow room for memorable matches to be as memorable. They just never have the same feel.

Balor vs Owens was great as was Lesnar taking us all on a trip to Suplex City. Also great to see Jericho back, with even more midlife crisis tattoos than before. Seriously, who starts covering themselves with tattoos in their forties? Now all he needs is an earring and new Corvette and he’ll be a walking cliche.

I kind of skipped over the main event since it was meaningless,
and instead watched the Prince Devitt special which was quite good. I am glad to see them talking about Dragon Gate and New Japan.

Best Match: Balor vs. Owens
Worst Match: Divas

Matt Wright

Hi guys,

Thumbs way up!

This was a great show. Not only the wrestling was good, but I also liked the venue and the backgrounds (and such) that they did in a vintage Japan style. Those shots with the castle were beautiful. Ow, I almost forgot the crowd: no quiet wrestling fans here in Osaka!

YOHEI KOMATSU & TIGER MASK & JUSHIN LIGER & SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA & SHO TANAKA

I liked the Komatsu/Dorada sequence, rest of the match was just a decent watch for this kind of matches.

YOUNG BUCKS DEFEND IWGP JR. TAG TITLES AGAINST ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA AND BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY

Enjoyable, Baretta and Romero surprised me. Didn’t know that they were this good.

BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI VS. TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA

Naito and Honma were acting great, they (and the crowd) really made this match work.

KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. KATSUYORI SHIBATA

Expected nothing, but they delivered big time. Great mix of strikes, holds and grappling. Didn’t know that Sakuraba could dive like that…

KENNY OMEGA VS. KUSHIDA

Another good match. Omega was a great heel, but this was KUSHIDA’s party. His selling was sublime, you really had to be a die hard Omega fan if you still rooted for the heel.

TOGI MAKABE VS. TOMOHIRO ISHII

Quality match, didn’t expect Ishii to lose. Don’t know if Ishii was legit hurt or that his selling is that good.

MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN VS. KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS

Took my time to eat breakfast so i missed a bit of this match. I think my timing wasn’t bad, because from what i saw, this clearly was the least enjoyable match of the day.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. TORU YANO

Not good, but i was fun for what it was. Yano was on fire with all his shenanigans and Tanahashi reacted aptly.

HIROOKI GOTO VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA

I was getting a bit tired (lack of sleep), but when they shifted gears I was wide awake again. Good result to get Nakamura in the heavyweight title again. Nakamura and Goto are in the same G1 block so Shinsuke could get his revenge without Goto losing his belt.

A.J. STYLES VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA

This picked up after Red Shoes cleared the house. It was a great back and forward match after that with some smart reversals. The ending was a perfect way to finish this fantastic event.

BEST: I want to give this one to Sakurabe/Shibata, although I think there were better matches tonight. So why do I choose this match? They exceeded my expectations and made me love this kind of match that I usually don’t appreciate as much as I should.
WORST: Kingdom/BCTag, it wasn’t as bad as the last time they faced each other, but it was the least enjoyable match for me.

Greetings from The Netherlands,

Bob Walrave

WWE Beast In The East
Thumbs Up
Best Match – Balor vs Owens
Worst Match – Divas 3 Way

A good show highlighted by a great Owens/Balor match with the right ending. Brock squash was fun and Neville/Jericho was good but at this stage Neville should have gone over but Jericho does have a more pronounced history in Japan but still. And while the main event was fine but really it either should have just been for the live crowd or have been put on before the Lesnar match and the Balor match as felt completely pointless.

NJPW Dominion
Thumbs Up
Best Match – Okada vs AJ
Worst Match – Kingdom vs Bullet Club

Fantastic show as just about every big New Japan show is and as an Australian having 2 good shows in 2 nights back to back in prime time is a refreshing change for us down here. So many choices for best match as Shibata/Saku , Kushida/Omega , Makabe/Ishii , Goto/Nakamura and AJ/Okada were all great matches and all in different ways which you never see in WWE.

As much as I love watching Makabe and Ishii beat the shit out of each other can they please move on to different feuds as 7 months feuding has felt like 7 years (well maybe not that long) but please no more for awhile. Ditto the Kingdom/Bullet Club stuff as the crowd isn’t into it and the matches just haven’t clicked either with the Americanized style and also thankfully this should be the end (past a G-1 match) of Tanahashi and Yano. Time for Tanahashi to move back with the main eventers and Yano to do his comedy schtick in the midcard.

And G-1 looks like it’ll be Tanahashi or AJ taking on Shinsuke in the final which I’m predicting leads to Okada vs Nakamura for the IWGP title at the Tokyo Dome next January.

David Pender

beast in the east – thumbs in the middle. good show but main event sucked and bit of a filler.
best match – balor – owens was fantastic.
worst match – cena tag

dominion – WHAT A SHOW – thumbs up, at least three +4* matches on the show. thumbs right up.
best match – styles vs okada
worst match – karl anderson + doc gallows vs bennet + taven

gotta say the shibata match was so good. so different than anything i’ve ever seen, yet captivating. if okada/styles hadn’t blown up the show with the main event that was getting hte top match.

thanks dave.

steve maginnis

By dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>Dave Meltzer

We’re looking for your thoughts on today’s New Japan Dominion show and yesterday’s WWE Best from the East shot, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports on today’s WWE show in Rockford, IL.

Raw will be Monday in Chicago.  Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Randy Orton, HHH & Stephanie McMahon are all scheduled to return on Monday.  Guess which two were pushed on USA network ads last night?

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.  No John Cena advertised, so the top stars advertised are Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The new issue is up on the site at July 6, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jose Aldo injury fallout, TNA/GFW mystery

Web site subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show in the history of the site are at  Sign up here for 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 dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

You can also order at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Rates are:

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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 looks at the injury to Conor McGregor, what UFC attempted to do to save the fight, why the fight didn’t happen, McGregor building up a later fight, how much does this change hurt, the positives of Mendes in the spot and the mentality of the PPV buyer.  We look at the key issues involved in the fight not happening.

We also look at why the TNA/GFW alliance took place, why TNA made the call to Jeff Jarrett, plans or non-plans going on, why this is beneficial to both, departures from TNA, where that talent would go next and more.

We look at why Saturday’s UFC show in Hollywood, FL was the end of an era on several accounts, both from the uniform standpoint, as well as drug detection and weight cutting standpoints.  We also make a suggestion of something that is already done in other sports that UFC should implement, although it will never happen, as well as an example of why weight-cutting is done the way it is.

We also look at a lawsuit against WWE for making allegedly misleading claims that led to the stock price going way up, and then falling.  We look at a unique thing that came up regarding the key witness, stories changing, and if stories were legit to begin with.

We also look at the death of the bill to legalize MMA in New York, and how it went down.

We also have early notes on next year’s WrestleMania, an update on Sting, how the main event planned is unique because it’s out of WWE’s control if it happens, more on Reign vs. Wyatt, the Japanese tour, ideas for the network in 2016, Japanese pro wrestler tryouts, Dolph Ziggler on his contractual situation, The Rock at the house show in Boston, Rock movie news, update on Tyson Kidd, update on WWE network, update on lawsuits against WWE, and notes on the new season of Total Divas.

We also look at awards WWE is nominated for, Randy Orton, WWE announcing, and notes on the weekend NXT and WWE house shows and business notes and highlights from all of the shows.

We’ve got coverage of the UFC show in Hollywood, FL, how the card fell apart beforehand, business notes on the show, and what should happen next for Yoel Romero.  We also look at TNA Slammiversary.

We’ve got a story on the new season of Tough Enough, what has and hasn’t worked so far, notes on the ratings, notes on the competitors, who are said to be the favorites, what on the show is misleading and more on what is involved.

We also have our monthly business review for WWE & TNA, looking at monthly business in a number of categories.  We look at what categories are up, how far down are the ones down, and what one category with WWE that is significantly up and one that is collapsing.

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:

–New promotion that has had success dumps its two biggest stars

–A look at the All Elite show in Mexico City with several American stars brought in and others scheduled who had to pull out

–CMLL announces its next major big show main event

–Updates on reaction to the Busca de un Idolo tournament

–Notes on the last shows at Arena Mexico

–Notes on this year’s TripleMania and why it is taking place so late in the year

–Some major injuries to Lucha Underground stars

–AAA signs a longtime CMLL star

–Rey Mysterio Jr. headlines for AAA’s last TV tapings

–Why the Great Muta U.S. tour fell through

–An international promotion having money problems and having to cut back and losing wrestles in the process

–Notes on Dragon Gate’s next major show including some U.S. tours appearing

–Notes on the NOAH upcoming junior heavyweight tournament

–Updates on New Japan business

–New Japan World G-1 notes

–Notes on New Japan’s biggest main event of the week

–Notes on the New Japan U.S. television show

–Update on the original tiger Mask

–Genichiro Tenryu’s final match

–Hiroshi Tanahashi appears on DDT major show

–Update on Bruno Sammartino

–Dave Bautista likely to land another major movie role

–Notes on this past week’s PWG show including celebrities and four-star matches

–Notes on the next two PWG shows

–Young Bucks face Mysterio for the first time and notes no the show

–More talent appearing for Jarrett on shows

–Lots of news regarding the new NWA streaming service and Houston wrestling tape collection

–Another major streaming service announced

–Former WWE star set for a new E! reality show

–Another former WWE performer gets  into legal trouble

–Notes on pro wrestling books

–Update on former WWE star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore

–Update on the WWC’s last major show

–Former pro wrestler competing in high level bodybuilding contest

–One of the most reviled men of the last 50 years in wrestling is coming out of retirement once again

–Latest on Lucha Underground

–Notes on the ROH stadium show in Brooklyn

–Complete lineup for ROH’s next iPPV show

–Notes on the next ROH show in Las Vegas

–Updates on TNA titles after this set of tapings

–Everything on TNA television through mid-August

–Update on problems with production people

–Update on health of Kurt Angle

–Update on Jeff hardy

–Former WWE star working for TNA behind the scenes

–Controversy over Anderson Silva drug test result

–Ronda Rousey ESPY award nominations

–Crazy UFC schedule over an eight day period

–Official UFC 187 numbers

–Update on C.M. Punk training

–UFC’s return to Ireland announced

–Update Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Aftermath of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice

–Ken Shamrock talks about a fight with Frank shamrock

–More on Alexander Shlemenko suspension

–Foamer Pride star sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison

–An August battle of MMA legends falls through.

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.

SUNDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

• Mike Sempervive and I just did a new Wrestling Observer Sin Limite show with more than an hour of questions answered, plus a review of the New Japan Dominion show and more on McGregor vs. Mendes.
• Countdown to McGregor vs. Mendes is on FS 1 tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.
• Nothing today among top 50 searches on Google.  Well, there are 50 things, just nothing related to wrestling, boxing or MMA.
• On Twitter, the biggest stuff as of this writing was:

New Japan Dominion 25,800

Beast in the East 10,100

UFC Embedded 685

• I watched the last 20 minutes of Ultimate Fighter.  It was amazing on many different levels.  If I say more it’ll spoil it for those who haven’t seen it.  But I’ll talk about it with Bryan tomorrow night.
• WWE Network and New Japan World were amazing values for your dollar this week.  Especially with the yen so weak.
• A week from Wednesday there’s not only the usual assortment of pro wrestling, but five hours of UFC from San Diego.
• Ric Flair is coming to Raw tomorrow, although that could be just appearing on the live Dusty Rhodes special that takes place on the network after the show.
• Seth Rollins will be a special guest on Tough Enough on Tuesday.
• How about that TNA Alumni main event last night.
• C.M. Punk will be running the 5K this week in Las Vegas in conjunction with International Fight Week.  Dana White and a lot of other UFC people are as well.  
• The Miz wrote that at 3:30 a.m. last night, he and his wife (Maryse) were driving to the airport and a car almost clipped them going 100 miles per hour, and then swerved all over the road and hit another car.    
• M-1 results from Astana, Kazakhstan: 

Sergey Morozov b Andy Young with a spinning back fist 3:50 second round

Shavkat Rakhonov b Mchal Wieneck via guillotine in :49

Luigi Fiorvanti b Sergey Kovalev via choke 1:56 second round

Zaur Hajibabayev b David Trallero via punches at 4:30 of the second round

Sergei Kharitonopv b Kenny Garner 4:11 via punches

• The Crash Promotions from Friday night in Tijuana:  Star Dragon won Torneo Cibernetico over Black Boy, Destroyer, Enigma, Mirage and Mosco Negro, Daga & Flamita b Australian Suicide & Rey Hours, Aero Star & Fenix b B-Boy & Famous B, Proximo won tournament of death over Zarco (who lost his hair), Tony Casanova, Bufalo Ayala, Mr. Maldito, Genio del Aire, Angel Metalico and Jonathan, Pentagon Jr. won over Bestia 666, ACH and Extreme Tiger (TNA’s Tiger Uno) in a four-way, La Parka & Psycho Clown b Parka Negra & Zorro (thanks to Kris Zellner)
• Magic Mike XXL with Kevin Nash grossed an estimated $11.6 million this weekend , putting it in fourth place in its opening weekend.  San Andreas grossed $3.03 million in week six, putting it in eighth place.
• GOUGE from yesterday in Raleigh:  Waylon Maze b Chance LeBeaux, Roni Nicole b Jennifer Blaze, Chief Crazy Horse b Johnny Fulls, Otto Schwanz b Priest, No Direection b Krazy Killer Klowns, Juan Jeremi b Micky Gambino, Seymour Snott b Alex Kai, Timmy Lou Retton b Jimmy Jack funk Jr.  Next show is 7/;11 at  The Maywood in Raleigh.
• Lucha Xtreme from TV last night in Fresno:  Kevin el Devino b Mike Dalite, Mike Rayne b Aki Sol, JR Kratos b Clutch.  Next TV taping is 7/18 in Hanford, CA at the Hanford Longfield Center. (thanks to Jon Southerland)
• Ron Simmons talks Dusty Rhodes, winning the WCW World title, the roots of the Damn phrase and his days in the CFL.
• Simmons, Road Warrior Animal and 2 Cold Scorpio were at the Montreal Comic Con this weekend.  Scorpio now lives in Montreal with his girlfriend.
• Ronda Rousey on TSN’s Off the Record
• A look at the movie The Princess Bride
• An article on Natalya

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

INDY TV SHOWS

Powerbomb Championship Wrestling TV (Episode 32)

6/12/15 Future Stars Of Wrestling “High Octane” TV

6/19/15 Future Stars Of Wrestling “High Octane” TV

7/4/15 Southern States Wrestling TV

MISC. STUFF

Top 35 Moves Of Mike Awesome

7/3/15 CHIKARA Event Center

America’s Most Like Wrestling “Insider” With Chris Lea (Episode 5)

West Virginia Championship Wrestling “Spotlight” (Episode 122)

WWE

7/2/15 Top 10 Smackdown Moments

TNA

Introducing Your Chance To #AskRobbie-Check It Out!

By Brian Hoops

> 1915 – Joe Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler for the World Heavyweight
> Title in Omaha, Nebraska.
>
> 1940 – In Des Moines, Iowa; World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown beat Karol Zbyszko
>
> 1956 – Kay Bell defeated Buddy Rogers to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight
> Title in Houston, Texas
>
> 1962 – Buddy Rogers and Johnny Barend defeated Johnny Valentine and Bob
> Ellis for the Northeast version of the NWA United States Tag Team Title
> (which would soon become the WWWF United States Tag Team Title) in
> Washington, DC.
>
> 1962 – Hans Schmidt defeated Pat O’Connor in Greensboro, North Carolina
> to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Title.
>
> 1968 – Ramon and Alberto Torres defeated El Mongol and Tarzan Tyler in a
> one-night tournament final in Atlanta, Georgia to become the first NWA
> Georgia Tag Team Champions.
>
> 1969 – In Chicago; AWA Tag Team Champions Dick the Bruiser & the Crusher no contest Chain Gang Frank Dillinger & Jack Dillinger,
> Bill Watts beat Larry Hennig and Wilbur Snyder beat Angelo Poffo
>
> 1969 – Johnny Walker and Bearcat Brown defeated The Great Mephisto and
> Dante to become NWA World Tag Team Champions (Mid-America version) in
> Chattanooga, Tennessee
>
> 1971 – Steven Little Bear and Dean Higuchi defeated The Skull Brothers
> in Vancouver, British Columbia, to win the Vancouver version of the NWA
> Canadian Tag Team Title
>
> 1971 – At John O’Donnell Stadium in Davenport, Iowa; AWA Tag Team Champions Red Bastien & Hercules Cortez beat Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson, Bull Bullinski beat Joe Turco and Billy Robinson beat Big K
>
> 1972 – Hiro Matsuda and Tim Woods defeated The Zodiac (Bob Orton) and
> Taurus (Dennis Hall) for the NWA Florida Tag Team Title in Miami, Florida.
>
> 1973 – In Kansas City, Kansas; In an Elimination Match: Togo the Great & Tokyo Joe & Jim Dalton & Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) vs. Jim Brunzell & Steve Bolus & Rufus R. Jones & Mike George, Roger Kirby & Lord Alfred Hayes vs. Danny Little Bear & Hillbilly Vic
> and Bob Brown vs. Bob Geigel.
>
> 1973 – In Winnipeg before 4,832 fans; The Crusher & Wahoo McDaniel beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens for the belts (decision later overturned), Superstar Billy Graham beat Billy Robinson dq and Larry Heiniemi beat Ken Patera
>
> 1974 – Buddy Colt defeated Mr. Wrestling II to win the NWA Georgia
> Heavyweight Title in Atlanta, Georgia,
>
> 1975 – The Sheik defeated Bobo Brazil in Detroit, Michigan for the
> Detroit version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title
>
> 1982 – Kevin and Kerry Von Erich defeated King Kong Bundy and Bugsy
> McGraw to win the World Class American Tag Team Title in Fort Worth, Texas.
>
> 1982 – Stan Lane and Ron Bass defeated The Midnight Express (Dennis
> Condrey and Norvell Austin) for the AWA Southern Tag Team Title in
> Memphis, Tennessee
>
> 1985 – Iceman Parsons defeated Chris Adams for the World Class American
> Heavyweight Title in Dallas, Texas
>
> 1985 – Scott Armstrong defeated Bill Ash to win the Southeast version of
> the NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Title in Montgomery, Alabama
>
> 1985 – Al Madril and Chavo Guerrero defeated American Force (Paul
> Diamond and Nick Kiniski) for the Texas All-Star Wrestling Texas Tag
> Team Title in San Antonio, Texas.
>
> 1992 – At the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia; Brad Armstrong pinned Scotty
> Flamingo  (Raven) to win the WCW Light Heavyweight Title. Also, Terry
> Gordy and Steve Williams defeated The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott)
> to win the WCW World Tag Team Title
>
> 1992 – Canek defeated Dos Caras for the UWA World Heavyweight Title in
> Naucalpan, Mexico
>
> 1993 – Jerry Lawler defeated Owen Hart to win the USWA Unified World
> Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee. Also, CW Bergstrom & Melvin
> Penrod Jr. defeated USWA Tag Team Champions New Jack & Home Boy to win
> the titles.
>
> 1994 – Chris Candido defeated Scott Studd to win the vacant SMW
> Television Title in Warrensville, North Carolina.
>
> 1996 – Mexico National Middleweight Champion El Hijo del Santo defeated
> The Great Sasuke to win CMLL’s annual Gran Prix Tournament in Mexico
> City, Mexico.
>
> 1998 – Magnum Tokyo defeated El Hijo del Gladiador in Naucalpan, Mexico,
> to win the IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Title.
>
> 2000 – Val Venis defeated Rikishi at a SmackDown! taping in Fort
> Lauderdale, Florida to win the WWF Intercontinental Title

By Bryan Alvarez | bryan@wrestlingobserver.com | @bryanalvarez

For this weekend, we’ll be doing polls on the WWE show in Tokyo and the New Japan Dominion show late tonight in Osaka at dave@wrestlingobserver.com

NEW JAPAN DOMINION AT 3 A.M. EARLY SUNDAY MORNING FROM OSAKA JO HALL

Yohei Komatsu & Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & Sho Tanaka

Young Bucks vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. Rocky Romero & Baretta for the IWGP jr. tag titles

Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Kenny Omega vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii for Never Open weight title

Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for IWGP tag title

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano

Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for IC title

A.J. Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada for IWGP heavyweight title

Saturday also has a WWE show in Winnipeg (Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns, Ryback vs. Big Show)

Sunday has a WWE show in Rockford.

Raw will be Monday in Chicago. Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Randy Orton, HHH & Stephanie McMahon are all scheduled to return on Monday. Guess which two were pushed on USA network ads last night?

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. No John Cena advertised, so the top stars advertised are Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The new issue is up on the site at July 6, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jose Aldo injury fallout, TNA/GFW mystery

Web site subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show in the history of the site are at  Sign up here for 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 dave@wrestlingobserver.com

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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.

Today’s News, Notes and Links

— Hope everyone had a fun and safe July 4th!

— Dave and Mike have a show up right now talking the WWE Beast in the East show from Japan and will be doing another Sunday morning talking the New Japan Dominion Show. I’ll be back with Wrestling Observer Live, a Bryan & Vinny Show and After Dark Radio also on Sunday.

— After Dark live at 9 PT/12 ET Sunday night will be largely news and open lines with no guests, so if you’ve got good stories or anything you’ve wanted to call about for awhile, this will be your chance.

— Brock Lesnar is scheduled to be on Raw Monday. Ric Flair will be there but there’s no guarantee he’ll be on television. They may use him to promote the Dusty Rhodes special that airs on the WWE Network after Raw goes off the air. Flair on his podcast said he underwent WWE’s medical testing and had no issues whatsoever. He would do probably anything to wrestle again but Vince isn’t going to allow it.

— Triple H on Finn Balor’s NXT Title win: A prince returned home and became a champion. Congratulations to @wwebalor on winning the @WWENXT title. #WWETokyo

— Chicago has slapped a 9% amusement tax on streaming/cloud services, meaning if you are in Chicago and subscribe to Netflix, you will soon be paying 9% more since Netflix will be passing the charge on to consumers. This will probably end up applying to the WWE Network and a number of other services as well.

— Dave has a story on Ronda Rousey’s Jimmy Kimmel appearance here, which includes some video from the show.

— Travis Tygart noted that UFC’s ban on IVs will not going into effect until October, so anyone who has a fight scheduled will still be able to use them to make weight. After that, 50ml is the most anyone will be allowed to rehydrate, so the expectation is that a lot of guys are going to be moving up a weight class.

— Kurt Angle’s update on the tumor in his neck: To update all of you that have asked and commented about my neck: The tumor is benign and my surgery is next week. I will be out of action for about a month and I’ll be coming back better than ever! Thank you all for your incredible support. Your comments have kept my spirits high throughout this trying time. Much Love, Kurt.

— Chris Guinty of Drug Free Sport issued the following statement regarding the Jose Aldo urine test debacle from a few weeks ago: In early June 2015, Drug Free Sport was engaged by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (“NSAC”) to conduct a single urine test for an athlete in Brazil. Drug Free Sport’s preparation and execution of the testing event in Brazil complied with ethical best practices in anti-doping collections. Proper work visa applications detailing Drug Free Sport’s job functions were submitted to the Brazilian Consulate in Chicago, Illinois on June 18, 2012, and a ten year work visa was issued by the Consulate and relied upon by the Drug Free Sport collector in subsequent testing events. Drug Free Sport does not comment on client program specifics related to any collection event, but the NSAC, the UFC and Drug Free Sport were diligent in their effort to ensure a fair and ethical collection event in Brazil.Aldo’s sample was thrown out after the individual who showed up to take the sample was determined to now have a work visa. Another tester then showed up the next day and took another sample. There was a great deal of debate about how all of this went down, plus the fact that Aldo wasn’t asked to take a blood test.

— A link to the Off the Record interview with Ronda Rousey is up here.

— Some cool pics from Kane’s Hawaiian vacation are up here.

— It’s DAMN hard being Ron Simmons.

— Seth Rollins is the special guest on Tough Enough this week.

— BCW MEDIA UPDATE! Tomorrow at 5pm on the Milwaukee Summerfest SportsZone, history will be made as 8 of the top wrestlers in Brew City Wrestling enter into a tournament to become the 1st ever Brew City Wrestling Summerfest Champion. Plus, Insane Evil defend their BCW Tag Team Championship against the Moretti Agency, Jarrod “8 Pack” Jaxx and “A List” Justin Dredd. And for the Brew City Wrestling Ladies Championship, Stacy Shadows defends her title against newcomer, Sierra. There will 8 FAN-demonium matches in all so come on down and BE A PART OF HISTORY! The show is FREE with paid admission into Summerfest.

— For the second time in less than eight months, Russian striker Sergei “Paratrooper” Kharitonov defeated former M-1 Challenge champion Kenny Garnerin a Heavyweight SuperFight, stopping the dangerous American in the opening round this past Friday night in M-1 Challenge 59: Battle of Nomads 5 main event in Astana, Kazakhstan. Kharitonov (23-5-0, 13 KO/TKO, 9 SUB) defeated Garner at the 4:11 mark of the first round via punches, setting the stage for a potential showdown with M-1 Challenge heavyweight Marcin Tybura.

— Today in History with Brian Hoops:

1922 – In Wichita, Kansas; World Heavyweight Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis beat Alan Eustace in 2 out of 3 falls.

1963 – In Kansas City; In a Hair vs Masks match, Pat O’Connor and Tiny Mills beat Masked Medic #1 (Pedro Godoy) and Masked Medic #2 (Sir Nelson Royal). Also, Rock Hunter beat Steve Kovacs 2 falls to 1.

1964 – In St Paul, Minnesota at Met Stadium (where the Minnesota Twins and Vikings played in 1964 and now the home of the Mall of America); AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Dick the Bruiser (sub Crusher) in 2 out of 3 falls. Also, Mad Dog Vachon beat Doug Gilbert, Wilbur Snyder & Sailor Art Thomas & Dale Lewis beat Larry Hennig & Hans Schmidt & Mitsu Arakawa and Bob Geigel beat Rene Goulet

1966 – Don Leo Jonathan & Haystacks Calhoun defeated John Tolos & Tony Borne to win the NWA Canadian Tag Team Title.

1971 – In Robbinsdale, Minnesota; Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson beat Hercules Cortez & Bull Bullinski dq, Big K beat Bill Christy and Billy Robinson beat Dave Cox

1972 – In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Billy Robinson & George Gordienko beat Ivan Koloff & Big K (Stan Kowalski), Wahoo McDaniel beat Dusty Rhodes dq and Don Muraco beat Larry Hennig

1974 – Ric Flair & Rip Hawk defeated Paul Jones & Bob Bruggers in Greensboro, North Carolina to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Title.

1974 – In Winnipeg; AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Verne Gagne & Billy Robinson, Ivan Putski beat Baron Von Raschke dq and Billy Graham beat Wahoo McDaniel.

1981 – In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel wrestled Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid vs Bruce Hart, David Shultz vs Randy Tyler and Duke Myers & Kerry Brown vs Bill Irwin & Duffy O’Rourke.

1982 – In San Antonio, Texas at HemisFair Arena; Bruiser Brody won a two ring, 22 man Battle Royal, Scott Casey beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel via dq, Southwest Champion Dick Slater beat Alexis Smirnoff and Tully Blanchard & Gino Hernandez beat Terry Funk & Tito Santana

1982 – In the Atlanta Omni WWF champion Bob Backlund went to a double countout against NWA World champion Ric Flair.

1983 – David Von Erich defeated Jimmy Garvin to win the vacant World Class Texas Heavyweight Title. Also, The Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin & David) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts) in a three falls match in Fort Worth, Texas.

1984 – in Fort Worth, Texas The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts) defeated The Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin & Mike) to win the World Class Six-Man Tag Team Title when Hayes pinned Kevin. Also, Iceman King Parsons defeated Bill Irwin in a singles match to win the World Class American Tag Team Title. Parsons chose Buck Zumhoffe as his partner.

1986 – In Fort Worth, Texas Buzz Sawyer defeated Brian Adidas to win the World Class Texas Heavyweight Title.

1987 – The War Games match debuted in Atlanta’s Omni. The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger) & manager JJ Dillon lost to the team of Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors & manager Paul Ellering.

1990 – John Tatum defeated Bill Dundee in Dallas, Texas to win the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title

1993 – In an angle to make Lex Luger an All American babyface, Lex Luger arrived via helicopter on the deck of the U.S.S Intrepid in New York City and bodyslammed WWF champion Yokozuna.

2013 – Chris Sabin defeated Manic and Austin Aires to win the TNA X Division Title.

2015 – Finn Balor defeated Kevin Owens to win the NXT Title.

Mike Sempervive and I will be doing a new Wrestling Observer Sin Limite tomorrow morning along with coverage of the Dominion show.

Any questions for the show can be sent to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

By dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>Dave Meltzer

For this weekend, we’ll be doing polls on the WWE show late tonight in Tokyo and the New Japan Dominion show late tomorrow night in Osaka at dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. ON AXS

Kazuchika Okada vs. Karl Anderson

A.J. Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito

Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata

RESURRECTION FIGHTING ALLIANCE FROM BOISE, IDAHO AT 10 P.M. TONIGHT ON AXS

Miles Hunsinger (171) vs. Austin Miller (170)

Stephen Martinez (155.5) vs. Darrell Flores (154.5)

Daniel Swain (145.5) vs. Scott Thometz (146)

Jan Jorgensen (250) vs. Josue Lugo (266)

Czar Sklavos (124.5) vs. Nick Burgos (123.5)

Joe Murphy (136) vs. Jesse Brock (135.5)

WWE IN TOKYO SUMO HALL AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN ON THE WWE NETWORK

John Cena & Dolph Ziggler vs.. Kane & King Barrett

Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston

Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor for the NXT title

Neville vs. Chris Jericho

Nikki Bella vs. Paige vs. Tamina Snuka for the Divas title

Prime Time Players vs. Lucha Dragons for tag titles

*Not all of these matches may be airing on the network as they only have a two-hour window.  The Lesnar and Owens matches are the only sure things.

NEW JAPAN DOMINION AT 3 A.M. EARLY SUNDAY MORNING FROM OSAKA JO HALL

Yohei Komatsu & Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & Sho Tanaka

Young Bucks vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. Rocky Romero & Baretta for the IWGP jr. tag titles

Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Kenny Omega vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii for Never Open weight title

Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for IWGP tag title

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano

Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for IC title

A.J. Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada for IWGP heavyweight title

Saturday also has a WWE show in Winnipeg (Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns, Ryback vs. Big Show)

Sunday has a WWE show in Rockford.

Raw will be Monday in Chicago.  Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Randy Orton, HHH & Stephanie McMahon are all scheduled to return on Monday.  Guess which two were pushed on USA network ads last night?

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.  No John Cena advertised, so the top stars advertised are Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The new issue is up on the site at July 6, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jose Aldo injury fallout, TNA/GFW mystery

Web site subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show in the history of the site are at  Sign up here for 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 dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

You can also order at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

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 moonsault@mediaplusint.com  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 looks at the injury to Conor McGregor, what UFC attempted to do to save the fight, why the fight didn’t happen, McGregor building up a later fight, how much does this change hurt, the positives of Mendes in the spot and the mentality of the PPV buyer.  We look at the key issues involved in the fight not happening.

We also look at why the TNA/GFW alliance took place, why TNA made the call to Jeff Jarrett, plans or non-plans going on, why this is beneficial to both, departures from TNA, where that talent would go next and more.

We look at why Saturday’s UFC show in Hollywood, FL was the end of an era on several accounts, both from the uniform standpoint, as well as drug detection and weight cutting standpoints.  We also make a suggestion of something that is already done in other sports that UFC should implement, although it will never happen, as well as an example of why weight-cutting is done the way it is.

We also look at a lawsuit against WWE for making allegedly misleading claims that led to the stock price going way up, and then falling.  We look at a unique thing that came up regarding the key witness, stories changing, and if stories were legit to begin with.

We also look at the death of the bill to legalize MMA in New York, and how it went down.

We also have early notes on next year’s WrestleMania, an update on Sting, how the main event planned is unique because it’s out of WWE’s control if it happens, more on Reign vs. Wyatt, the Japanese tour, ideas for the network in 2016, Japanese pro wrestler tryouts, Dolph Ziggler on his contractual situation, The Rock at the house show in Boston, Rock movie news, update on Tyson Kidd, update on WWE network, update on lawsuits against WWE, and notes on the new season of Total Divas.

We also look at awards WWE is nominated for, Randy Orton, WWE announcing, and notes on the weekend NXT and WWE house shows and business notes and highlights from all of the shows.

We’ve got coverage of the UFC show in Hollywood, FL, how the card fell apart beforehand, business notes on the show, and what should happen next for Yoel Romero.  We also look at TNA Slammiversary.

We’ve got a story on the new season of Tough Enough, what has and hasn’t worked so far, notes on the ratings, notes on the competitors, who are said to be the favorites, what on the show is misleading and more on what is involved.

We also have our monthly business review for WWE & TNA, looking at monthly business in a number of categories.  We look at what categories are up, how far down are the ones down, and what one category with WWE that is significantly up and one that is collapsing.

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:

–New promotion that has had success dumps its two biggest stars

–A look at the All Elite show in Mexico City with several American stars brought in and others scheduled who had to pull out

–CMLL announces its next major big show main event

–Updates on reaction to the Busca de un Idolo tournament

–Notes on the last shows at Arena Mexico

–Notes on this year’s TripleMania and why it is taking place so late in the year

–Some major injuries to Lucha Underground stars

–AAA signs a longtime CMLL star

–Rey Mysterio Jr. headlines for AAA’s last TV tapings

–Why the Great Muta U.S. tour fell through

–An international promotion having money problems and having to cut back and losing wrestles in the process

–Notes on Dragon Gate’s next major show including some U.S. tours appearing

–Notes on the NOAH upcoming junior heavyweight tournament

–Updates on New Japan business

–New Japan World G-1 notes

–Notes on New Japan’s biggest main event of the week

–Notes on the New Japan U.S. television show

–Update on the original tiger Mask

–Genichiro Tenryu’s final match

–Hiroshi Tanahashi appears on DDT major show

–Update on Bruno Sammartino

–Dave Bautista likely to land another major movie role

–Notes on this past week’s PWG show including celebrities and four-star matches

–Notes on the next two PWG shows

–Young Bucks face Mysterio for the first time and notes no the show

–More talent appearing for Jarrett on shows

–Lots of news regarding the new NWA streaming service and Houston wrestling tape collection

–Another major streaming service announced

–Former WWE star set for a new E! reality show

–Another former WWE performer gets  into legal trouble

–Notes on pro wrestling books

–Update on former WWE star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore

–Update on the WWC’s last major show

–Former pro wrestler competing in high level bodybuilding contest

–One of the most reviled men of the last 50 years in wrestling is coming out of retirement once again

–Latest on Lucha Underground

–Notes on the ROH stadium show in Brooklyn

–Complete lineup for ROH’s next iPPV show

–Notes on the next ROH show in Las Vegas

–Updates on TNA titles after this set of tapings

–Everything on TNA television through mid-August

–Update on problems with production people

–Update on health of Kurt Angle

–Update on Jeff hardy

–Former WWE star working for TNA behind the scenes

–Controversy over Anderson Silva drug test result

–Ronda Rousey ESPY award nominations

–Crazy UFC schedule over an eight day period

–Official UFC 187 numbers

–Update on C.M. Punk training

–UFC’s return to Ireland announced

–Update Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Aftermath of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice

–Ken Shamrock talks about a fight with Frank shamrock

–More on Alexander Shlemenko suspension

–Foamer Pride star sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison

–An August battle of MMA legends falls through.

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.

FRIDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

• The Andy Barton departure from TNA is a far bigger story than is being played up.  Barton has been with Dixie Carter since 1996, long before TNA ,and was described to me as the person who would know more about the state of the company than anyone except Dixie Carter.
• For the NXT show in Brooklyn, they are setting the place up for 5,000 rather than 13,500, but can add seats if they have a quick sellout. 
• Ricochet showed up at today’s New Japan card and challenged the winner of Sunday’s Kenny Omega vs. Kushida match for the IWGP jr. title.  Ricochet hasn’t been in New Japan since he signed with Lucha Underground. 
• As for as twitter trending topics for today, UFC Embedded has 5,327, Joe Riggs vs. Uriah Hall has 546 and NXT in Brooklyn has 1,370.  Nothing is listed in Google which is a lot more historically proven tool of interest.
• For those who didn’t see Conor McGregor on Conan last night, he never said he’s beat Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match, only that he’d beat him in a fight because boxing is singularly dimensional.  And he’d almost surely wax him in a fight.  He said he’d box him for $180 million but never said he’s actually beat him in such a fight, although if he was offered $180 million, I’m sure he’d say he’d beat him to build up the fight.
• The WWE 2K 16 video game cover will be announced Monday night on Raw.
• Nikki Bella is working on a separated shoulder.
• A correction from yesterday.  As it turns out, we don’t know any wrestling shows shot as TV pilots to be shopped around.  The two examples we listed, WSX and Lucha Libre USA Masked Warriors, were funded by the networks themselves to do a pilot, which is a big difference between doing a pilot and then trying to find a network.  MTV spent $650,000 on the WSX pilot.  Lucha Libre USA had a 52-week contract with MTV which was supposed to be the AAA television show from Mexico with English announcers.  But it bombed before test market audiences to Steve Ship, behind the project, convinced the network to fund an American Lucha Libre TV show.  Ship had all AAA rights in the U.S., which is why AAA was blocked from doing anything in the U.S. for several years.  
• GFW announced these matches for a show on 7/9 in Appleton, WI:
• Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Dave & Jake Crist
• Magnus vs. Tommaso Ciampa
• Santana Garrett vs. Melanie Cruise
• Sonjay Dutt vs. PJ Black
• The 7/24 PWG show in Reseda sold out in three minutes.
• There will be a Dusty Rhodes special after Raw on Monday night.  This will be a new special and not the one that aired a few weeks ago.
• Dragon Gate will have an iPPV on 7/12 from Osaka headlined by Masato Yoshino & Shingo Takagi & Ricochet vs. Naruki Doi & K-Ness & Yamato at www.niconico.com
• The city of Chicago has just imposed a 9% tax on Internet transactions.  It’s been specified this includes Netflix and Hulu, so it should also include everything from WWE Network, UFC Fight Pass and even this web site.
• Battlewar on Sunday in Montreal:  Shayne Hawke b Stew Ramjattan, Mitch Thompson b Kevin Dunn, Cecil Tank b Adam Sky, Brett McLoed over Mike Mercer and Decker Lockheart, Mike Gibson b Twiggy, Giant Tiger NC Big Magic, Big Magic & Salty Bully b Giant Tiger & 2 Cold Scorpio
• Evolve announced for show son 8/25 in Queens, NY and 8/16 in Deer Park, NY they would have Johnny Gargano, Ethan Page, Zack Sabre Jr., Timothy Thatcher, Chris Hero, Rich Swann, Drew Gulak, Biff Busick, Rey Hours, Mike Bailey and Tracy Williams.
• For those in Las Vegas who want to see UFC 189, it is sold out, but the following places will have closed-circuit airings:

Ri Ra

Double Barrel

Legasse’s Stadium

Palace Station

Sunset Station

Green Valley Ranch

Red Rock

Santa Fe

• PWX on 7/18 has a TV taping at the PWX Wrestleplex in Pittsburgh.
• CMLL from Tuesday in Guadalajara:  Flash II & Magnum b Furia Roja & Jocker, Meteoro & Stukita & Ultimo Dragoncito b Relampago Azul & Mercurio & Pequeno Olimpico, Cancerbero & Okumura & Raziel b Gallo & Hombre Bala Jr. & Super Halcon Jr., Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Brazo de Plata b Misterioso Jr. & Pierroth & Sagrado, Maximo & Mistico & Volador Jr. b Ephesto & Rey Bucanero & Rey Escorpion-DQ (thanks to Kris Zellner)
• wXw in Germany announced a 16 team tournament from 10/2 to 10/4.  Announced so far are Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson, Tommy End & Michael Dante, Lucky Kid & Tarkan Aslan and Jonathan Gresham & Chris Brookes.  Kid & Aslan are from a Berlin based promotion.  Alberto El Patron is booked on 10/17 in Mannheim.  They are also running a major show on 12/12 in Oberhausen.  Gresham and Brookes will be on tour with them from 9/11 to 10/10.(thanks to Markus Gronemann)
• Mick Foley was at the Portland Seadogs (AA Boston Red Sox affiliate) game last night in Portland, ME (thanks to Kevin Lagasse)
• Mariusz Pudzianowki (9-3) vs. Peter Graham (11-9) was announced as the main event for KSW on 10/31 at the SSE Arena in London.  Also announced is Jim Wallhead (27-9) vs. Rafael Moks (10-7) and Oli Thompson (14-8) vs. Michal Wlodarek (7-0)
• Trailer for a Zack Sabre Jr. documentary
• Preview of new season of Total Divas and making Eva Marie a babyface

TODAY’S VIDEOS

WWE/NXT

7/1/15 Kevin Owens Is Furious After Being Pinned By Finn Balor

7/1/15-Finn  Balor Celebrates After Pinning Kevin Owens

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Reigns Talks “Tough”

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Emma Gives Her Thoughts On The Competitors

7/1/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Lita Imparts Wisdom Upon The Hopefuls

7/1/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Alex Confides In His Girlfriend That He Can’t Swim

7/1/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  The Coaches Break Down Week 2

7/2/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  The Coaches React To This Week’s Elimination

7/2/15  WWE Smackdown “Fallout”:  Kiss Time

7/2/15 WWE Smackdown “Fallout”:  King Wassup Proclaims

7/2/15 WWE Smackdown “Fallout”:  Lana Ready For Change

7/2/15 WWE Smackdown “Fallout””  A Humbled Big Guy

5 Things:  Superstars With The Same Entrance Themes

MISC. STUFF

Ringside Collectibles’ “Ringside Or Riot” (season 4, Episode 32)

Dad You Don’t Work, You Wrestle (Episode 126)

Larry Zbyszko on “The Apter Chat”

POWW “Inside The Ropes” (Episode 17)

7/2/15 CHIKARA “Thursdays On The Throne”

The Candice & Joey Show (Episode 121)

Smash Wrestling:  Top 5 Moves-Chris Hero

Pro Wrestling Blitz “Mid-Week Mayhem (Episode 9)

Warriors Of Wrestling “Wrestling Wire (Episode 50)

INDY TV SHOWS

Smash Wrestling TV (Episode 58)

Pro Wrestling Syndicate TV (Episode 26)

CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling “Worldwide” TV (Episode 7)

LUCHA UNDERGROUND

The Vampiro Monologues:  My Big Break

TNA

7/1/15 IMPACT In 60:  Three Title For The Ages, Which Faction Disbands?  More!

Comments From EC3 After Becoming World Champion…He Doesn’t Hold Back…

The Wolves After The 30-Minute Iron Man Match Against The Dirty Heels

7/1/15-Jeff Jarrett Speaks About The Future Of TNA Wrestling And Global Force Wrestling

WWE Network Schedule For Saturday, July 4,2015  
12:00 AM ET

WWE BEYOND THE RING    Witness some of the rarest matches from Hulk Hogan’s 30-year career. This special is an absolute must-watch for all Hulkamaniacs!

2:00 AM ET

WWE NXT   NXT Champion Kevin Owens teams with Rhyno to take on Finn Balor and Samoa Joe in tag team action!

3:00 AM ET

WWE SUPERSTARS    WWE Superstars features the best of the best, in matches you’ll have to see to believe. You never know what to expect, so expect everything.

4:00 AM 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.

5:00 AM ET

FINN BALOR: THE DEMON REVEALED    An in depth look inside the life, career and future of NXT Superstar Finn Balor.

5:30 AM ET

THE BEAST: LIVE FROM TOKYO    Live from Tokyo, Japan, Brock Lesnar returns to the ring against Kofi Kingston. Finn Balor challenges Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship!

7:30 AM ET

SWERVED    R-Truth gets a lesson in gym safety, a frisky granny invades Axxess and Kofi locks the champ out of Extreme Rules.

8:00 AM ET

THE WWE LIST    Whether it’s winning the Diva’s Championship, or posting a very flattering photos on Twitter… These Divas do it all to stay trending.

8:30 AM ET

WWE UNFILTERED WITH RENEE YOUNG    Renee’s back! Join the Unfiltered host for an exclusive interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the cast of Terminator Genisys!

8:45 AM ET

CULTURE SHOCK WITH COREY GRAVES   Corey Graves hits up Austin, Texas for this year’s X Games!

9:00 AM ET

WWE BEYOND THE RING    Witness some of the rarest matches from Hulk Hogan’s 30-year career. This special is an absolute must-watch for all Hulkamaniacs!

11:00 AM ET

CELEBRATING THE DREAM    A celebration of the life and career of the late, great WWE Hall of Famer, ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes.

12:00 PM ET

WWE UNFILTERED WITH RENEE YOUNG    Renee’s back! Join the Unfiltered host for an exclusive interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the cast of Terminator Genisys!

12:15 PM ET

CULTURE SHOCK WITH COREY GRAVES    Corey Graves hits up Austin, Texas for this year’s X Games!

12:30 PM ET

SWERVED   R-Truth gets a lesson in gym safety, a frisky granny invades Axxess and Kofi locks the champ out of Extreme Rules.

1:00 PM ET

THE WWE LIST    Whether it’s winning the Diva’s Championship, or posting a very flattering photos on Twitter… These Divas do it all to stay trending.

1:30 PM ET

THIS WEEK IN WWE   Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.

2:00 PM ET

THE BEAST: LIVE FROM TOKYO    Live from Tokyo, Japan, Brock Lesnar returns to the ring against Kofi Kingston. Finn Balor challenges Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship!

4:00 PM ET

SWERVED    R-Truth gets a lesson in gym safety, a frisky granny invades Axxess and Kofi locks the champ out of Extreme Rules.

4:30 PM ET

LEGENDS HOUSE    The legends play a polo match…WWE style! Back at the Legends House, Tony Atlas and ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan attempt to co-exist.

5:30 PM ET

THIS WEEK IN WWE   Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.

6:00 PM ET

WWE COUNTDOWN   Counting down the Top Ten Most Epic Smackdown Moments of all time!

7:00 PM ET

MONDAY NIGHT WAR    Media mogul Ted Turner launches WCW Monday Nitro in direct competition against Vince McMahon and WWE

8:00 PM ET

THE BEAST: LIVE FROM TOKYO    Live from Tokyo, Japan, Brock Lesnar returns to the ring against Kofi Kingston. Finn Balor challenges Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship!

10:00 PM ET

SWERVED    R-Truth gets a lesson in gym safety, a frisky granny invades Axxess and Kofi locks the champ out of Extreme Rules.

10:30 PM ET

THIS WEEK IN WWE   Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.

11:00 PM ET

THE BEAST: LIVE FROM TOKYO   Live from Tokyo, Japan, Brock Lesnar returns to the ring against Kofi Kingston. Finn Balor challenges Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship!

By dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>Dave Meltzer

We’re looking for reports on late tonight’s WWE show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo as well as from today’s show in Singapore at dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Smackdown tonight from Hershey, PA:

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt

R-Truth vs. Adam Rose

Ryback vs. Mark Henry

Brie Bella vs. Naomi

Prime Time Players vs The Ascension non-title

Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns non-title

New Japan runs Korakuen Hall early tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time live on New Japan World

Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly

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

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Jay White vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Cody Hall

Kushida & Captain New Japan vs. Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Gedo

Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazushi Sakuraba & Gedo

Kazuchika Okada & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven & Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. A.J. Styles & Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson & Young Bucks

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The new issue is up on the site at http://www.f4wonline.com/component/content/article/110-wrestling-observer-newsletter/43362-july-6-2015-wrestling-observer-newsletter-jose-aldo-injury-fallout-tnagfw-mystery-and-much-more

Web site subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show on the history of the site are at  http://www.f4wonline.com/member/signup.php

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@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

You can also order at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

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 moonsault@mediaplusint.com  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 looks at the injury to Conor McGregor, what UFC attempted to do to save the fight, why the fight didn’t happen, McGregor building up a later fight, how much does this change hurt, the positives of Mendes in the spot and the mentality of the PPV buyer.  We look at the key issues involved in the fight not happening.

We also look at why the TNA/GFW alliance took place, why TNA made the call to Jeff Jarrett, plans or non-plans going on, why this is beneficial to both, departures from TNA, where that talent would go next and more.

We look at why Saturday’s UFC show in Hollywood, FL was the end of an era on several accounts, both from the uniform standpoint, as well as drug detection and weight cutting standpoints.  We also make a suggestion of something that is already done in other sports that UFC should implement, although it will never happen, as well as an example of why weight-cutting is done the way it is.

We also look at a lawsuit against WWE for making allegedly misleading claims that led to the stock price going way up, and then falling.  We look at a unique thing that came up regarding the key witness, stories changing, and if stories were legit to begin with.

We also look at the death of the bill to legalize MMA in New York, and how it went down.

We also have early notes on next year’s WrestleMania, an update on Sting, how the main event planned is unique because it’s out of WWE’s control if it happens, more on Reign vs. Wyatt, the Japanese tour, ideas for the network in 2016, Japanese pro wrestler tryouts, Dolph Ziggler on his contractual situation, The Rock at the house show in Boston, Rock movie news, update on Tyson Kidd, update on WWE network, update on lawsuits against WWE, and notes on the new season of Total Divas.

We also look at awards WWE is nominated for, Randy Orton, WWE announcing, and notes on the weekend NXT and WWE house shows and business notes and highlights from all of the shows.

We’ve got coverage of the UFC show in Hollywood, FL, how the card fell apart beforehand, business notes on the show, and what should happen next for Yoel Romero.  We also look at TNA Slammiversary.

We’ve got a story on the new season of Tough Enough, what has and hasn’t worked so far, notes on the ratings, notes on the competitors, who are said to be the favorites, what on the show is misleading and more on what is involved.

We also have our monthly business review for WWE & TNA, looking at monthly business in a number of categories.  We look at what categories are up, how far down are the ones down, and what one category with WWE that is significantly up and one that is collapsing.

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:

–New promotion that has had success dumps its two biggest stars

–A look at the All Elite show in Mexico City with several American stars brought in and others scheduled who had to pull out

–CMLL announces its next major big show main event

–Updates on reaction to the Busca de un Idolo tournament

–Notes on the last shows at Arena Mexico

–Notes on this year’s TripleMania and why it is taking place so late in the year

–Some major injuries to Lucha Underground stars

–AAA signs a longtime CMLL star

–Rey Mysterio Jr. headlines for AAA’s last TV tapings

–Why the Great Muta U.S. tour fell through

–An international promotion having money problems and having to cut back and losing wrestles in the process

–Notes on Dragon Gate’s next major show including some U.S. tours appearing

–Notes on the NOAH upcoming junior heavyweight tournament

–Updates on New Japan business

–New Japan World G-1 notes

–Notes on New Japan’s biggest main event of the week

–Notes on the New Japan U.S. television show

–Update on the original tiger Mask

–Genichiro Tenryu’s final match

–Hiroshi Tanahashi appears on DDT major show

–Update on Bruno Sammartino

–Dave Bautista likely to land another major movie role

–Notes on this past week’s PWG show including celebrities and four-star matches

–Notes on the next two PWG shows

–Young Bucks face Mysterio for the first time and notes no the show

–More talent appearing for Jarrett on shows

–Lots of news regarding the new NWA streaming service and Houston wrestling tape collection

–Another major streaming service announced

–Former WWE star set for a new E! reality show

–Another former WWE performer gets  into legal trouble

–Notes on pro wrestling books

–Update on former WWE star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore

–Update on the WWC’s last major show

–Former pro wrestler competing in high level bodybuilding contest

–One of the most reviled men of the last 50 years in wrestling is coming out of retirement once again

–Latest on Lucha Underground

–Notes on the ROH stadium show in Brooklyn

–Complete lineup for ROH’s next iPPV show

–Notes on the next ROH show in Las Vegas

–Updates on TNA titles after this set of tapings

–Everything on TNA television through mid-August

–Update on problems with production people

–Update on health of Kurt Angle

–Update on Jeff hardy

–Former WWE star working for TNA behind the scenes

–Controversy over Anderson Silva drug test result

–Ronda Rousey ESPY award nominations

–Crazy UFC schedule over an eight day period

–Official UFC 187 numbers

–Update on C.M. Punk training

–UFC’s return to Ireland announced

–Update Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Aftermath of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice

–Ken Shamrock talks about a fight with Frank shamrock

–More on Alexander Shlemenko suspension

–Foamer Pride star sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison

–An August battle of MMA legends falls through.

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.

THURSDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

• There are two major shows this weekend, both from Japan, with the WWE show that takes place Saturday morning and the New Japan Dominion show that takes place Sunday morning.  The WWE has a two-hour window on the network, so I don’t know that the entire card will air since in Japan, the local station airing the show has a three-and-a-half hour window.  Last word was Michael Cole and Byron Saxton announcing the show.  The Dominion show is New Japan’s biggest card since the Tokyo Dome, headlined by A.J. Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP title, and the culmination of pretty much all the current angles. 
• On last night’s show, when we talked about wrestling pilots that were shot that turned into shows, two have made it on the air, Lucha Libre USA, which never got any reaction, and Wrestling Society X was picked up by MTV, but didn’t last long.
• Jim Ross announced that Paul O’Brien, who has written a number of wrestling novels, will join Scott Williams in working on his autobiography.
• Conor McGregor will be appearing on Conan O’Brien tonight at 11 p.m.
• Jose Aldo’s team has released X-rays that clearly show he suffered a broken rib. 
• I was told that last night’s Ultimate Fighter show was the best episode of the season, with some horrible refereeing, an amazing comeback and a temper tantrum that has to be seen.
• Destination America numbers
• ROH at 8 p.m. 157,000 viewers (lowest to date)
• TNA at 9 p.m. 267,000 viewers (lowest to date except for the week they ran a show from one year earlier)
• ROH at 11 p.m. 81,000 viewers (lowest to date)
• TNA at midnight 51,000 viewers (lowest to date)
• Boy do those numbers speak volumes.  From both sides perspective, that has to be a huge disappointment.     
• The Hulk Hogan lawsuit against Gawker.com for posting his sex tape with Heather Clem, that was supposed to start Monday, has been delayed to a later date.  The case generated a good deal of publicity this past week.  Hogan has already settled out of court with Clem, so the only defendant is the web site. 
• Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards won’t be appearing on the next PWG show on 7/24 due to having to be in Orlando for TNA tapings.  I’m not sure if they were ever announced in the first place, but they at first were planning on doing the show.  Tickets for that show should sell out in five or so minutes tonight.
• The WWE has appointed Tracey Keenan as its new Vice President and General Manager for the UK and Ireland territory.  Her previous tie was WWE Vice President of commercial Partnerships for the Europe, Middle East and Asai markets.
• TNA yesterday announced the hiring of Eric Sherman as Chief Strategy Officer.  His background included working for MTV Networks overseeing VH1 Classic, VHA 1 Soul and Palladia and President of Fuse TV.
• Magic Mike XXL, with Kevin Nash in a key role, debuted last night an did $9.3 million its first night.  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new Terminator movie did $8.9 million for second place. 
• Also told the Cima & Matt Sydal & Ricochet vs. Yamato & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino match at today’s Dragon Gate show at Korakuen Hall was a match of the year candidate. (thanks to Case Lowe) 
• These are the names appearing at the UFC Fan Expo 7/10 and 7/11 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at the Venetian/Plazzo:  Jheny Andrade, Luciana Andrade, Jon Anik, Rafael dos Anjos, Andre Arlovski, Raphael Assuncao, Carly Baker, Joseph Benavidez, Chrissy Blair, Kahlihi Blundell, C.M. Punk, Travis Browne, Bruce Buffer, Liz Carmouche, Arianny Celeste, Donald Cerrone, Michael Chiesa, Daniel Cormier, Dominick Cruz, John Dodson, Frankie Edgar, Rashad Evans, Urijah Faber, Don Frye, Kelvin Gastelum, Jamillette Gaxiola, Gary Goodridge, Renzo Gracie, Forrest Griffin, Clay Guida, Vanessa Hanson, Johny Hendricks, Matt Hughes, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Anthony Johnson, Demetrious Johnson, Michael Johnson, Shawn Jordan, Chuck Liddell, Guy Mezger, Stipe Miocic, Pat Miletich, Rose Namajunas, Megan Olivi, Brittney Palmer, Julianna Pena, BJ Penn, Kendra Perez, Dustin Poirier, Luke Rockhold, Ben Rothwell, Bas Rutten, Dan Severn, Erick Silva, Cub Swanson, Oleg Taktarov, Tecia Torres, Frank Trigg, Chris Weidman, Fabricio Werdum, Tyron Woodley, Paige VanZant, Paul Varelans and Cain Velasquez.
• Naomichi Marufuji was announced as coming to Harley Race’s annual World League Wrestling camp from 8/24 to 8/28 in Troy, MO.  Marufuji will instruct along with Gedo of New Japan, Tom Prichard and Ric Flair.  For more info you can call 517-392-4100 and check out more info at www.harleyrace.com/2015trainingcamp.html
• Another major boxing PPV show is almost set for November with the expected Canelo Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight.  ESPN.com reported the promoters are working out the basics but expect the fight on either 11/7 or 11/21, and at 155 pounds.  This is expected to do more than 1 million buys.
• Regarding the discussion of last night’s show, we’re told Patrick Martin on Tough Enough was a huge fan as a kid and studied wrestling before starting at the MCW school.  We’re also told that Alex, who was cut, was far from the least knowledgeable person about wrestling on the cast, but just got caught saying something stupid in an argument.
• Alexander Frekey not only got cut from the show but also was fired from his job the same week because he had asked for time off to do the show saying his boss called him and said they were struggling and since you’re not around we’re letting you go.  He also said he knew quite a bit about wrestling and nearly went to wrestling school coming out of college.  He said the scene was taken way out of context saying that knowledge of history doesn’t help you with physical performance.  He said he knew as much as Patrick except Patrick was better with dates.   
• Becky Lynch is expected out of action for a few weeks due to a hip flexor injury that we were told was minor. 
• The 30 minute Finn Balor special airs tonight at 10:30 p.m. on the WWE Network.
• Although TMZ has reported that the mother of Doink the Clown was suing WWE, as noted before, it was the mother of two of Matt Osborne’s children who is filing suit.
• Odds have shifted for the Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes fight.  Mendes was originally a 6-to-5 favorite, but as of earlier today, McGregor was a 7-to-5 favorite.
• Nothing at all on twitter right now gaining any traction from wrestling, boxing or MMA.  The two most talked about things are WWE History with 662 tweets and TUF Talk (coming off last night’s Ultimate Fighter show) with 276.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata, in an excellent match, headlines the AXS New Japan show tomorrow night from last year’s G-1 tournament.
• Jonathan Coachman has been on Twitter the last few days trying to get people to retweet “Sports Center on the road at SummerSlam” to show his bosses the power of WWE fans and make coverage happen.  He said he won’t be happy until he can bring both shows together (thanks to Jeff Bradley)
• WWE sent out a release on Saturday’s show and only mentioned that Brock Lesnar will return to action and Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor, so they are specifically not announcing what will be on the show.
• New Japan had an issue as they had to apologize to people who either purchased tickets to their shows on-line or signed up for their Fan Club between August 28, 2013 and April 28, 2015, over a security breach.  The company said they will respond properly to correct any issues that come forward.  This does not affect subscribers to New Japan World.
• WWE stock closed down 12 cents per share to $16.53 today.   
• Valkyrie women’s wrestling on 7/9 in Woodbury Heights, NJ headlined by Kimber Lee vs. Kacee Carlisle.
• Paragon Pro Wrestling debuts on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern and Pacific on Pop! TV.  The first show will have a Battle Royal to determine the top contender for their championshp and features Caleb Konley and Gangrel.  Jessy Sorensen also defends the title in the main event.  Pop! TV is on DirecTV 273 and Dish 117.
• EWF tomorrow night in Covina CA at 4315 N. Vincent Ave.
• Uproar Pro Wrestling on 7/11 in New Port Richey, FL at the Verizon Event Center with Jessy Sorensen, Eddie Graves and Leo Brien as headliners.
• Destiny World Wrestling on 6/28 in Mississauaga,ONT:  Will White b Phil Atlas, Randy Reign b Tyler Tirva, Tyson Dux b Josh Alexander, RJ City b Donovan Danhausen, PJ Black (Justin Gabriel) b Ethan Page, Joe Coleman b Cody Deaner, Taeler Hendrix b Ashley America, P.J. Black won over Will White, Randy Reign, Tyson Dux, RJ City and Joe Coleman to win their DWW world title.  Among those at the show were Booker T (guest ref), Santino Marella, Scott D’Amore, Ron Hutchison and Ricky Johnson (Dwayne’s uncle). (thanks to Bob Kapur and Steven Ashe)
• Brodus Clay will headline a tour of Alberta for CWE with shows on 8/26 in Camrose, 8/27 in Sherwood Park, 8/28 in Red Deer and 8/29 in Calgary.
• Chris Nowinski is on briefly on the June HBO Real Sports show in a segment about head trauma in under-14 girls soccer. (thanks to Jeff Cohen)
• Jonny Fairplay is guest on the Wrestling Outsiders podcast at BlogTalkRadio.com/WrestlingOutsiders
• CWE on 7/24 in Winnipeg at Rookie’s Sports Bar.
• New England Championship Wrestling on 7/4 and 7/11 at The Brockton Fair in Brockton, MA.  Admission is free with fair admission.  On Saturday, Slyck Wagner Brown & Brad Hollister face Mike McCarthy & Todd Loco.
• Booker T, Ariane Andrew (Cameron) and Virgil are appearing  7/9 to 7/12 at the San Diego Comic Con.  Booker & Ariane will be signing from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
• Dangerous Adrenaline Wrestling Gladiators at the Maximum Sports Complex in Glassboro, NJ on 7/10.   
• KSW runs 10/31 at the SSE Arena (Wembley Arena) in London featuring Judo Jim Wallhead, Oli Thompson and James McSweney.
• Pro Wrestling Eclipse on 7/12 in Oshawa, ONT at the Oshawa Legion 471 headlined by Cody Deaner.
• Jim Duggan headlines for River City Wrestling on 7/12 in Kirby, TX at the Turner Club, facing Skitzkrieg in the main event.
• Anarchy Wrestling from Saturday night in Cornelia, GA before 100+ fans:  Stryknyn b Romeo Reynolds, CB Suave & Raphael King b Stitch Orisis & Kevin Park, Jeff Lewis b Bobby Moore, Jeremy Foster & Jacob Ashworth b Kevin Blue & Trevor Aeon, Todd Sexton b Sal Rinauro, Frank White & Dementia b Big FN Deal & SKS, Slim J & Fred Yehi b Washington Bullets to keep tag titles, Shadow Jackson & Logan Creede b Lars Manderson & Jagged Edge (thanks to Bill Behrens)
• Bellator today announced the signing of Chase Gormley, the Titan FC heavyweight champion.  Gormley has a 12-4 record, as has formerly fought in UFC.
• JJ Dillon talks Dusty Rhodes, Eric Bischoff and his only match in Madison Square Garden
• Alex Frekey talks being voted off Tough Enough.  He talks his experience, his choice of words, swimming in a swamp with an alligator, how intense Patrick is, what is next for him, his acting career and more.
• Zack Sabre Jr. documentary trailer
• Ethan Carter III talks winning the TNA title
• Honky Tonk Man talks the death of Rick Rude
• Hulk Hogan talks his career and life

By Bryan Alvarez | bryan@wrestlingobserver.com | @bryanalvarez

We’re looking for your thoughts on Sunday night’s TNA Slammiversary show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports from Sunday night’s WWE show in Reading, PA, as well as the weekend NXT shows in Cocoa Beach, FL on Friday night and Citrus Springs, FL on Saturday night.

A story about the life and career of Buddy Landel, plus the Jose Aldo injury, Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock and whether it was or wasn’t real and Cora Combs and the last link to the heyday of U.S. women’s wrestling are the main stories in the June 29 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The Latest Wrestling Observer June 29, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Buddy Landel obituary, Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice coverage

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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.

We first look at the injury to Jose Aldo Jr. and thoughts on the 7/11 fight with Conor McGregor.  We look at the different options UFC had in this situation.

We’ve got a major story on the life and career of Buddy Landel.  We look at the circumstances of his death, why Landel never reached the level of success his ability should have gotten him, his life before and after wrestling, and the story that, at the age of 24, changed the direction of his career.

Landel talked about getting fired from Crockett Promotions at what turned out to be the high point of his career, examine the talk of his being given the world title at the time, as well as his own very candid thoughts about if he had won the title.  We look at what was planned for him, and how his firing changed the entire history of the business because it in a roundabout way led to the creation of the Four Horseman.

We look at the situation with Crockett Promotions in the middle of a hot period in 1985, the Starrcade 85 show, and the Flair vs. Rhodes program.  We look at the story behind Landel’s statement that he and Flair broke Elvis’ attendance record in Raleigh and the true story of that night.

We also look at his run in Tennessee including the last sellout at the Mid South Coliseum and the angle leading to that, as well as the famous 27 fall Texas death match that was among the best matches of the 80s. We look at his start in sports, growing up as a fan, and how Landel got into pro wrestling.  We look at his early years, his first push, the creation of the Nature Boy gimmick, working with Junkyard Dog in Mid South, his return to Crockett Promotions and why he never got another chance, what Buddy Rogers told him, and the last stages of his career and life after wrestling.

We also look in depth at the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock right.  We look at different kinds of works, and the ones that could not have happened and the ones that could have.  We look at what the person closest to the action said about it, as well as a look at the background of Ken Shamrock.

We also have a lot more about the records set for the fight, as well as future matches that both or either could do going out of this.  We also look at other business notes for the show, as well as Bellator’s next major event in September, and full coverage of the TV event.

We also have an update on Daniel Bryan, Bret Hart talks Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns and others, Dolph Ziggler’s future prospects, Talk of another NXT live special this summer, More on the next WWE network special show, notes on a former tag team of the year candidate team that WWE is looking at getting, more on Tough Enough, as well as Dwayne Johnson projects and injuries to Jamie Noble, Erick Rowan and Tyson Kidd.

We also have notes on why Randy Orton wasn’t at TV this past week, frustration from the inside on WWE creative, Hogan talks WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels in a movie, WWE house shows, the sad plight of Chyna, as well as a look at the weekend NXT and WWE house shows as well as weekend business.

We also have coverage of the ROH Best in the World PPV show, and where the company is headed.

We’ve also got a story on the life of Cora Combs, the last link to the Billy Wolfe/Mildred Burke glory days of women’s wrestling.  We look at her career, her decision in the promotional split that ended up taking the women’s side of wrestling down, the Moolah years, being in the first woman’s match ever held in New York and the story behind it.  We also look at the last period of her career, as Lady Satan, working against her daughter, as well as look at some of the oldest wrestlers of all-time and the oldest living wrestles..

We’ve also got full coverage of the weekly UFC show in Germany and the rise of Joanna Jedrzejczyk.  We look at her unique stardom, as well as other coverage of the show.

We also have notes on how the WWE’s Payback PPV did and where the PPV business currently stands.

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:

–More on AAA’s Verano de Escandalo show

–Former WWE star signs major deal as a brand ambassador with one of the biggest movie companies in the world and his duties

–Another former WWE star working big shows in AAA

–Notes on future AAA shows

–Ricochet returns to Japan

–Notes on the next Dragon Gate iPPV show

–Final event of the Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial tour

–Notes on the upcoming NOAH GHC jr. tournament

–More G-1 Climax notes as far as TV goes

–New Japan heads to Singapore

–Notes on Dusty Rhodes and Tommy Rogers

–More on Global Force Wrestling

–Lots of PWG notes

–Notes on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore show

–Pro wrestling returns after 20 years to one of its most famous former arenas

–More on Lucha Underground

–Notes on upcoming ROH shows

–A look at the next month of ROH television

–More on people leaving TNA

–Story behind Hernandez coming to TNA

–More on TNA PPV show

–TNA wrestlers appear on Destination America programming

–UFC press conference coming

–Major official leaves UFC

–Lots of new UFC fights

–More talk about UFC events in the future in Mexico City

–Why Dana White didn’t go to the UFC show in Germany

–Dana White talks about a reality show he’s filming

–Latest on the heavyweight title picture

–Lots of changed matches on the UFC shows

–UFC injury updates

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Stiffest MMA suspension to date to a former champion

Today’s News, Notes and Links

• If you are a subscriber and a fan of wrestling history, THIS IS THE MONTH FOR YOU. Karl Stern is doing his annual July blitz of 30 shows in 30 days, and this year the theme is historical bios. Every day he’ll have a new show up highlighting the career of a famous historical wrestler, dating all the way back to the pioneer era. First on the docket is William Muldoon. Each show is full length, about an hour long, and you can check out the shows on the front page or in the audio archive.
• In a shocker, at least if you haven’t been paying any attention at all, WWE announced that July is a FREE MONTH~! for first-time subscribers or people who can figure out how to get a new email address.
• In another shocker, at this moment the Authority is scheduled to be back on Raw Monday.
• Also, if you missed it, Dave and I did a breaking news audio last night on Jose Aldo pulling out of his fight with Conor McGregor, plus tons of notes on the terrible Raw ratings from Monday night. We’ve got Observer Live, Observer Radio and Figure Four Daily with Lance Storm all coming up later today.  Breaking News: Jose Aldo out of UFC 189, Conor McGregor to fight Chad Mendes
• I will be doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Thursday afternoon/evening 4:00 PT/7 ET. For more information, click here.
• I have to say I love that we live in a world where it appears the sole method of communication between Reebok and angry UFC fighters is Twitter.
• I’ll be interested to see the two-hour Raw rating from Tuesday night, which was set up to try to boost the Tough Enough rating. I doubt it had any bearing whatsoever on Monday’s rating, but I do know that I knew they were doing it in advance, and if this wasn’t my job I’d have chosen the two-hour version over the three-hour version.
• The Conor McGregor fight change is the top sports story on the main Irish TV news program this evening. Thanks to Shane.
• Conor on Aldo: “If a man is scared for his life, we cannot force him to step inside and face me. I feel he’s afraid. The doctors have cleared him to fight, it’s a bruise, but he has still pulled out. Rightfully so, the belt should be taken from him and we should contest for the interim belt or, in my opinion, the real belt.”
• There is a Conor interview herewhere he rants about how everyone says he’s all talk, but of the two of them he’s the guy still ready to fight and Aldo has pulled out.
• Ronda Rousey promo heresaying she’s never wanted to beat someone as badly as she wants to beat Bethe Correia. Even Bryan Caraway?
• Dave has a story up hereabout this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night ratings.
• The CSAC did a surprise drug test of every single fighter based in the US who is scheduled to fight on the July 15th show.
• Mexico notes from Kris Zellner:
• * AAA officially announced today that Triplemania will take place on August 9th at Arena Ciudad de Mexico City.
• * Chilanga Mask announced last night that Raymond Rowe will be meeting El Barbaro Cavernario in a Submission Match at their show at Arena Coliseo de Coacalco on 7/19.
• Disney/Marvel announced the new series CM Punk is writing about features the Drax character that Batista plays in Guardians of the Galaxy. Have to love that tagline as a play on Punk’s best in the world (“Best in the Galaxy”). Thanks to Michael O’Brien.
• JJ Dillon talks memories of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes.
• Maria Kanellis interview for Channel Guide Magazine.
• Z STORM, the action-packed Hong Kong crime thriller film from legendary Director David Lam (First Shot), debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD August 18 from Well Go USA Entertainment. The story revolves around Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and its investigation of a charity fund that has become involved in a Ponzi scheme. Z STORM stars Louis Koo (Drug War, Election), Gordon Lam (IP Man), Dada Chan (Flirting in the Air), Michael Wong (Transformers: Age of Extinction), Lo Hoi Pang (Iceman, Drug War) and Liu Kai Chi (Stool Pigeon). Bonus materials include a making-of featurette and interviews with key cast members.
• EVOLVE announced that Chris Hero will compete on every one of the group’s shows all summer.
• Renowned wrestling artist, Rob Schamberger, also known as the Artist of Champions, returns to Waterloo, IA to celebrate the 2015 induction ceremonies at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum with a new body of work that includes 28 donated paintings and a 12’ x 8’ mural that will be displayed in the museum. Over the past several weeks, Schamberger has focused on creating a new collection of 28 paintings that depict the 2015 Hall of Fame honorees and past inductees, including Kurt Angle, Verne Gagne, Beth Phoenix, John “Bradshaw” Layfield and many more. Schamberger will donate the full collection to the museum, adding to several pieces of his work that are already on display.
• Vikram writes: I have released a wrestling documentary titled The Old Boys last week. You guys mentioned it on your news feed when I released the trailer few months ago and I would like to thank you for that. I was hoping if The Old boys could get a mention of it’s release on your news feed? It features never before seen interviews and footage with Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boys Smith, Demolition, Animal, Honky Tonk Man, Marty Jannetty, Ted DiBiase, Iron Sheik, Terry Funk, Paul Roma and so many more. It is a film about the behind the scenes in the 80’s and 90’s. It is available to buy on DVD and ON DEMAND at www.theoldboysmovie.com
• My main man Emerson notes: Could you please plug this week’s edition of the Wrestling Outsiders Podcast either today or tomorrow? It’s tomorrow night at 10pm EST and we will be joined by former TNA personality and Survivor: Pearl Islands contestant Jonny Fairplay! The link to the site is BlogTalkRadio.com/WrestlingOutsiders
• Booker T, Ariane Andrews, and Virgil have been announced as doing signings in the giant Autograph Section all four days of the San Diego Comic Con from July 9-12. All three are scheduled to do signings for half the day on all four days with Booker and Ariane sharing the same time schedule (2:30pm-7pm Thur-Sat and 1:30pm-5pm Sun). All three are listed in separate tables, though Booker and Ariane will probably be next to each other. Thanks to Daniel Short.

Today in History with Brian Hoops:

1933 – In Des Moines,Iowa; John Pesek beat Henry Graber in 2 straight falls and Alan Eustace drew Abe Kashey.

1934 – In Waterloo, Iowa; Bronko Nagurski beat Earl Wampler (Wampler was a late substitute for Ray Steele).

1940 – At Riverview Park in Des Moines, Iowa; World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown defeated Allen Lovelock

1942 – At Riverview Park in Des Moines, Iowa; World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown defeated Ray Steele 2 falls to 0, Tom Zaharias beat Carlos Rodriquez 2 falls to 0 and Jack Kennedy and Cowboy Luttrall went to a 30 minute draw. According to the Des Moines Register, Steele was called a “stablemate of Bill Longson, the National Wrestling Association’s champion” and Brown was “recognized by the Midwest Wrestling Association as its world champion.”

1949 – Cavernario Galindo defeated Tarzan Lopez for the Mexico National Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico

1950 – Leo Wallick defeated Bob Cummings to win the Pacific Coast Wrestling Junior Heavyweight Title.

1958 – Fritz Von Erich and Hans Hermann defeated Doc and Mike Gallagher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the Minneapolis version of the NWA World Tag Team Title

1961 – Steve Stanlee defeated Frankie Talaber to win the Ohio Heavyweight Title in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

1962 – Rikidozan and Toyonobori defeated Mike Sharpe and Buddy Austin to win the JWA All Asia Tag Team Title in Osaka, Japan

1963 – Arthur Riccaldo defeated Norman Walsh to win the European Heavyweight Title in Beaumont, England.

1965 – At Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas; Cowboy Bob Ellis and Sonny Myers beat Bob Geigel and Dutch Savage and Johnny Valentine drew Pat O’Connor.

1966 – Michiaki Yoshimura and Giant Baba defeated Killer Karl Kox and Eddie Graham in Hiroshima, Japan, for the JWA All Asia Tag Team Title.

1966 – Mark Lewin and Dominic DeNucci defeated Larry Hennig and Harley Race to win the International Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Title in Sydney, Australia.

1966 – Rene Guajardo defeated Jerry London to win the NWA World Middleweight Title in Monterrey, Mexico

1967 – Tamaya Soto and Great Yamaha (Kantaro Hoshino) defeated Billy and Jimmy Hines for the Mid-America version of the NWA World Tag Team Title in Chattanooga, Tennessee

1968 – Abdullah the Butcher and Armand Hussein defeated Don Leo Jonathan and Haystacks Calhoun to win the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Title in Vancouver, British Columbia.

1970 – Billy Robinson and Johnny Barend defeated Pedro Morales and Bing Ki Lee for the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Title in Honolulu, Hawaii.

1970 – The Mysterious Medic defeated Bob Kelly to win the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title in Mobile, Alabama.

1970 – Bull Ramos defeated Terry Funk for the NWA Western States Heavyweight Title in Lubbock, Texas.

1971 – Patty O’Hara and Texas Red defeated Jumbo Miyamoto and Aiko Kyo for the WWWA World Tag Team Title in Tokyo, Japan.

1971 – Sputnik Monroe defeated Len Rossi to win the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title.

1971 – In Kansas City; Bob Ellis & Rufus R. Jones & The Viking defeated Buddy Austin & Bob Orton & Tor Kamata via DQ and Harley Race defeated Baron Von Raschke in three falls

1971 – Bobby Duncum defeated Bob Roop for the NWA Florida Brass Knuckles Title in Jacksonville, Florida.

1972 – Len Rossi and Bearcat Brown defeated Don and Al Greene for the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Title in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At that same event, Sputnik Monroe and Tommy Gilbert defeated Ron and Don Wright to win the NWA Tennessee Tag Team Title

1972 – Sarah Lee defeated Aiko Kyo to win the WWWA World Singles Title in Tokyo, Japan

1973 – Before 6,182 fans in Green Bay, Wisconsin; AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat The Crusher & Wahoo McDaniel in 2 out of 3 falls, Billy Robinson beat Lars Anderson by dq, Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera and Geoff Portz beat Rene Goulet.

1976 – In Dixon, Illinois; Larry Hennig & Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Nick Bockwinkel & Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum, Baron Von Raschke beat Bull Bullinski, Buddy Wolff beat Buck Zumhofe and Peter Maivia beat George Gadaski

1977 – Texas Red (Red Bastien) defeated Mando Guerrero for the NWA Americas Heavyweight Title in Los Angeles, California.

1978 – Invader I defeated Dick Steinborn to win the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Title in Caguas, Puerto Rico

1978 – El Nazi defeated Raul Mata for the Mexico National Heavyweight Title in Monterrey, Mexico.

1979- In Green Bay, Wisconsin; AWA Tag Team Champions Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon beat Nick Bockwinkel & Bobby Duncum, Greg Gagne beat Ray Stevens on a reverse decision dq, Super Destroyer Mark II beat Billy Robinson and Paul Ellering drew Jesse Ventura.

1980 – Mr. Hito and Mr. Sakurada defeated Kevin and Kerry Von Erich to win the vacant World Class American Tag Team Title in Amarillo, Texas

1984 – Ron Garvin defeated Jake Roberts for the NWA World Television Title in Atlanta, Georgia. At the same show, The Spoiler defeated Brad Armstrong to win the NWA National Heavyweight Title

1984 – Killer Brooks defeated Bobby Jaggers to win the Southwest Championship Wrestling Southwest Heavyweight Title in San Antonio, Texas

1988 – Kevin and Kerry Von Erich defeated Iceman Parsons and Terry Taylor for the World Class Tag Team Title in Dallas, Texas

1989 – Joe Malenko won the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title by defeating Mitsuo Momota in Omiya, Japan.

1991 – WCW strips Ric Flair of the WCW World Heavyweight Title.

1994 – Chris Adams defeated Rod Price in Dallas, Texas to win the GWF North American Heavyweight Title

1996 – Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee defeated Flex Kavana (The Rock) and Bart Sawyer to win the USWA Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee

2000 – The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) defeated Rudy Boy Gonzalez and Bonecrusher to win the Texas Wrestling Alliance Tag Team Title in San Antonio, Texas.

2003 – At a SmackDown taping in Rochester, New York, Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) defeated Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri to win the WWE Tag Team Title

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

WWE/NXT

WWE Network:  Triple H And Sting Recall Recall The Most Pivotal Moments Of The Monday Night Wars

6/29/15 WWE RAW “Fallout”-The Miz Has It All Figured Out

6/2915 The Prime TIme Players Chat With Washington Mystics’ Ivory Latta And Stefanie Dolson

WWE Canvas 2 Canvas:  SGT. Slaughter Hits The Canvas

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Daniel Bryan Shares His Experience

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Mada Unloads On Tanner

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  Lita Warns Amanda That She Needs To Stand Out

6/30/15 WWE Tough Enough Digital Extra:  The Coaches Predict Who Will Rise To The Challenge

6/30/15 WWE Tough Eough Digital Extra:  Into The Wild

WWE Fury:  28 Tombstones That Will Put You In The Ground

6/29/15 WWE Exclusive:  Bo Dallas Stays Positive After Hitting Rock Bottom

6/29/15 Top 10 RAW Moments

MISC. STUFF

Top 5 Moves OF Blaster McMassive

CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go (Episode 422)

Shawn Michaels And Bret Hart On “The Apter Chat”

INDY TV SHOWS

West Virginia Championship Wrestling TV (Episode 234)

6/27/15 Southern States Wrestling TV

West Coast Wrestling Connection TV (Episode 57)

Anarchy Wrestling TV (Episode 490)

6/28/15 NWA Southern All-Star Wrestling TV

6/29/15 RESISTANCE Pro TV HD

Action Coast Empire TV (Episode 5)

3XWrestling “All Stars Of The Midwest” TV (Episode 22)

America’s Most Liked Wrestling TV (Season 1, Episode 10)

Covey Pro Wrestling TV (Episode 212)

TNA

The Question Mark (Episode 14)

Jeff Jarrett After #Slammiversary-What’s Next For The KOTM Championship?

What Is Next For Angelina Love?

Micah Discusses The Chance That The Rising May Be Forced To Break Up

LIVE SHOWS

Pro Championship Wrestling “Pandemonium 2015”

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

12:00 AM ET
WWE UNFILTERED WITH RENEE YOUNG Renee’s back! Join the Unfiltered host for an exclusive interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the cast of Terminator Genisys!

12:15 AM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Brie and Bryan get married, and Nikki’s marriage is finally exposed to John. The Divas compete at WrestleMania for the Diva’s Championship.

1:00 AM 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.

2:00 AM ET
WWE BEYOND THE RING Relive the classic feuds with John Cena himself as he gives insight into the rivalries that defined his WWE legacy!

4:00 AM ET
RAW FLASHBACK In an epic confrontation the Undertaker teams with Diesel and Shawn Michaels to battle some of Jim Cornette’s devastating clients.

5:00 AM ET
RAW FLASHBACK Bret Hart battles Dr. Isaac Yankem in a Steel Cage in the main event. Plus Hunter Hearst Helmsley, The Smoking Gunns, and much more.

6:00 AM ET
PRIME TIME WRESTLING Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan shows his holiday spirit as he and Gorilla Monsoon host an exciting Thanksgiving edition of Prime Time Wrestling!

7:35 AM ET
HULK HOGANS ROCK N WRESTLING On this Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, Hulk and the gang must prove Andre the Giant’s innocence when he is accused of stealing at a costume party.

8:00 AM ET
WWE THE BASH 2009 Randy Orton defends WWE Championship in Three Stages of Hell match vs Triple H. CM Punk defends World Title vs Jeff Hardy.

11:00 AM ET
OLD SCHOOL Old School Card from Philly features Bob Backlund defending the WWWF Title against Spiros Arion. Bruno Sammartino vs. Ken Patera and more.

12:00 PM ET
RAW FLASHBACK Razor Ramon defends his Intercontinental title against Yokozuna. Plus, Jeff Jarrett, Fatu, and a tribute to the career of Shawn Michaels.

1:00 PM ET
CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS Clash of the Champions XXVII features Sting and Ric Flair battling to unite the World Heavyweight Championships and much more.

3:00 PM ET
WCW MONDAY NITRO ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage battles The Giant in the main event. Ric Flair faces Eddie Guerrero. Madusa makes a shocking announcement.

4:00 PM ET
RAW FLASHBACK Razor Ramon defends his Intercontinental title against Yokozuna. Plus, Jeff Jarrett, Fatu, and a tribute to the career of Shawn Michaels.

5:00 PM ET
WCW GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1995 WCW’s annual summer spectacular features Nature Boy Ric Flair taking on Macho Man Randy Savage. Sting faces Meng for the U.S. Title.

8:00 PM ET
WCW MONDAY NITRO ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage battles The Giant in the main event. Ric Flair faces Eddie Guerrero. Madusa makes a shocking announcement.

9:00 PM ET
RAW FLASHBACK Razor Ramon defends his Intercontinental title against Yokozuna. Plus, Jeff Jarrett, Fatu, and a tribute to the career of Shawn Michaels.

10:00 PM ET
SWERVED R-Truth gets a lesson in gym safety, a frisky granny invades Axxess and Kofi locks the champ out of Extreme Rules.

10:30 PM ET
FINN BALOR: THE DEMON REVEALED An in depth look inside the life, career and future of NXT Superstar Finn Balor.

11:00 PM ET
WCW MONDAY NITRO ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage battles The Giant in the main event. Ric Flair faces Eddie Guerrero. Madusa makes a shocking announcement.