by David Bixenspan | davidbix@wrestlingobserver.com | Follow @davidbix
TV/show notes for tonight:
Tough Enough airs on USA Network at 8:00 p.m. ET with John Cena’s first post-nose breaking appearance.
Total Divas airs on E! at 9;00 p.m. ET with Nattie inviting her sister to move in with her and T.J. for some reason, only for shenanigans to ensue, plus Daniel Bryan injury drama and Trinity/Naomi “embracing her inner bad girl.”
NJPW G1 Climax Day 16 airs live at 5:30 a.m. ET tonight/tomorrow morning on NJPW World:
Non-Tournament Matches
Tiger Mask IV, David Finlay Jr. & Jay White vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka
Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & KUSHIDA vs. Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi & Mascara Dorada
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata & Captain New Japan vs. AJ Styles, Doc Gallows & Cody Hall
G1 Climax B Block League Matches
Karl Anderson vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Hirooki Goto vs. Michael Elgin
Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Kazuchika Okada vs. Yuji Nagata
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma
SmackDown is taped tonight in Portland, OR, so if you’re attending and are interested in writing up a spoiler report, please send it to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.
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The new issue of Figure Four Weekly is now up for subscribers (subscribe to th site here and get access to Figure Four, the Observer, tons of audio, and more) featuring a chat with Konnan about the state of AAA heading into TripleMania XXIII. We discuss the company’s improvements in production, advantages over WWE and differences in philosophy, how to listen to fans, and much more. Plus, as always, we have all of the usual reviews and international news, including Dr. Lucha’s TripleMania preview.
Last week’s FREEFigure Four Weekly is still up with a look at the crazy story of why Gawker thinks the FBI may have helped Hulk Hogan cover up his racist and homophobic comments. A judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the records of their investigation, and what Gawker is saying in court about what has and hasn’t been turned over paints a very interesting picture.
Also, now available for the first time on Kindle (meaning Kindle devices and anything with the Kindle app) is Fall Guys, the seminal 1937 book that has been described as being like the 1930s version of the Wrestling Observer. It was surprisingly not on Kindle already, so we put together a nice version with a full table of contents w/ chapter marks, proper formatting on everything, etc. Right now it’s available from the American, Canadian, and Australian Amazon/Kindle stores OR you can also buy it from anywhere in the world on PayHip, who will provide you with both Kindle and ePub (every other e-reader) format files, and you can either sideload them to your device or have them email it to your Kindle.
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The latest Wrestling Observer: August 10, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Roddy Piper passes away, WWE Q2 results & analysis
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The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.
Our lead story is an extensive look at the career of Roddy Piper. We start by looking at the cause of death, and Piper’s role in the national expansion of WWF and the first WrestleMania. We look at how Piper differed from almost every wrestler in WWF when he came in, why Piper didn’t work certain shows, Piper working outside WWF while under contract, how he flopped in his first WWF run, his runs in California, Oregon, Georgia and the Carolinas before WWF, the feud with Jimmy Snuka, the Hogan-Piper program, The War to Settle the Score, the original WrestleMania and how it changed the history of wrestling, his period in WCW, his relationship with Mad Dog Vachon, his issues with Kevin Nash, how he got started in pro wrestling, the story behind his babyface turns and the loss at WrestleMania to Bret Hart.
We also look at WWE business, why stock is up, what aspect of business looked deceptively good, a look in depth at the network numbers, how many people dropped and picked up subscriptions this past quarter as well as how all the other aspects of WWE business are doing.
We look at UFC 190 and the storyline that led to Ronda Rousey setting her highest PPV mark. We look at how things have changed for Rousey since February, the interest level of her fight, Rousey vs. Cyborg, ratings in Brazil and the U.S. and match-by-match coverage.
We also go in-depth on the G-1 Climax tournament with the updated schedule, standings and match-by-match coverage.
We also have an update on John Cena, more on the injury and surgery, Cena actually going to a show this weekend but fans didn’t see him, Shawn Michaels return, will fans respect Cena more, update on the SummerSlam card and matches being built, Cena vs. Rollins future, WrestleMania note, note on Daniel Bryan’s book, Update on Ryback, Update on a 2002 angle proposed for a gay wrestler and funny story behind it, Bryan’s plan for the IC title, more on womens’ division, Eva Marie note, Tough Enough notes, Ultimate Warrior book, Cesaro section notes, WWE lawsuit notes, Pat Patterson book, sister of current WWE star gets a tryout and Owen Hart DVD news. We also have coverage of the NXT and WWE shows over the weekend and business notes on the shows.
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.
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Tuesday Daily Update
— Last night’s Raw averaged 3.838 million viewers, up over 130,000 from last week.
— Ronda Rousey yesterday in her Reddit Ask Me Anything session when asked if she’d be returning to WWE: “Definitely. I loved being in Wrestlemania and will find a way to get back in the squared circle I just have no clue when. And any real wrestling fan would want to be surprised anyway.”
— The Nevada State Athletic Commission released the full drug testing results (PDF) for UFC 189, which includes (on pages 32-35) a statement from Ben Mosier of Drug Free Sport about the Jose Aldo specimen that had to be discarded when he was still booked in the main event. The story had been that when Mosier went to Brazil to collect the sample, he had the wrong visa, but it turns on that was not true and any potenital immigration issues wer resolved quickly. It looks like a Brazillian federal policeman who happens to train at the gym as a pro MMA fighter basically got Mosier detained for no good reason. Even a week later, Andre Pederneiras, Aldo’s coach and manager, was claiming that Mosier had the wrong visa. Aldo, Pederneiras, and his Nova Uniao gym all come off terribly here.
— Nick Diaz’s Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing was delayed. Again. Remember, this is for a post-fight drug test from January.
— Rick Story is injured, so Neil Magny is stepping in as a late replacement against rick Silva in the semi-main event of next Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card in Sasaktoon that airs opposite SummerSlam.
— Scott Coker told Bloody Elbow that he thinks the Ali Act should be expanded to protect MMA fighters. One f many potential consequences would be major changes to World Series of Fighting, RFA, and a number of other smaller promoters, as the Ali Act bars managers from acting as promoters and matchmakers. WSOF has Ali Abdelaziz as its matchmaker(though president Ray Sefo is listed as such on their Nevada State Athletic Commission paperwork), while RFA is promoted by Ed Soares, both of whom are high profile MMA managers.
— Men’s Journal has a behind the scenes tour of the WWE Performance Center. Interesting stuff. Seeing Enzo Amore out of character is…strange. Sasha Banks is mostly in character, talking about defending her title. Most notably, there’s some wellness insight: In addition to showing off the phsyical therapy room and new wrestlers learning how to bump with helmets and pads, Matt Bloom went into detail on drug testing. “At last once a month, sometimes twice a month, we have random drug testing here. […] We test about 25 people each time…” Men’s Journal also has a listicle of WWE’s 18 fittest stars.
— Volume 3 of WWE’s Best of WCW Monday Nitro series is out today on DVD and Blu-Ray.
— Dave’s “Fortunes Changed for Five” postmortem for Saturday’s UFC card is up at MMAFighting.com.