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  • WWE: Why almost everyone becomes just another guy

    By Zach Dominello, WrestlingObserver.com

    Whatever happened to real superstars in WWE? I don’t mean “Superstars.” I mean real stars like Austin, The Rock, Hogan. Names that aren’t recognised only in pro wrestling circles. 

    Every once in a while in the WWE, someone comes along who looks like they just might do it. Until the WWE pulls the rug out from under them because of solid reasons like “he doesn’t have the right look” or ” he’s missing something.”

    Kevin Owens had one of the greatest main roster debuts in a long time when he laid out John Cena on Raw. He went on to defeat Cena at Elimination Chamber in his first main roster match, and one of the best WWE matches of the year. A star is born, or so it seemed. He would go on to lose the rematch at Money in the Bank. Ok, even-stevens booking and all that. It’s just one loss. A small loss of steam but nothing that can’t be fixed. But wait, next he loses the NXT title in Japan to Finn Balor. That’s fine I guess. He’s on the main roster now, so he doesn’t really need that title anymore. But it doesn’t stop there, does it? Owens then loses another match to John Cena at Battleground. Goodbye, steam. The fire is out.  It’s clear who we’re supposed to view as the top guy and who’s just a guy – a guy that can put on a great match when called for, but still just a guy. Oh, do you still have some hope left? Let me crush that for you. Just in case it hadn’t been made crystal clear that Owens isn’t this break out superstar we thought (I thought/hoped) he was going to be when he defeated Cena at Elimination Chamber, on Raw his “just another guy” status was cemented as he ran out with the other “just another guys” to break up the brawl between two real, legitimate superstars.

    Yes, he was still in the main event of Raw. He’s not “getting buried” or anything that drastic. He’s having great matches and has a nice, comfortable spot on the roster. He’s a Superstar now, but he’s not a superstar. He’s gone from defeating the biggest name in the company, to losing consecutive big time matches, to becoming just another mid-carder (upper mid-carder for now at least) in the sea of mid-carders in the Mid-card Era. Who needs superstars, anyway?

    Then there’s Samoa Joe, who came into NXT like a house on fire, stepping up to and challenging then NXT champion, Kevin Owens. They had a match. He didn’t win the title. He had another shot in a three-way match with Owens and Balor. Again, he was not successful. And with that, Samoa Joe is out of the NXT title picture. His first post title picture singles match on NXT was against Axel Tischer. Come again? Ok, it’s probably just a squash match to pass the time until his next big program. Oh, he’s feuding with Baron Corbin now. The “Lonely Wolf” himself. Hmm, that seems like a bit of a step down from a title program with Kevin Owens. By “bit of a step down” I mean a giant plunge into mid-cardery.

    I see how it works now, WWE. First you give these guys exciting, big time feeling debuts. Make us believe they’re something (superstars) that they’re not. Or I should say not going to be allowed to be. Then you slot them nicely in with the other great hands/put over guys. Cesaro, Luke Harper, Rusev, you’ve got some company.

    Honestly, it’s not the end of the world. Owens and Joe are playing their respective roles in the company just like everyone else. They’re getting paid and getting exposure. They’re in the “big leagues” now, and that’s neat. I think I’m just longing for the days when wrestling had superstars. Sometimes a guy like Kevin Owens comes along with all his talent and charisma and I think for a second that this guy is going to break out from the pack. That he’s not going to doggy paddle around in the pool of WWE Superstars, and instead is going to become a real life, old-fashioned star. Then I see him breaking up brawls between two real life, old-fashioned stars, and I remember that this is the WWE, and this is the Mid-card Era. No stars allowed.   

  • Smackdown spoilers from Lincoln, NE

    Notes from tonight’s tapings in Lincoln:

    Dean Ambrose came out for an interview to start the show.  Sheamus came out and they went back-and-forth, which led to an immediate match.

    Sheamus b Dean Ambrose with a Brogue kick after Bray Wyatt’s music played and Ambrose was distracted.

    Neville b Adam Rose with the red arrow.  Stardust did a promo so they are building him up against Neville.

    King Barrett did an interview about how he proved he was the only King of the Ring.

    Rusev b Kevin Owens via walk out count out

    Cesaro did a promo and Owens walked by.  Cesaro said it shouldn’t be “Fight Owens Fight” it should be “Walk Owens Walk.”

    Bella Twins b Naomi & Sasha Banks when Nikki pinned Naomi with the rack attack. 

    Seth Rollins b Cesaro with the pedigree.  After the match was over, Owens came out and gave Cesaro a pop up power bomb.

  • Jeff Jarrett talks GFW’s first TV taping and plans

    The following is a transcript from a Jeff Jarrett interview with Ring Rust Radio:

    Donald Wood: The biggest news from Global Force Wrestling recently has been the announcement that the television program will be called Amped. The first taping will be Friday, July 24 at the Orleans Arena. Can you give us any more information on how many episodes you will be taping and what channel, dates and times will wrestling fans be able to watch the finished product?

    Jeff Jarrett: You’re digging for the good stuff and I appreciate that.  We just named it Amped, and we are in the discussion of how many episodes so I can’t tell you how many right now.  We are going to be shooting on content next Friday, then August 21st, and October 23rd.  One thing is for sure, we are starting four tournaments starting next Friday:  The Global Championship, the Tag-Team Championship, the Women’s Championship, and the Nex-Gen Championship.  We do have Bobby Rude appearing and in my opinion he personifies what GFW in some shape, form, or fashion is all about.  He is a wrestler under a contract for another promotion who will be appearing on our program.  The number of episodes is a moving target at this point.  We are going to go shoot the tournament then we get back who knows?  It could be ten episodes, twelve, fourteen, who knows?  It’s a work in progress.  When you are trying to line up domestic and international, it’s a real challenge to try and please everybody.  We are going to do our very best to expose the product to as many wrestling fans as we can.

    Mike Chiari: There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the various GFW championship tournaments that were recently announced, but the one that really caught my eye was the Nex-Gen Championship. Explain the Nex-Gen division, what type of performers we’ll see taking part in it and why you think it’s going to be an asset to GFW.

    Jeff Jarrett: Nex-Gen is a term we really thought about and studied.  When you look at pro-wrestling in 2015, there are certain guys that are going to wrestle like the next generation and they are going to take it to the next level.  Whether it be the speed of the Young Bucks or the innovation of the Bullet Club, there are so many different talents that will take it to the next generation.  Then you see a guy who is a rookie, brand new in the business, and isn’t a household name today.  But in the next generation of household names he will be.  It’s a little bit of both, no weight limit, it’s a division of guys who want to get in there and wrestle.  They may never have won a title before or it may be their style of wrestling that will give them that first opportunity to wrestle for that Nex-Gen title.  It’s not a traditional type of division by any means.

    Brandon Galvin: Hacksaw Jim Duggan recently stated GFW will be a PG, family-friendly product. With WWE also promoting a family-friendly product, what will GFW do, or what would you like to see GFW do, to separate itself from WWE within the PG environment?

    Jeff Jarrett: It goes without saying that WWE is sports entertainment.  They invented the term and they do it better than anybody else.  It’s a very lucrative business for them and my hats off to them on how they have created their genre.  We are professional wrestling, there are a lot of similarities but we are going to be more docu-style.  Are we going to have story lines?  Yes.  It’s like how you have story lines in a sporting event like a baseball or football game.  We are not going to write stories per say, but more along the lines of documenting them.  There is a story behind every GFW athlete.  Questions like:  Why, why did you get into the business, why did you want to be a professional wrestler, why GFW, why do you want to be a Champion, why do you do this in your persona, what makes you tick, what’s going on in your family life?  That all affects the business and how you climb the ladder of success.  That’s a big difference between writing story lines and documenting story lines.

    Brandon Galvin: When we had you on last, you had mentioned you were following WWE’s product and watching the network.  Recently they were promoting their Beast in the East show.  On there they had a documentary style program on Finn Balor and his climb in the business is that the style you are getting at?

    Jeff Jarrett: If you watch the GFW YouTube channel it will give you a sample.  Back at Wrestle Kingdom 9 we documented our journey leading up to it.  We also have videos coming out to give you a feel for it with guys like PJ Black, the Bollywood Boys, the Akbars, and Mordetzky.  The videos dive into the talent and the wrestler’s lives and what’s really going on in their world.  Just recently, we took a real life situation, I went back into TNA with a lot of raw emotion and I don’t want to get to long winded on this, but a non-TNA talent left the promotion with the King of the Mountain title.  Eric Young was pretty vocal about it backstage and went on a Twitter rant about it.  He said it didn’t have anything to do with it but if you connect the dots you can see it.  My hats off to him for being vocal about it.  Eric and I have a personal relationship that goes back over ten years.  He has been at every 4th of July party at my house except maybe one he missed.  We have a real close relationship and I respect him because he didn’t go behind my back about his frustrations.  He just made it vocal he didn’t like it.  I told him he should come up on the tour and we can talk about it.  He took me up on it and came and had a match against Johnny Gargano, local independent superstar, from the AIW.  You don’t see that kind of stuff in any other promotion.

    Donald Wood: One person who has been giving GFW trouble already is Eric Young. Do you think the confrontations with Young could lead to tension between the GFW wrestlers and TNA wrestlers, possibly resulting in an invasion angle as mentioned before?

    Jeff Jarrett: The word invasion is kind of been there and done that in my opinion.  Certainly you can already see that Bobby Rude is coming to Vegas next Friday for the first ever set of Amped tapings and he is under contract with TNA.  Eric Young was just with us this weekend.  We are in discussions of the next steps of this business agreement.  Global Force Wrestling and TNA wrestling, whether it’s a co-branded show, a co-promoted show, a collaboration, that’s all in discussion right now and I am reporting it in real time as much as I can.  As a wrestling fan myself, this kind of stuff excites me because you just don’t see this nowadays.  Years ago you had hand shake agreements between promoters, you had Ric Flair as a traveling champion, and Dory Funk working for multiple promotions.  Once the territory system went away, you were left with the big two of WWE and WCW.  Then you were down to the big one, just being WWE.  Then you had had TNA and Ring of Honor come around with every promotion acting like an island.  WWE can do that since they have north of 90% of the market share.  You have all the smaller promotions fighting and clawing for that brand identity.  I believe with GFW and our mission statement, we want to have a working relationship with any and all promotions because rising tides raise all ships.  I went out and formed the relationships that I have had over the years and made them more formal with New Japan and Triple A and around the globe with the independent promotions in Europe, South Africa, and Australia.

    Mike Chiari: There’s obviously been a ton of speculation regarding some type of working relationship between GFW and TNA since you competed at Slammiversary and won the King of the Mountain title. I’m not saying it will, but if an arrangement was to be reached at some point, how do you think both sides would benefit from something like that?

    Jeff Jarrett: End of the day and this may sound cliché, if the wrestling fans benefits, than 9 times out of 10 the promotion will benefit.  There was chatter about Karen and I coming back to that promotion, and that created positive chatter for TNA.  That fed into the positive chatter for GFW including Bobby and Eric and all of that helps the promotion.  As we move along, it helps create brand awareness and creating a little bit of that mystique.  End of the day, people want to see fantastic professional wrestling and that should be everyone’s common goal.  That’s what we are headed for and that is fantastic professional wrestling.

    Brandon Galvin: As one of the founders of TNA, is there any key philosophy or business strategy that you took away from your time there as you continue to develop and push the GFW brand?

    Jeff Jarrett: We all are a sum total of all of our decisions and life experiences.  This is my 29th year in this business as an active wrestler, growing up in it, I’m a third generation, and there are just certain things you learn.  That sort of looking in the rear-view mirror on one hand and on the other you need to be looking forward.  Where do you want to be in one year, two year, three years, five years, and even ten years from now?  Technology has turned the cable business upside down and it’s gone in lightning speeds in the last few years.  Now you have everything like Hulu, Netflix, and all the streaming services including the WWE network.  It’s all a game changer for our business.  It wasn’t too long ago where fans were expected to pay for twelve to thirteen pay-per-views a year.  Now it’s down to $9.99 for the network for everything included.  Now we have the technology to watch lucha libre, strong style, or wrestling from any country in the world all at the click of a button.  The technology has changed the wrestling world so you have to try to stay ahead of the curve.  I have taken a lot of my life experiences to help my team in GFW to help us evolve and put out a very compelling product.

    Donald Wood: GFW has already been putting on live events across the country on the Grand Slam tour. How have the fans embraced the new wrestling promotion thus far and do you consider the tour to be a success?

    Jeff Jarrett: Success, absolutely.  One of the barometers is black ink and red ink, you want that black ink, and we got it.  On the flip side of that is when you are at the shows it’s one thing to get the electricity and vibe from the people on the way out talking about how much fun they had.  Then at the end of it you had the owners and GM come up to you and you know at the end of the day that really is the true barometer.  This is a grass roots initiative and its year one of this initiative and now we’re on to step one of building the brand of live events.  We have done this and now we have had all seven teams come up to us and tell us how much they love it, they want us on the schedule, and they all want us back.  From their perspective, professional wrestling in their ballpark is unique.  They have about a 140 day season and only 70 games so half the time their park is empty.  They want to fill it with more concerts and events because it’s beneficial to them since the venue is there and not in use.  It’s really a win won when we come to town, we put the ring up on home plate, have the event, and we are dialed into the ticket base and media contacts with their promotions.  It’s a different concept and we are using it as a building block to get out there and now the brand awareness in each of these markets is experientially bigger then what it was when we do these shows. 

    Mike Chiari: You have a full plate when it comes to running GFW, but after wrestling at Slammiversary many are wondering about your future as an in-ring performer. What are your plans for the King of the Mountain title, and also, what are the odds that we’ll see you competing in the ring at some point as part of the GFW roster?

    Jeff Jarrett: Slim and none on the GFW roster.  If you caught Impact when I made the surprise appearance, I told them that I don’t know where the disconnect is.  You are calling me to come wrestle but I don’t even wrestle for my own promotion.  Then we talked through things and it was the King of the Mountain match and Slammiversary.  I like to keep myself in shape but I wasn’t anywhere close to in my age and career the shape I wanted to be in.  I was happy with the match but I have no plans to be an active wrestler on the GFW roster.  As far as the King of the Mountain title we have a call this Friday.  We are going to figure out what our next best step is.  We have a title, that is not GFW property, it’s in our possession, I could vacate it, have a one night tournament, block A vs. block B, there is just so many ways to go about this and we have to figure that out.  It’s pretty exciting just to have the opportunity but what we are going to do with it I am not sure just yet.

    Brandon Galvin: You’ve always been one of the most well-rounded performers in wrestling, but has there ever been somebody that you were nervous to against?

    Jeff Jarrett: Well, it goes without saying that I have been blessed to wrestle some of the very, very best.  In my early days Jerry Lawler, he had this aura and ability in the ring.  Certainly not the Jerry today but the active weekly wrestler that had a presence about him that would put you on edge.  I also had a series of matches against Shawn Michaels later on who could be called the best in-ring performer ever.  I had another series with Ric Flair and it goes without saying his pedigree.  Just a couple of years ago I had multiple, high-profile matches against Kurt Angle.  Kurt has so much tenacity, athletic ability, strength, and drive.  Still to this day, before I went through the curtain at Slammiversary, I had butterflies and was nervous.  That same feeling should never go away and if it does you should get out of the business.  I felt it that night and I sure felt it the next day after that.

  • WWE Tough Enough Episode 5 Results and Recap

    By: Kenneth Nida

    Last week saw the contestants challenged to cut promos on each other, an appearance by King Barrett, and a clash between Patrick and Josh. The entire episode felt like a setup for Sara Lee to gain sympathy from the voters, and gain some fans with her passionate promo during eliminations. We also saw the re-introduction of Chelsea who was brought back from the try-outs after Dianna left the show. Gabi was eliminated, and flat out admitted she was glad and wanted to go home.

    Tonight’s episode opens up with the hosts briefly speaking with the judges, and introducing Big Show who said he would be showing the male contestants what it’s like to be in the ring with a giant. We switch it up and show the reactions of the contestants at the barracks, post-elimination last week. Patrick has become quite arrogant, so ZZ takes him aside and tells him he needs dial it back because he’s changed since the start of the competition.

    The first challenge is an obstacle course. Given a year, I don’t think Big Show could make through this course. The police and Natalya show up, with some of the officers to run the course with the contestants, as well as enforce the rules. Tanner ends up coming in first place for the guys, while Giorgia comes in first place for the girls. Tanner actually goes back to help Patrick who is struggling with the rope climb. Patrick turns heel when he sees ZZ struggle with the first part of the course and calls him pathetic instead of helping him. Chelsea and Amanda are the last female contestants left, and struggling with climbing the rope. The other women cheer them on, but Chelsea falls at the very top and hurts her ankle; neither finish the challenge.

    Back to the judges, they comment on how everyone did, including Paige who is impressed with Sara Lee for once. Billy Gunn points out Tanner’s humility by helping the others after winning. Chelsea didn’t break her ankle, but it’s badly strained. The doctor tells her she’ll need a month to heal. The girls talk a bit of trash about Sara Lee, and are not impressed with Chelsea’s chances with how her ankle looks. Josh, a bit distraught after failing at the competition, lifts his spirits by calling to talk with his daughter. Chelsea talks to Sara Lee, confessing what the doctor told her. Patrick starts shouting at ZZ, saying if ZZ beats him, the competition is a joke. The judges comment, saying neither ZZ nor Patrick are coming off well.

    Sara Lee lets Chelsea’s secret out. Giorgia blurts out that Sara Lee told her she couldn’t do any physical activity for a month, and then breaks out in some questionable crying for Chelsea. Billy Gunn asks her flat out what she’s going to do, and Chelsea sits out the next challenge. The challenge is to do body slams, with the loser doing squats while praising his or her opponents. Mada ends up winning the competition for the men, with Giorgia winning for the women.

    Sara Lee gets into an argument with Giorgia over letting her secret slip. Amanda joins in to shout at Sara Lee as well. Back to the live show, Big Show is going to give each of the male contestants chops with no shirt on. Big Show takes some time to talk trash before giving each a chop; each contestant ends up with a giant red mark. Daniel Bryan asks Chelsea if she’s been cleared, which she confirms. Hulk and Paige praise Mada and Sara Lee for stepping up this week.

    Picking the bottom 3, Daniel Bryan chooses ZZ, Paige chooses Patrick, and Hulk Hogan chooses Josh. They open up the voting without first giving the contestants time to plead their case, or any sort of final challenge, only giving them 15 seconds once voting is almost over. The judges decline to use their save. Josh gets 39% of the vote, ZZ gets 36% of the vote, and with 25% of the vote Patrick is eliminated.

    If last week’s episode was designed to raise Sara Lee up in the eyes of the viewers, this week was the fall of Patrick. Between all the trash talk, lack of humility, and attacking fan favorite ZZ, he really came off poorly. If this vote had taken place a week or two ago, I see Josh losing the vote easily.

  • ROH and NXT going head-to-head again in September

    While not confirmed by WWE, a number of sources have noted that the company has booked NXT events on 9/17 in Houston, at the Bayou Music Theater, 9/18 in Austin at the Music Hall and 9/19 in San Antonio at the Aztec Theater.

    ROH has major events scheduled on 9/18 and 9/19 in San Antonio, at the Shrine Auditorium.  The head-to-head show on 9/19 is a TV taping for ROH.  Austin, going against what is scheduled as a major ROH live event that will be broadcast either via iPPV or PPV, is just over one hour away.

  • UFC News: UFC fires cutman Stitch Duran

    Jacob “Stitch” Duran, regarded as the best cut man in the business, was fired today by UFC in a shocking move.

    Duran just posted on Twitter in regard to a fan question based on stories this week that he had lost sponsors due to the Reebok deal, “You will be the first to know that the UFC just let me go because I spoke out about the Reebok deal. Got to look for a new job.”

  • Raw ratings up, but big drop at the end

    The Raw ratings were up coming off Undertaker’s return at Battleground on Sunday night, but probably not by as much as expected.

    The show did 3.79 million viewers, up 250,000 from last week, although last week was the second lowest number for a summer non-July 4th Raw since 1997.

    The second hour, with the Lesnar-Undertaker angle, did the best, but once it was made clear they were gone, the audience dropped significantly.

    8 p.m. 3.84 million viewers

    9 p.m. 4.03 million viewers

    10 p.m. 3.54 million viewers

  • TUES. UPDATE: HBO Real Sports covering domestic violence in MMA, Daniel Bryan’s book is out, and more

    by David Bixenspan | davidbix@wrestlingobserver.com | Follow @davidbix

    Tonight on TV:

    Tough Enough is on USA Network at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT with a new episode titled “Swallow Your Pride, It’s Good For You.” The promos have been built around one of the challengers (if you want to find out who, it doesn’t take much effort) suffering an injury during a challeng. Last night on Raw, Big Show threatened to show up on “Tough Enough, the reality show” and punch out the male contestants, so presumably he shows up in some form.

    Total Divas is on E! at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT with a new episode titled “Eat Your Heart Out.” Nikki and Eva’s peace talks come to a very negative end; while on stage, Nattie takes a large risk; Paige’s first WrestleMania brings her to tears; meanwhile, Brie and Bryan get the results back from their fertility testing. There are a few preview clips on WWE’s YouTube channel, including Brie and Bryan at the fertility clininc and a Nikki Bella/Eva Marie heart to heart.

    Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO at 9:00 ET/PT has a featured on domestic violence in MMA. There’s a trailer on HBO’s YouTube channel showing a section of the part about Jon Koppenhaver/War Machine’s attack on Christy Mack/Christine Mackinday. Full description from HBO:

    Outside of the Cage. Last summer, just as news of Baltimore running back Ray Rice’s violent assault on his fiancée in a hotel elevator was about to make headlines, a far more brutal domestic violence attack involving a pro athlete had just taken place. But the beating that nearly killed former adult film star Christy Mack, allegedly at the hands of the MMA welterweight known as War Machine, flew largely under the radar.

    High-profile sports like football and boxing, the father of all fight sports, have long dealt with athletes’ domestic violence toward women. But the newly minted American combat sport Mixed Martial Arts, which showcases the world’s most violent athletes, has largely escaped mainstream scrutiny of its fighters’ conduct. REAL SPORTS correspondent David Scott investigates domestic violence among pro MMA fighters and efforts by MMA organizations to address it, and talks to Christy Mack, who for the first time tells the harrowing story of what she says was an abusive relationship with a trained professional fighter and the assault that nearly took her life.

    If you’re attending tonight’s SmackDown taping, please send a report to newstips@wrestlingbserver.com.

    **** 

    The newest issue of Figure Four Weekly is up on the site for subscribers (subscribe here) with an extensive look at the new NWA Classics streaming service, the Houston Wrestling library, and Houston’s place in wrestling history. Among the topics covered are:

    * What made Houston Wrestling unique and how the town evolved.

    * What’s on the NWA Classics service so far and why it’s awesome.

    * What other libraries are still around?

    And much more. Plus, as always, we have  all of the usual reviews and international news.

    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. 

    **** 

    The Conor McGregor phenomenon and the new direction of women in WWE and a history of women in WWE are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.  

    The issue is on the site right now at July 20, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: UFC 189 report, WWE calls up NXT women

    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!

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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 talks about the Conor McGregor phenomenon, how it ushered in the new era of UFC, the business notes on the show, McGregor’s popularity in Ireland, why iPPV numbers probably set records, U.K. reaction, what to learn from McGregor vs. Mendes, how risky a gamble this fight was, similar gambles from the past, the story of the fight, McGregor vs. Aldo next, Ultimate Fighter and a full rundown of UFC 189.

    We also look at WWE’s bringing up Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks this past week, and a look back at the history of women performers in WWE dating back to the Wendi Richter vs. Fabulous Moolah match in 1984.  We look at the forgotten best women’s matches in main roster history and best workers, and failed attempt to market athletic women, what really happened with Aja Kong, We also look at the different ways this can go, how the angles changed, how the angle was done, as well as how UFC made it work and what was the same and different.

    We also look at what may be UFC’s biggest event of 2016, the UFC 200 show.

    We also look at the NXT show in Brooklyn and the busy weekend in the New York area, notes on when the next WWE network number will be released and what it would be up to, as well as break-even, and the peak number.  We look at advance sales for Battleground and the card, Lennox Lewis admits to almost doing a mixed match with Brock Lesnar in 2003, the story behind that fight and why it never happened, William Regal explains what WWE is looking for in new talent in a fascinating interview, notes on the future of Smackdown, who are planned to be focal point of NXT, Ziggler, Cody Runnels, update on Tyson Kidd, key WWE exec gets fired and new major WWE stock purchase by one of the richest men in Holland.

    We also look at an update on several legal proceedings involving WWE suits, notes on Tough Enough, as well as a rundown of the weekend NXT and WWE house shows with business notes on the shows.

    We also look at this year’s UFC induction ceremony, how it has changed, its future goals, and the speeches by Bas Rutten, B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes Frank Trigg, Lori Blatnick and many others.  We look at the histories of all the inductees as well.

    We also have more on Fedor Emelianenko being shopped around for a comeback at the age of 38.  We look at who he is, what he said just a few months ago about a comeback, if it is realistic to expect a match with Brock Lesnar, what Fedor said directly a few months ago about a match with Lesnar, as well as how UFC or Bellator can use him.

    We also look at UFC’s Sunday show in Las Vegas and business notes on the show.

    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:

    –A look at the big weekly event at Arena Mexico

    –Build to CMLL’s big summer show

    –A major big show controversy and a lot of buck passing involved

    –Top matches for this year’s TripleMania

    –A look at this past week’s AAA TV taping

    –Wrestling returns to Royal Albert Hall in London

    –A major star celebrates 30th anniversary of his pro debut

    –Third generation legend makes debut

    –Wrestle-1 announces its own tournament

    –Coverage of Wrestle-1 show from the past week

    –Notes on the G-1 debut card

    –Shinya Hashimoto death anniversary show

    –More on Dusty Rhodes and one of his most famous angles

    –A look at the build of Starrcade 85

    –GFW’s road shows and TV tapings

    –A look at the Waterloo wrestling Hall of Fame and this year’s inductions

    –A match of the year candidate

    –Former WWE star falls into more problems

    –One match which features champions from New Japan, a top star of Evolve, the TNA world champion, a Lucha Underground champion, anther TNA wrestler as well as a WWE wrestler and an ROH wrestler all in the same match

    –A look at Tommy Dreamer’s next show

    –Update on Alberto Del Rio

    –Update on Lucha Underground

    –Movie being made about a Lucha Underground star

    –More on ROH over WrestleMania weekend

    –This week’s upcoming ROH show in Las Vegas

    –A look this past week’s ROH show

    –More on the future of TNA

    –Update on Davey Richards

    –Something to watch for when it comes to UFC fans

    –Update on Travis Browne situation

    –This week’s UFC show on FS 1 and Fight Pass Titan show

    –More on C.M. Punk and his debut

    –More on fighters and prospective TV show ideas

    –Cris Cyborg, UFC and Invicta

    –New UFC fights

    –Lawsuit filed regarding Bellator

    –This week’s Bellator show

    –Notes on how new Bellator announcer used to write for a wrestling newsletter

    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.

    Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

    ****

    Tuesday Daily Update

    — Daniel Bryan’s book was officially released today, so you can now order both physical copies and the Kindle version. It’s an excellent, honest, detailed book that’s well worth checking out. It’s fascinating just how much his feelings match up with the fans on so much of what happened with him. Fox Sports has a listicle of “surprising revelations” in the book.

    — Donald Cerrone has accused UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael Dos Anjos of using steroids, and Dos Anjos fired back to MMAFighting. “I train to be the champion. I’m the champion. He trains because he likes this lifestyle. He was never the WEC champion, and will never be the UFC champion. He will get beat up one more time.”

    — Jonathan James Cboins, an indie wrestler who works under the name Jonboy, was arrested for sex with a minor in Middletown, Ohio over the weekend after a show.

    — Alex Jones’ InfoWars.com (a conspiracy theory type site, for lack of a better description) has discovered the influence of UNITE HERE on pro MMA staying illegal in New York. The article is flawed in various ways, but this is right up their readership’s alley, so it could prove interesting if they were to rally behind it. Don’t read the comments, though. Seriously.

    — Dave has his postmortem for Wednesday and Saturday’s UFC card as MMAFighting.

    — Tyler Breeze talked to the Miami Herald to promote this week’s NXT house show in Miami. Lots of good stuff about how he developed his character.

    — Magnus appeared on the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast to talk about all sorts of topics. On the Mickie James train angle: “The only person who did like it was the person who wrote it. He had the final say on it, we all suggested alternatives, we all thought it was not going to work and it was not going to get a reaction, and our disregard for it and that was the result of it. That was one of the reasons where we just kind of said ‘okay, it’s maybe time to wrap this thing up.’”

    — Ricky Steamboat appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast. Lots of topics covered including the angle where Jake Roberts DDTed him on the floor: “Pulling the mat away and exposing the cement floor and being dropped in the DDT is very dangerous and it ended up being dangerous for me that night. I’m going to say it was a timing issue. If my memory serves me right whenever Jake would suck you in and pull you underneath his arm he would always look at the crowd for a moment and then drop you. In that moment you show that this is the end for this guy and he would have a little snicker on his face and a little bit of an attitude and then drop you. But as soon as he sucked me in he dropped me and I was waiting for that pause. The unfortunate thing that happened is that what everybody suspects when he does do the move YES when it happened my head did meet the cement and they took me away with a bad concussion. Part of my head swelled up so bad and ballooned out and I know I got in front of the camera with it but I cannot find any pictures of what my face looked like because it looked distorted.”

    — Sam Shaw (based in Jacksonville, FL) and Facade (based in Pittsburgh, PA) are now accepting bookings through Bill Behrens at showbis@aol.com and www.sbibookings.com.

    — NWA Smoky Mountain presents it’s hottest event of the summer, Fire on the Mountain 2015 on Saturday, August 8 at the Civic Auditorium in Kingsport, TN! Bell Time is 8:00 PM. Already signed for this huge event: ROH Star Matt Sydal (fka WWE’s Evan Bourne), TNA Impact Wrestling Star Davey Richards, Former NWA World Champion Rob Conway, ROH Star Cedric Alexander, TNA Knockout Angelina Love, and many more. There will be a special Meet & Greet with the Stars at 6:00 PM for VIP Ticket Holders.

  • On this day in pro wrestling history: Crusher & Robinson, Malenko vs. Guerrero in ECW

    by Brian Hoops

    1971 – In San Antonio, Texas; AWA Champion Verne Gagne drew Toru Tanaka and Wilbur Snyder beat Bronco Lubich

    1972 – In Denver, Colorado; AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Ivan Koloff, Larry Hennig & Dusty Rhodes beat Don Muraco & Wahoo McDaniel, Billy Robinson beat Larry Hennig and Dusty Rhodes beat Wahoo McDaniel via dq. 

    1974 – In Green Bay, Wisconsin; In a No dq match with special Referee: Greg Gagne; The Crusher & Billy Robinson beat Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens in 2 out of 3 falls to win the AWA tag team title, Ivan Putski beat Billy Graham via dq, Baron Von Raschke beat Wahoo McDaniel and Greg Gagne drew Buddy Wolff. Attendance was 6,448.

    1982 – Abdullah The Butcher is named the first World Wrestling Council
    World Heavyweight Champion in Puerto Rico.

    1984 – In Chicago, Illinois at the Rosemont Horizon; AWA Champion Rick Martel beat Nick Bockwinkel by countout, Fabulous Ones drew Road Warriors, Jim Brunzell beat King Kong Brody (Bruiser Brody) by dq, The Crusher beat Abdullah The Butcher by dq, Curt Hennig drew Mr. Saito, Tony Atlas beat Larry Zbyszko and  Billy Robinson beat Steve O. Attendance was 14,000

    1986 – In Memphis, Tennessee @ Mid South Coliseum; AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Jerry Lawler, Fire & Flame beat Giant Hillbilly & Cousin Junior by dq, Nightmares beat Mod Squad, Bam Bam Bigelow beat JT Southern by dq and Jeff Jarrett & Pat Tanaka beat Akio Sato & Tarzan Goto by dq. 

    1995 – Dean Malenko defeated Eddie Guerrero in Tampa, Florida to win the
    ECW World Television Title

    2002 – Cody Hawk defeated Lance (Garrison) Cade in Jeffersonville,
    Indiana to win the Heartland Wrestling Association Heavyweight Title

    2002 – WWE held their Vengeance Pay-per-view in Detroit, Michigan. Lance
    Storm and Christian defeated Hulk Hogan and Edge to capture the WWE
    World Tag Titles. Rock defeated Undertaker and Kurt Angle in a three-way
    match to capture the WWE Undisputed World Title.

    2009 – Tara and Miss Tessmacher defeated Sarita and Rosita to win the
    TNA Knockouts Tag Team Titles in Orlando, Florida.

    2012 – TNA held a show in Brooklyn, New York which saw Austin Aires retain the TNA World Title over Bobby Roode, AJ Styles defeated Jeff Hardy and Sting defeated Bully Ray in a No DQ, Falls Count Anywhere match. 

  • WWE Raw July 20 TV results: Undertaker/Brock Lesnar pull-apart, Rollins-Cena face off and Divas

    Courtesy of WWE.com 

    By Jeff Hamlin, WrestlingObserver.com

    The Big Takeaway: In a phenomenal start to the buildup of the SummerSlam main event, The Undertaker made his first Raw apperance in over a year. It culminated with a sensational pull-apart brawl with Brock Lesnar, which was the textbook way of how to build a main event between two larger than life titans. It looks like John Cena will face Seth Rollins at SummerSlam, as well, so the Kevin Owens is history. 

    Show Recap: 

    The Undertaker (star created in 1990) showed up to “Undertaker” chants and big cheers. He said he’s a remorseless, vengeful grim reaper. He said the painful truth is streaks are made to be broken, but Brock Lesnar (star created in 2002) had to remind everyone week after week of his greatest accomplishments, and enough is enough. Lesnar has taken what was once smoldering ashes and turned it into a raging inferno. Undertaker said last night was his resurrection.  

    He said Lesnar can’t kill what won’t die and he will challenge Lesnar’s mortality. He will conquer was has yet to be conquered. In the end, just like all living things, man or beast, Lesnar will rest in peace. 

    HHH (star created in 1999) and Stephanie McMahon (star created in her own mind) watched this scene elated from backstage. HHH said Undertaker and Lesnar would main event SummerSlam. However, HHH didn’t want Lesnar or Paul Heyman showing up tonight and putting the main event of their next PPV at risk. Stephanie left to call the marketing department to start promoting Lesnar-Taker (shouldn’t that have been done weeks ago?) while HHH called Heyman and told Lesnar not to show up to the arena. Yeah, if I had promoted Pacquaio-Mayweather, the last thing I’d want is to have Mayweather show up at a press conference or something. 

    Team BAD, Sasha Banks (just arrived), Naomi (50/50 club) and Tamina (50/50) were at ringside for the Divas match.

    Charlotte (3rd Raw) was shown embracing her father Ric Flair after her match at Battleground last night.

    Charlotte defeated Brie Bella (9:00)

    Charlotte won with the Figure 8. Brie Bella (50/50. Since a pattern?) was a step slow in spots, particularly when Charlotte missed a Pescado before the break. Brie threw kicks to Charlotte’s body and the crowd chanted “Yes” in salute of Daniel Bryan (star created in 2012, despite the company’s best efforts otherwise). Nikki, Alicia Fox (50/50) were in Brie’s corner while Paige (50/50) and Becky Lynch (2nd Raw) cheered on Charlotte. 

    HHH was on the phone with Heyman when The Miz tried to talk with him. Heyman resisted but HHH told him not to bring Lesnar to the building. Meanwhile, Miz was mad about Big Show punching him last night. HHH really wasn’t listening and said Miz would face Big Show tonight and told “Obi One” to leave. 

    Los Matadores defeated the Prime Time Players (C) in a nontitle match (4:03)

    Diego (jobber) pinned Titus O’Neal (50/50) with a back stabber after the New Day came out and distracted the Prime Time Players, who still aren’t as over as their push. El Torito has added a muscular body costume that makes him look like Giant Gonzalezito. 

    The Big Show defeated The Miz (1:28) 

    Show (star created in 1995 by WCW) pinned the Miz (50/50 after the most drastic fall from the top of the card in company history) with an elbow smash off the second rope in a squash. Show challenged Ryback for the I-C title and said he would appear on Tough Enough tomorrow night and told him to show up then. So they’re shooting angles for Tough Enough now.

    HHH and Stephanie were backstage talking to an artist backstage about creating a mural for the SummerSlam main event when they saw Heyman. When they confronted him, Heyman quivered and said he just wanted to deliver Lesnar’s reply to the Undertaker. Heyman swore Lesnar wasn’t there. After he left, HHH and Stephanie didn’t believe him and said they needed extra security.  

    Next up was the time honored tradition of HHH and Stephanie dressing down the entire locker room. HHH said their entire livelihoods depends on keeping Lesnar and Undertaker apart tonight. HHH said they weren’t asking the locker room, they were telling them.  

    Heyman was in the ring to deliver Lesnar’s retort. He blamed Undertaker for Lesnar not being WWE Champion. He brought up April 6, 2014 as the night Lesnar conquered the Undertaker’s undefeated streak, which got some boos. And 469 days later, the Undertaker has returned for revenge.  

    Heyman brought up all the names who challenged the Undertaker at WrestleMania and failed. He didn’t mention C.M. Punk. In a babyface manner, Heyman said Undertaker sold his soul to the devil, but his ass belongs to Lesnar.

    The lights went out and Undertaker was in the ring. Taker teased going after Heyman when Lesnar’s music hit to a huge pop. The announcers hit the road, the crowd went nuts, Lesnar ran to the ring like he had $10,000 in his hands as they started brawling. It was one electric scene. A group of jobbers first tried to break them up to no avail. HHH came out and emptied the locker room to get them apart. The ring was filled with midcarders, which now includes Kevin Owens (Cena program, which is a new third category. And a populated one, at that). Meanwhile, Roman Reigns (on the verge but not a star yet) and John Cena (star created in 2005) were MIA. Lesnar got free twice before about 30 guys got to him. Crowd chanted “This is awesome.”  Great hype segment. 

    Once Lesnar got to the back, he saw Undertaker and it all started again. It was humorous watching R-Truth (jobber) and Bo Dallas (jobber) on the ground trying to pull Lesnar off. No announcers for any of this. You just heard police finally separating Lesnar, who had his hands cuffed with plastic bands. Lesnar told the officers not to touch him as he was escorted to a police van.  

    Seth Rollins (what does it say when the WWE Champion is an afterthought? It says he isn’t a star yet) walked up to HHH and Stephanie and asked for a chance to address the fans. He’s the champion, shouldn’t he get interview time without having to ask anyone?  

    Bray Wyatt (Cena program) and Luke Harper (50/50) were backstage. Wyatt said the fans annointed Reigns and they would burn for it. Harper said they would pick Reigns apart until there was nothing left.  

    Roman Reigns defeated Luke Harper by DQ (13:01) 

    They had a good match until a cheap finish where Wyatt tripped Reigns after Reigns hit a drive-by on Harper and Wyatt. Reigns sold his right arm most of the match. Harper is the proverbial “good hand in the ring” that’s great for making guys shine. He did a great job in this match. Dean Ambrose (50/50, check the PPV records if you don’t believe it) came out to be in Reigns corner. Michael Cole said Reigns hasn’t won a match since Wyatt cost Regins the Money in the Bank match. How can anyone who attends a house show take that statement seriously?  

    Wyatt threw Reigns into the announcer’s table. Ambrose starting brawling with the heels until Wyatt threw him into the timekeeer’s table. Harper clamped on a crossface on Reigns until Ambrose ran back in. It ended with Reigns hitting Wyatt with a Superman’s punch just as Wyatt was about to give Amrbose Sister Abigail. Reigns was more over in this segment than a long time. Very good presentation. 

    Rollins came out to very little reaction. He bragged about still holding the WWE title after Battleground and called himself the most underappreciated champion in the history of the WWE. Rollins says he can’t help but feel like he was robbed last night after the Undertaker got in the ring to interrupt the main event. He asked Lillian Garcia to get in the ring and asked her to announce him as the winner from last night’s match. She started to announce Lesnar as the winner by DQ, but Rollins was still champion.

    Cena (star created in 2005, the Chris Berman of the WWE) came out.  Rollins thought Cena was there to issue another U.S. Open challenge. Cena said he was there to thank Rollins. He said every time the fans see the US Championship belt, they would see excellence from challenger and champion. If it wasn’t for Rollins, that wouldn’t happen and called Rollins a lousy excuse for a champion. He said Rollins’ actions make people lose respect for the WWE championship and gain respect for the US Championship.

    Rollins shot back that Cena can keep worrying about the US title, he would keep on being the WWE Champion. Rollins started to leave, but Cena said Rollins was about to walk away from another challenge. Cena dared Rollins to man up, said the man makes the title and called Rollins a joke. He challenged him to man up. Rollins teased going at it with Cena and naturally left. So it looks like Rollins vs. Cena at SummerSlam, though that wasn’t announced. 

    Sasha Banks and Naomi defeated Paige and Becky Lynch via submission (13:29)

    Banks won with the Bank Statement on Paige. Team Bella was on commentary with Brie not selling her two losses in 48 hours to Charlotte at all. This was the curse of a 3-hour show as fans treated this as a popcorn match. The charisma of Banks and Lynch didn’t translate to a bigger crowd, at least not tonight. Fans did get interested after Paige got the hot tag. Match was OK. 
     ‘
    Next, of all things, was Jake Gyllenhaul training for his role in the upcoming film “Southpaw.” Billy Gunn, Lita and Booker T talked about how Gyllenhaul works so hard for the role. All I can say is if you compare Gyllenhaul’s physique from his Donnie Darko days to his 2010 film “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” it’s….interesting. 

    Renee Young talked with Lana (50/50 after being on the verge of getting over huge, inexplicable face turn killed it) regarding Dolph Ziggler. She said the doctors haven’t medically cleared him, but he’s talking again Then Summer Rae (50/50) peared dressed as Lana. Rae said Rusev (Cena program) like her in that outfit. Rusev walked up and kissed Rae, then told Lana she looked tired. Lana looked shocked. Rae started to console Lana, but slapped her instead and walked off laughing. For a movie that didn’t do very much at the box office in 1994, there sure are a lot of wrestling angles based on “Single White Female.” 

    Randy Orton, John Cena and Cesaro defeated Kevin Owens, Rusev and Sheamus (14:56) 

    Apparently they were looking for ways to have weirder psychology than last week’s Rusev-Cena match. As the heels were getting the heat, Cesaro (50/50) pushed Owens (Cena program) into Sheamus (not a star because the fans aren’t biting even though the company sure is pushing), who collided with Rusev. This led to Sheamus pushing Owens and walking out. Owens went to tag Rusev, but Rusev was still down after getting hit by Owens. So Owens slapped Rusev, then kicked him, and left, as well. So Rusev, the heel, was left alone to face three babyfaces. It was a weird sight seeing Cesaro crawling to make a hot tag in what had turned into a 3-on-1 match. It ended with Lana coming down and tackling Summerr Rae, tearing the bun out of her hair. In the ring, Cena gave Rusev the AA, Cesaro gave him the Giant Swing into Randy Orton’s (star created in 2007) RKO, which is the most over finisher in the company. Orton got the pin.

    SUMMARY: You can’t say enough good things about that Lesnar-Undertaker pull apart. That’s what makes the WWE wonderful. And this was a good show. However, did you notice any new stars in the above section created after 2007? No. Which is what makes the WWE so frustrating. They know what to do with the hand they’re dealt, so why can’t they just do it? I know Dave’s annual Wrestling Observer Awards are reserved for entities, not concepts. I wish that would change, because the notion that the WWE is a star creating company might be the most overrated concept in the industry.