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  • WWE Raw ratings slightly up from last week

    The Monday, June 6th Raw did 3.24 million viewers, up slightly from last week’s 3.22 million.

    Last week had far tougher competition with a monster NBA game, but it was helped by being John Cena’s return to the show. This week has the Stanley Cup playoff game (Pittsburgh vs. San Jose) that did 4.23 million viewers on NBC, but The Bachelorette, in the spot of Dancing With The Stars, is doing just over half of what DWTS was doing.

    Raw’s second hour was the high point, leading to a big third hour fade of 587,000 viewers. The second hour featured the Cena-A.J. Styles confrontation while the big things pushed in the third hour were Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens and the New Day vs. Club six-man tag match.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.37 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.49 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.90 million viewers

    We discussed the show in full on last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, available for subscribers.

  • May 3, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Rick Rude, WWF Backlash review, more

    The death of Rick Rude on 4/20 becomes the latest addition to a strange and macabre body count that is very close to becoming synonymous with the pro wrestling industry.

    Rude passed away that evening of a heart attack after being rushed to the North Fulton Medical Center near his home in Alpharetta, GA, an Atlanta suburb, at the age of 40. Rude, who was working with WCW as an announcer for the Backstage Blast PPV airings of Nitro on DirecTV once per month after being removed from his role as childhood friend Curt Hennig’s on-camera manager, had been training for an in-ring comeback after his career presumably had ended after suffering a broken back in a May 1, 1994 match against Sting at the Fukuoka Dome.

    Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

  • DR. KEITH PRESENTS: Sambo Suplexes In The Sun!

    Alan goes it alone this week on the DKP but there’s no shortage of stuff for him to talk about following a holiday weekend where ALL OF THE WRESTLING was consumed.

    Topics covered include: 

    – All Japan’s May 1999 Tokyo Dome show featuring two huge matches

    – New Japan’s Best Of The Super Juniors as the tour which has been filled with great matches comes to a close

    – PWG All Star Weekend Night 1

    – Pro Wrestling NOAH’s highlights of 2016

    – A Match Of The Year Candidate that you NEED to see in Dragon Gate

    – A Show Of The Year Candidate from All Japan

    – RON GARVIN being a hard man

    – New Japan vs. WAR featuring Genichiro Tenryu being THE GOD OF WRESTLING

    – AAW’s recent show in Chicago with Fenix vs. Pentagon Jr

    – Beyond’s “Greatest Rivals Round Robin” series, Rich Swann and much much more.

    If you can tolerate listening to an Irishman talk uninterrupted, this is the show for you! CHECK IT!!!

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  • NXT TakeOver Conference Call (June 7): HHH talks cruiserweight tourney, Hideo Itami, Brock

    WWE COO and head of NXT Paul “HHH” Levesque talked to the media for nearly 45 minutes Tuesday on a variety of topics that included:

    – A quick hit preview of Wednesday’s card

    – Promising a lot of surprises & something we’ve never seen before presentation-wise with the upcoming cruiserweight tourney

    – Thoughts on the upcoming draft, brand split, and how NXT could be affected

    – Whether they are targeting the UK for talent

    – Insight into how they plan their tours

    – How the presentation for the cruiser tourney will be different

    – Thoughts on Ali, Brock, a possible pipeline of talent to WWE from UFC, and more.

    Click below to listen or right click to save:

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  • Daily Pro Wrestling History (6/7): Taz, CM Punk, and Batista wins individual gold

    1933 

    Kansas City, Missouri:
    – NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jim Londos beat Everette Marshall by a third fall DQ
    – Charlie Fischer beat Joe Wilson
    – Johnny Shoop defeated Joe Ferguson

    1951

    Kansas City, Kansas:
    – Gorgeous George beat Heart of America Heavyweight Champion Dennis Clary by DQ 
    – Ray Eckert and Ronnie Etchison went to a 45 minute time limit draw 

    1956 

    Amarillo, Texas:
    – Dizzy Davs and Sonny Myers defeated Art Nelson and Rip Rogers for the NWA Southwest Tag Team Titles

    1960 

    Osaka, Japan:
    – Rikidozan and Toyonobori defeated Dan Miller and Frank Valois to win the JWA All Asia Tag Team Titles

    1962 

    Amarillo, Texas:
    – Dory Funk, Sr. won the NWA North American Heavyweight Title (Amarillo version) by defeating Fritz Von Erich 

    Chattanooga, Tennessee:
    – Joe Lanza defeated Taro Sakuro for the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title

    1966 

    Quebec City, Quebec, Canada:
    – Edouard Carpentier defeated Hans Schmidt to win the International Wrestling Association International Heavyweight Title

    1969

    San Antonio, Texas:
    – Jose Lothario defeated Johnny Valentine to win the WCCW Texas Heavyweight Title 

    San Francisco, California: 
    – Ray Stevens defeated King Curtis Iaukea for the San Francisco version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title 

    1972

    Mobile, Alabama:
    – Gorgeous George, Jr. defeated Bob Kelly to win the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title 

    1976

    Fukuyama, Japan:
    – Rip Tyler and Eddie Sullivan defeated The Great Kusatsu and Mighty Inoue to win the International Wrestling Enterprise (International Wrestling Alliance) World Tag Team Titles

    1978

    Raleigh, North Carolina:
    – Paul Jones defeated Baron Von Raschke for the NWA TV Title

    1979

    Tokyo, Japan:
    – Antonio Inoki pinned Stan Hansen in the finals of the New Japan MSG League

    1980 

    San Francisco, California:
    – Ed Wiskoski defeated George Wells for the San Francisco version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title 

    1981 

    Roanoke, Virginia:
    – Terry Taylor defeated Les Thornton for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title 

    Kansas City, Kansas:
    – Bob Sweetan defeated Buzz Tyler to win the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title

    1982 

    Greenville, South Carolina:
    – Sgt. Slaughter defeated Wahoo McDaniel to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Title

    1983

    Croydon, England:
    – Marty Jones defeated Dave Finlay to win the World Mid-Heavyweight Title

    1984

    Bayamon, Puerto Rico:
    – The Medics defeated Invader III and Toru Tanaka for the vacant WWC North American Tag Team Titles

    1987 

    Orlando, Florida:
    – Mike Rotunda defeated Dory Funk, Jr. to win the held up NWA Florida Heavyweight Title

    1990

    Tokyo, Japan:
    – El Hijo del Santo defeated Fuerza Guerrera for the World Wrestling Association World Welterweight Title 

    1991

    Dallas, Texas:
    – Tom Prichard defeated Bill Dundee to win the WCWA Texas Heavyweight Title

    1993 

    Cumberland, Kentucky:
    – Bobby Blaze defeated Tony Anthony for the vacant SMW Television Title 

    1994

    Loudon, Tennessee:
    – Tracy Smothers defeated Kendo the Samurai to win the SMW Television Title 

    1996

    Sapporo, Japan:
    – Hiromichi Fuyuki, Gedo and Jado won the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Titles by defeating Youji Anjoh, Yoshihiro Takayama and Kenichi Yamamoto

    1997

    ECW Wrestlepalooza: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
    – Taz defeated Shane Douglas to win the ECW Television Title

    1998

    Chihuahua, Mexico:
    – Perro Aguayo, Sr. and Perro Aguayo, Jr. defeated Fuerza Guerrera and Mosco de la Merced for the Mexico National Tag Team Titles 

    2003 

    Cayey, Puerto Rico:
    – Chris Candido defeated Fidel Sierra to win the WWC Television Title
    – Dominican Boy defeated Eddie Colon for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Title
    – Broncos II and III won the WWC World Tag Team Title by defeating Thunder and Lightning

    2009 

    WWE Extreme Rules | New Orleans, Louisiana:
    – Chris Jericho defeated Rey Mysterio to win the WWE Intercontinental Title 
    – Tommy Dreamer won the ECW Title by defeating Jack Swagger and Christian in an extreme rules match
    – Batista defeated Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship in a steel cage match 
    – Jeff Hardy defeated World Champion Edge in a Ladder Match to win the title 
    – CM Punk cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase and defeated Jeff Hardy to win the World title

  • WWE RAW Hits & Misses: After promising open, meaningless matches & repetition disappoint

    Despite a promising opening half hour, Monday night’s edition of RAW ultimately flattered to deceive. Here are the weekly sparse hits and myriad misses from this week’s Money in the Bank build-up show:

    — The Hits —

    The comedy-laden opening segment

    Given the scriptwriting standard we’re accustomed to, six men reciting lines at each other in the ring should have been a disaster. Instead, highlighted by Owens’ interruptions and Jericho’s obnoxiousness, Monday night’s opening segment was consistently amusing.

    The other members of the MITB ladder match finally challenging Jericho on his record in the match he created was wonderful. Jericho maintaining that he won “the first one….the sixth one!” in “Apple…..Appleton…..Stupididiotville!” was hilarious, as was Chris responding to Cesaro’s “your hometown?” rejoindre with: I’m from Winnipeg, idiot!”. That of course led to the crowd chanting “stupid idiot” for the second consecutive week, to which Jericho delightfully responded: “I know you are, but what am I?”.

    While I could do without wacky Dean Ambrose talking about fighting polar bears, at least we also had Owens’ “Ooh, Spanish!” as soon as Alberto Del Rio opened his mouth. It was nice to see Teddy Long too, despite his flubs, if only to hear the on-fire Jericho insult him. Great stuff.

    Backstage segments

    Further credit must be directed towards the writing staff for the quality of this week’s backstage segments. From Del Rio cutting a strong heel promo on Zayn in the locker room to Long dancing along to his theme on his smartphone to Ambrose finally getting serious in response to Owens, they all worked really well.

    Big Cass’ intensity

    I wasn’t crazy about Enzo & Cass’ Ali-laden tribute promo, but I really liked the idea of using Aiden English’s attempt to repeat the events of Payback to fire up Cass. Cass showed signs of being able to exhibit believable aggression during his short-lived recent singles run, and that was on display here again as he dismantled the Vaudevillains. I didn’t even mind the cheap DQ finish for not responding to the referee’s instructions.

    — The Misses —

    Meaningless matches

    It was very difficult to care about any of the seven matches on this show, particularly the three matches involving the MITB participants. All six men are already in a key match at the PPV, and nothing is going to change regardless of the results of their singles bouts. Why, therefore, am I supposed to get invested? At least all three matches were fine, with those who most needed credibility picking up the victories.

    Repetition, repetition, repetition

    There was so much on this show that I’ve seen before, with much of it as recent as last week. Rusev’s match against Swagger was a repeat from last week’s Smackdown as was the Life Lessons promo. Enzo & Cass fought the Vaudevillains on last week’s Main Event too, while Ambrose vs. Owens is a match that I really never need to see again for a very long time. News of another Ambrose vs. Jericho bout on this week’s Smackdown only increases my jadedness.

    Reigns/Rollins “History Revisited”

    Although last week’s WWE 24 documentary on the returning Seth Rollins was a fantastic piece of television, airing clips of it here only underlines how utterly boneheaded it was to bring “The Future of the WWE” back as a heel. If this two-part video package was intended to get the crowd to boo him and cheer Roman, it failed as anyone who saw it would surely be inclined to get behind Seth.

    Getting Rollins to call Reigns a “placeholder” and reminding us of his Wrestlemania cash-in is unlikely to build sympathy for a champion that few like.

    The Cena/Styles follow-up

    The feud that the company is billing as a “Wrestlemania match” did not have a great sophomore outing this week. Their promo was as meta as a bad episode of Community with Cena’s jorts self-awareness and AJ’s talk of getting the shovels. The explanation that Styles recruited the Club to help him best Cena out of fear of getting “buried” is weak sauce in the extreme. Very disappointing.

    Stephanie’s characterisation

    So apparently Stephanie McMahon is an all-out heel this week, in Shane’s absence, abusing the doddery Long and stealing his ideas. She did deliver one piece of big news however, informing us that she will be the head honcho of Smackdown when it goes live on Tuesday nights. Hands up who laughed heartily at the laundry list of the qualities she supposedly possesses: “intelligent, young, vivacious, smart, has business acumen, and can usher in the New Era!” That’s a no-hitter for you there Steph, I’m afraid.

    The Golden Truth follow-up

    One Smackdown repeat I would have liked to see was the karaoke version of R-Truth’s new song, complete with a bobbing Goldust head to help you sing along. If the company was willing to spend months filming vignettes for these two, it might be an idea to get out of the way and let them get themselves over. Not only were the lyrics not on-screen, but Michael Cole talked over the song for the second week running too!

  • NJPW Best of the Super Juniors finals results: Will Ospreay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    Here are the results for the Best of the Super Juniors 2016 finals, held live this morning in Sendai. A lot of tags fill this card, but there was also some pretty good build towards Dominion, plus we had a stellar main event. Here are the results:

    Jay White vs. David Finlay

    This was different than their other matches as it had an air of intensity that’s sometimes has lacked in their other bouts. Went by pretty fast. Finlay laid out White with a European uppercut and went to grab him but White caught him in a small package and pinned him.

    Yoshitatsu and Captain New Japan vs. Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi

    Match was better than you’d think considering who was in here. The crowd helped a lot. Yujiro picked up the win with the Miami Shine. I’m pretty sure this is the first win for Yujiro in 2016. 

    Katsuyori Shibata and Juice Robinson vs. Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata

    Of course, the focus here was on Nagata and Shibata. Pretty solid action from everyone. Nakanishi actually moved pretty well for once, all things considering. He’s even been doing a crossbody off the top rope as of late. Didn’t do wonders for him here though as he was pinned with the penalty kick.

    reDragon and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Roppongi Vice and Tomohiro Ishii

    Crowd popped whenever Ishii and Tenzan were in the ring. RPG Vice tried to help out Ishii but Tenzan is still a bit too strong for them. Solid, quick match with reDragon getting the win with the Chasing the Dragon.

    Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and Volador Jr vs. Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Kushida

    This was really great towards the end. Lots of high flying and cool dives by everyone. Kushida did a dive that wiped out people on the floor, and even Liger and Tiger Mask did crossbodies off the top rope to the floor. Volador and Ricochet did some great looking back and forth in the ring. Ricochet laid him out with a kick and hit the 630 for the win. Quite the spectacle in the last few minutes.

    reDragon came to the ring. Fish mentions they never lost the Jr. tag team titles. O’Reilly said they want to challenge for the belts. Roppongi Vice follow suit and challenge. Beretta has a contract and mentions that the contract states that they get a rematch. Ricochet says that they’ll accept both challenges for Dominion in a triple threat match. I guess it’s a newer version of the triple threat tag matches they like to do, so why not? Everything seemed to be settled when RPG Vice jump the champions to boos. reDragon make the save, but the champions come back and do stereo moonsaults that wipe out both challengers.

    Satoshi Kojima and Michael Elgin vs. Bad Luck Fale and Kenny Omega

    Omega brought the broom but discarded it quickly and worked on Elgin for the heat, with Fale working the match as well to keep control. Omega did a great tope con hilo to wipe out Elgin and introduced a ladder for…well, I don’t know what reason but both her and Elgin climbed it. Elgin have Omega a suplex off the ladder. Chase Owens was also out there to distract, and while he did Omega smashed Elgin with the ladder.

    Omega tried to go for the One Winged Angel but Elgin countered and powerbombed him through the ladder. The referee saw this but just stood here, no DQ as Elgin gave him another powerbomb for the win. Fun match but mostly just an angle to build towards the Dominion show.

    Elgin grabbed the title after the match and motioned for Omega to come get it. Omega got a mic and said the challenge Elgin issue has been accepted. Elgin said the belt would be his as he made his exit.

    Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi and Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Sanada and Bushi

    Another wild brawl to start things off. Sanada bring a bat to the ring, which he used here while they brawled on the outside. Mostly a pretty good back and forth match, not as long as the other matches on this tour. Bushi scored another win with the codebreaker off the top rope.

    Los Ingobernables try and clear house after the match but Ishii comes for the save. If fails as Bushi mists him. Okada attacks him and tombstones him, pointing at Naito.

    Best of the Super Junior Finals: Will Ospreay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    This was of course awesome, one of the best matches in the tournament in terms of drama and selling. Taguchi has a dumb gimmick but is also a very good big match guy and excelled here. Ospreay is already awesome at this stage of the game and will really be something in a few years as he gains more in ring experience.The first few minutes had them feeling things out, a few taunts between one another, etc. Taguchi starts working over Ospreay’s leg to ground him.Ospreay tried for a rainmaker but Taguchi countered into an ankle lock.

    Taguchi remained in control, giving Ospreay hip attacks and a giant flying senton to the floor. It’s funny because even though Taguchi is a hometown guy and even carried a flag to the ring representing his hometown a lot of people were rooting for Ospreay. He made a comeback with a hurricanrana and was going for the springboard stunner when Taguchi countered with an ankle lock. They did a long, great sell here and it even included a dodon nearfall. Ospreay finally back back and superkicked Taguchi to the floor. He hit an inverted 450 splash and followed that with the springboard stunner to win the tournament.

    After being given the trophy, Ospreay called out Kushida, who was doing commentary. He made it clear he wanted a title match and challenged Kushida for the title. Kushida says sure, he is a champion and wants to see who is the strongest between them. He exits the ring as Ospreay thanks his family and his fans as the streamers go off and he celebrates.

    At 23, Will Ospreay becomes the youngest Best of the Super Juniors winner, the first English winner and the fifth gaijin to win the tournament. He has a very bright future ahead of him, that’s for sure!

  • WWE interested in UFC’s Paige VanZant for SummerSlam

    As part of the business relationship with UFC and WWE, the WWE is interested in bringing in Paige VanZant to SummerSlam.

    PW Insider and Fox Sports have both reported the news.

    Mike Roberts, the manager of VanZant, confirmed to Fox Sports earlier today that WWE has reached out to inquire about VanZant to appear “in some capacity” on the 8/21 SummerSlam show.  A WWE source confirmed the news to us that the company was looking for a role for her at the show.

    VanZant gained a good deal of national exposure on “Dancing With The Stars,” where she placed second, after winning the actual dancing end of the competition.  She came off strong throughout the show, which was viewed by 11 to 12 million viewers every Monday night.

    VanZant was originally slated to fight on the undercard of UFC 200, but the decision was made to hold her off because of the limited amount of training time she’d have after DWTS ended.

    VanZant already got a movie role in the “Kickboxer Retaliation” movie with former WWE star Dave Bautista as well as a number of former MMA fighters including Gina Carano and Georges St-Pierre.

  • WOR: Kimbo Slice dead, Raw report, Helwani reinstated, tons more!

    Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back tonight with tons to talk about. Kimbo Slice has died, we’ve got a look at his career, what he meant to MMA and why he was such a draw, and more. Also, Ariel Helwani has been reinstated, Raw notes from Monday night’s show, Best of the Super Juniors finals coming, mailbag and more! A packed show as always so check it out~!

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  • UFC lifts ban on Ariel Helwani, MMAFighting.com

    In a statement released tonight by UFC, the ban on Ariel Helwani and others at MMAFighting.com is no more.

    “Following a conversation with with the editorial team at SB Nation, UFC willl not prevent MMAFighting.com from receving media credentials to cover live UFC events. We respect the role the media plays in our sport and beyond, including MMAFighting’s ability to report news. However, in our opinion, we believe the recurring tactics used by its lead reporter extended beyond the purpose of journalism.  We feel confident our position has now been adequatly communicated to the SB Nation editorial team.

    UFC’s goal as the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion is to cultivate interest in its world-class athletes and events, and deliver for the fans. We will continue to introduce this sport and its athletes to new fans across the world, and we will do so by working alongside media across all platforms.”

    UFC had come under fire in the last 24 hours after Helwani took his story to several mainstream media outlets. The wording of the statement is curious as they are still clearly unhappy with Helwani.