The move comes at a bad time for TNA after this Tuesday’s episode, anchored by the spectactle that was the Final Deletion, led to Impact’s highest rating in over a year.
The company is all too familiar with the loss in viewers that changing time slots can bring. Impact’s time slot has been in seemingly constant flux since being canceled by Spike TV in 2014, but WWE’s decision to air SmackDown live on Tuesday put TNA in a tough spot, and they were forced to either stay on Tuesday against tough wrestling competition or change nights.
Pop TV released a video promoting the show’s Thursday night debut on Twitter.
Dana White said this afternoon that Daniel Cormier will be fighting at UFC 200, and in speaking off the cuff, seemed to intimate Jon Jones may be in even more trouble than previously thought.
“There are tons of guys that are interested. We’ll get a fight done,” White said to Colin Cowherd on FS 1 today.
Later, White said Cormier would fight this weekend, would get the same money* as he would have against Jones, and that they hope to have the fight finalized and announced by the end of the day today.
*Cormier’s money is based on a percentage, but the amount is expected to be lower since the number of buys will likely be lower.
Cormier had said he was willing to fight anyone up to 220 pounds, saying that because he’s dropped so much weight he wasn’t willing to fight a big heavyweight.
White nixed the talk of Michael Bisping, which would be the most marketable potential fight for storyline reasons.
“Bisping just won the 185 pound title,” he said. “Let me tell you what Bisping does in his off season. When Bisping’s not training, he goes on a bender. He’s in no condition to fight Daniel Cormier. I promise you that. I don’t even have to ask him.”
Bisping was the third name after Gegard Mousasi and Tom Lawlor who publicly asked for the fight when word got out that Jones was off. He would make the most sense given it would create an historical champion vs. champion fight, and there is a storyline situation with Bisping having just beaten Luke Rockhold on June 4 to win the middleweight title.
Even if odds would be against it, it would make for a remarkable story if Bisping could win two titles on short notice. In fact, if such a thing would happen, it would probably go down as something that would be a huge part of the history of the sport that would be talked about for decades as the perhaps the most remarkable feat in UFC history.
Mousasi was already scheduled to fight Thiago Santos on Saturday. For fighters who have trained and are in top condition, Mousasi is really the only choice, but there is no story built around that fight. Mousasi was to fight at middleweight, but has fought at heavyweight in the past and fought for years at light heavyweight.
Glover Teixeira said today it would be impossible for him to make weight to fight Cormier, but Alexander Gustafsson said he could make it and do the fight. In the case of the former, Teixeira is set to face Anthony Johnson later this summer in essentially a #1 contender’s fight while Gustafsson and Cormier had a Fight of the Year candidate in 2015.
Onto the Jones story, White confirmed that Jones did not test positive for a recreational drug.
Also, when saying how it’s virtually impossible the B sample will come back clean, White mentioned two different agents in the A sample test failure. It is possible testing positive for two agents could lead to a suspension longer than two years.
Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor won’t be headlining UFC 200, but the two are still part of International Fight Week.
McGregor and Diaz will appear at a press conference on Thursday afternoon promoting that tickets are now on sale for UFC 202. And with two of the UFC’s most outspoken stars involved there are sure to be fireworks.
The two previously faced off at UFC 196 in March with Diaz tapping out McGregor with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
The rematch was once scheduled to headline Saturday’s UFC 200 pay-per-view, but McGregor briefly delayed that after failing to fulfill promotional obligations.
UFC 202 will take place on August 20th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson vs. Glover Teixeira, Demian Maia vs. Carlos Condit, Donald Cerrone vs. Rick Story, Hyun Gyu Lim vs. Sultan Aliev, Alberto Uda vs. Marvin Vettori, Neil Magny vs. Dong Hyun Kim and Cody Garbrandt vs. Takeya Mizugaki are also scheduled for the show.
The absurdity of “The Final Deletion” ultimately proved to be a success for TNA Wrestling.
According to ShowBuzzDaily, this week’s edition of Impact did 410,000 viewers on television, up from 322,000 viewers the previous week. It was the highest rated episode of Impact on Pop TV and the highest rated episode since May 2015.
TNA put a lot of effort into promoting the event and generated a significant social media buzz. They sent out screeners of the match and uploaded video of various people from the wrestling and film industries reacting to it.
TNA hopes that the buzz they created with the Final Deletion will lead to sustained ratings succes, and that will be tested with next week’s Destination X edition of Impact featuring Bobby Lashley vs. Eddie Edwards in a title vs. title match.
Given the success of the Final Deletion, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the organization think outside of the box with similar ideas and use similar promotional tactics in the future.
A visibly distraught Jon Jones denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs at a press conference Thursday morning after being flagged by USADA for a potential out of competition drug test failure on Wednesday night.
The emotional Jones had to leave the press conference to gather himself briefly before coming back. He apologized for the fans, the UFC, and Daniel Cormier for being removed from the fight.
“I want to apologize to Daniel Cormier. I know that this fight means a lot to him. The fight means a lot to me and the fight is not happening. So I just want to apologize to everyone sincerely.”
The interim light heavyweight champion and top pound-for-pound fighter in the world was joined by agent Malki Kawa and said that he had never even heard of the substance that led to him being removed from the main event of UFC 200 against Cormier. Kawa said that it is possible that the failure could’ve come from a tainted supplement.
“I’ve been taking the same supplements for the majority of my career and I’ve been so outspoken about being against any type of performance enhancers,” Jones said. “The whole thing sucks because being labeled someone who would ever cheat just really hurts more than anything else I’ve been through in my whole career.”
Both Yoel Romero and Tim Means were able to prove to the satisfaction of USADA officials that it was a supplement they had taken which caused a positive test. In those situations, the fighters were suspended for six months, rather than the usual two years for a first offense.
If such a thing happens here Jones would be eligible to fight on the New Year’s show, but would miss the Madison Square Garden show that he was expected to be part of, whether he won or lost against Cormier.
Kawa said that Jones’ B sample will be tested tonight in Salt Late City, Utah, but that chances the test would come back negative weren’t good.
The big question coming out of this is why it took until July 6 to get the result from the A sample for a test on June 16, and yet a B sample test could come back immediately. And if that is the case, if the B sample comes back clean (unlikely but it is possible), what that would mean, because in that theory the fight should still be on.
If Jones is unable to prove that the positive test came from a contaminated supplement, that would mean a two-year suspension from the sport. Jones vowed to continue fighting even if given the lengthy suspension.
Tonight are the final semis before the TUF 23 Finale. Josh Stansbury faces Khalil Rountree in an all Team Jedrzejczyk bout, and Kate Jackson faces Tatiana Suarez in an all Team Gadelha bout. These winners are headed to International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
The winner of the all-Gadelha fight gets to face Amanda Cooper, and the winner of the all-Jedrzejczyk gets to face Andrew Sanchez.
The two coaches can barely tolerate standing next to each other at the weigh-ins for Jackson vs. Suarez. Jackson is 115.5. Suarez is 115.
Suarez says nobody in the house has put in more time than her and that she’s been working for this goal since she was three years old. She says she skipped her own prom to compete.
Jackson says she never imagined a UFC contract was possible at the start but now it’s within her reach.
Kate Jackson (Team Gadelha) vs. Tatiana Suarez (Team Gadelha)
Jackson is in the red trucks and Suarez is in the dark trunks. Herb Dean is the ref for this fight.
Suarez charges forward immediately and is firing off jabs with her right hand. She gets a takedown to side control 25 seconds in but it’s in an awkward position against the fence. She switches to the other side and is looking for an opportunity to pass.
I know Jackson is pale as hell, but it’s still amazing how bright and splotchy the bruises are from the strikes that have already landed. Suarez goes for the neck as Jackson tries to get back to her feet. Once Suarez gets her to the ground though – it’s a wrap. Jackson taps at 2:53.
So in our TUF 23 Finale for the women, it’s Amanda Cooper vs. Tatiana Suarez.
Stansbury talks about how he’s facing a replacement fighter in Rountree, who also happens to be his best friend in the house. They play ping-pong together as they discuss how weird the situation is, but Rountree says he definitely won’t make the same mistakes he did last time now that he has a second chance.
Stansbury says Rountree might be the best striker in the house but his cardio and ground game could be an issue. Rountree says if he gets taken down it could be trouble.
Weigh-in time. Stansbury is 204.5 and Rountree is 205.5. Fight’s on!
Josh Stansbury (Team Jedrzejczyk) vs. Khalil Rountree (Team Jedrzejczyk)
Stansbury is in the red trunks. Rountree is in the black. Jason Herzog is our ref.
Rountree stuffs the first takedown and Stansbury flops to his back before getting back up. Stansbury momentarily gets knocked down but Rountree is being patient. He’s backing Stansbury up with kicks and power shots.
Stansbury occasionally tries to connect with the overhand right but he’s getting tagged a lot. Rountree is even having success with the head kick as Stansbury isn’t getting his arms up to block it. The left side of his head is bright red. The danger for Rountree is he’s spending so much energy he could be blown up any second.
Stansbury grabs a clinch and gets off a few good blows before Rountree breaks away. Rountree looks like he’s breathing hard. He tags Stansbury with a big left and pours it on on the ground – TKO at 4:14.
Khalil Rountree is advancing to the finals to face Andrew Sanchez.
Here are a few more notes in the aftermath of Jon Jones being pulled from the main event at UFC 200 over a potential anti-doping violation from a test taken on June 16th.
Daniel Cormier was said to be far more than distraught after all the preparation he’s done for this fight. Exactly what happens with him will likely be determined early tomorrow. He’s trained very hard but this was a different level of letdown than most late replacement fights.
Among the fighters who have asked to face Cormier on short notice are Gegard Mousasi, Michael Bisping, Ilir Latifi, Zack Cummings and Tom Lawlor. One would expect many more will also make themselves available first thing in the morning.
From a name standpoint and storyline standpoint, Bisping is the guy to put in. It would be the first champion vs. champion match since Georges St-Pierre vs. B.J. Penn. Bisping just beat one of Cormier’s best friends. It’s a no-lose situation for Bisping, who would be getting a guy on an emotional roller coaster and he’d still be middleweight champion with a loss, but be part of one of the biggest shows in history. This would also salvage the show as much as any replacement at the last moment could salvage it.
Mousasi is dangerous and has fought at light heavyweight before and done well, and has trained for the show. There’s no story there. At the end of the day, Cormier has probably put in too much in the way of preparation to be off the show. It’s simply too many millions of dollars potentially to not fight if the opportunity arises.
Jon Jones will be doing a press conference at the MGM Grand at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to give an explanation of what happened.
Mark Hunt and Brock Lesnar’s public workouts have been moved to 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. respectively
While the Smackdown show airing tonight in Canada made no mention of Brock Lesnar at all (after Raw had advertised Lesnar’s opponent being announced on the show) Randy Orton was finally announced as Lesnar’s SummerSlam opponent during the Aftermath show that airs on Canada’s Sportsnet channel.
It is not clear if WWE failed to put the Lesnar announcement on the Canadian version of Smackdown show in fear it would break before airing in the U.S., or there was a change in plans.
The two started together in OVW, but have never had a major program in WWE.
Of course, this is all dependent on Lesnar’s health coming out of UFC 200 where he and Mark Hunt have been moved to the main event as Jon Jones was pulled from the show due to an potential USADA anti-doping violation. You can get more on that breaking news story here.
We’ll have more on this very busy newsday in combat sports on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio for subscribers.
During an impromptu press conference Wednesday night, UFC president Dana White announced that Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt is the new main event for UFC 200.
The reason? Interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been flagged by USADA for a potential anti-doping violation. Because the procedure part of this review cannot be completed by Saturday, Jones’ fight with light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has been taken off the show.
Lesnar vs. Hunt will remain a three round fight.
White said he was informed by USADA that Jones was tested on June 16, but was unclear what the violation was for. He hasn’t spoken to Jones or his agent Malki Kawa as of this point. He also didn’t know why the test results took nearly a month to get back.’
“This is devastating to Daniel Cormier mentally, physically and financially,” White said.
Cormier was going to get a percentage of the PPV revenue which, for a show that may do record numbers, would be several million dollars. White said he was unclear how Cormier would be compensated considering the amount of money that he makes. Cormier was in attendance at the presser, but the press conference feed was cut off after White spoke.
UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitsky made a brief statement, saying noted that USADA will handle results management, potential hearings and due process on the matter, and whatever legal review process is necessary before any sanctions are imposed.
White said they found out just a short time ago and wanted to alert the media to the annoucement as soon as possible. Matchmaker Joe Silva isn’t even aware of the situation as he’s on a flight. White’s hope would be that someone would step up to fight Cormier on super short notice, but isn’t sure what’s about to happen.
There were no other light heavyweight fighters booked on the show, and the closest thing to a possibility would be Gegard Mousasi, a middleweight contender who is fighting Thiago Santos. However, Mousasi is getting ready for a fight in a 20 pound lighter weight class. Our Tom Lawlor, a Las Vegas resident who fights at 205, has begun petitioning for the fight on Twitter.
The UFC released the following statement:
The UFC organization was notified tonight that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Jon Jones of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection on June 16, 2016.
USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case. It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full fair legal review process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed.
However, because Jones was scheduled to compete against Daniel Cormier this coming Saturday, July 9 in Las Vegas, there is insufficient time for a full review before the scheduled bout and therefore the fight has been removed from the fight card. As a result, the three-round heavyweight bout between Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt will become the UFC 200 main event.
Consistent with all previous potential anti-doping violations, additional information or UFC statements will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.
Ticket refunds available upon request at primary point of purchase.
The Big News: The Revival defeated American Alpha in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships.
The Medium News: Rhyno returned and seemed to be really angry that Blake and Murphy tried to team again.
The Little Beaver Sized News: Bayley and Nia Jax agreed to one more match.
Bayley pinned Alexa Bliss
This match was set up last week when Alexa beat Carmella and made a challenge to Bayley, who is fully recovered following her match with Nia Jax.
Bayley gave Alexa a lot, establishing her as more than just another girl on the roster. Alexa used a really nice punch to the face to take over, with Bayley selling it as possible death. Alexa went for Twisted Bliss, but Bayley cut her off and Alexa actually came back with a Code Red for a near fall.
The finish saw Alexa go for the Vader Bomb, but Bayley got her knees up and won with the Belly to Bayley.
After the match, Bayley said she was ready to take her title back. Nia Jax came out in “normal clothes” to confront her. They stood face to face and Bayley challenged her to one more match. Nia agreed and it is on.
*******
We had a TM61 video package.
*******
Dash & Dawson said they will beat American Alpha tonight and have no fear in losing their belts so soon after regaining them.
*******
The Hype Bros vs. Blake & Murphy ended in a No Contest
Blake and Murphy are teaming again. Remember when I said like two months ago that they would break up at least five times before it counted?
Blake and Murphy literally couldn’t even agree on who would start the match. They argued mid-ring as Mojo Rawley tried to get them to wrestle. However, before we saw any wrestling, Rhyno appeared out of nowhere to Gore Blake, Rawley and Ryder. Murphy got away scot-free.
Yes, this really happened.
*******
We got the video package for next week’s Finn Balor-Shinsuke Nakamura match. I got half a second of screen time when they showed Nakamura’s entrance in Dallas. Tye Dillinger, Neville and American Alpha talked about what a dream match it would be.
This was the first thing they have done to make me excited for the match since the original angle announcing it.
*******
American Alpha said they will execute their game plan to win the belts back.
*******
Samoa Joe will be on NXT next week, apparently for the first time since Takeover. Is it sad that I didn’t notice?
*******
Rhyno was walking around Full Sail University (literally) and a cameraman ran up to ask why he was back. Rhyno snorted at him and walked away.
I have a theory that Rhyno has no clothes. All that he owns are his wrestling singlets, a few hoodies and Rhyno t-shirts that companies have been nice enough to give him.
*******
NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival took 2 out of 3 falls from American Alpha
This is the third time these two teams have wrestled. American Alpha won the first at NXT Takeover: Dallas, while The Revival evened the score at Takeover: The End. With a win, Alpha would become the second team to win the NXT Tag Team Titles twice.
The start of the first fall saw the champs work over the knee of Jordan, which is backwards because normally they get the heat on Gable. Jordan’s knee slammed off the ring post and both members of the Revival took turns using leg and knee holds.
Gable was able to get the hot tag and suplexed Dash and Dawson all over the place. Everything was going great for him until Dash pulled down the top rope, causing Gable to go flying over it and crashing on the ground outside.
Despite beating on him for close to 10 minutes, the Revival just could not put Gable down for the first fall. Gable showed resilience as Jordan managed to recover from the earlier attack on his knee.
Jordan got the second hot tag of the first fall and went all suplex crazy on both men again. Jordan got a near fall on Dash with a spear. The first fall finally ended with Dash tapping to Jordan’s ankle lock.
The second fall saw Dawson and Jordan reverse roll-ups on each other until Dawson got on a reverse figure four for the tapout, showing that Jordan’s knee didn’t fully recover from the beginning of the match.
The third fall started with more roll-ups. Alpha went for Grand Amplitude, but it got broken up. Revival went for Shatter Machine, and that got broken up too.
Gable got a tag, but was hit with a knee to the face as he tried getting into the ring. Gable and Dawson fought on the apron until somehow the Revival hit the Shatter Machine on it.
By the way, shouldn’t it have hurt the Revival just as much since they bumped on the apron? Anyway, they rolled Gable in, pinned him and retained the titles.
So that does it for this week. Next week it is the much anticipated showdown between Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura. Until then, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers.
