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  • Daily Update: Big Show’s Rumble Spot, Rizin Fighting results

    WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).

    Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).

    RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)

    Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match

    Heavyweight tournament semifinals

    Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa

    Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules

    Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares

    Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match

    Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)

    Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima

    Peter Aerts vs. Baruto (sumo star)

    Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)

    Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh

    Heavyweight tournament finals

    Figure Four Weekly

    Figure Four Weekly (12/21/15): Hulk Hogan and Nelson Frazier Lawsuit Updates
    Transcript gives new insight into the FBI/Gawker dispute, plus WWE gives us a peek at what their termination notices look like in the Nelson Frazier wrongful death lawsuit.

    Wrestling Observer Newsletter

    A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.

    We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.

    We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week.  We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.

    We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why.  We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.

    PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW

    The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 28, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Slammy Awards, MMA Weight cutting

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    Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

    Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 9, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jesse Ventura wins Minnesota Governor election, WCW trailing WWF, more
    Jesse Ventura becomes the Governor of Minnesota, WCW begins trailing WWF, ECW November to Remember recap, plus tons of news.

    TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

    For the record, according to WWE this morning the Big Show is NOT going to be the number-one entrant in the Royal Rumble.  Last night on Raw he made a confusing statement about being the first entrant which led to great confusion among fans and the announcers.  I would laugh if all of this all led to him actually being put in the Rumble in the number one spot.  Apparently Big Show will be shooting some segments clarifying what he apparently meant (he’s the first man to throw his hat into the ring for the Rumble).

    Sakuraba looked all 46 of his years in a one sided loss against Shinya Aoki in the main event of Rizin’s debut show. Here are the full results from the first day of Rizin Fighting Federation.  

    Ronda Rousey’s sister, Maria Burns Ortiz (who coauthored Rousey’s autobiography My Fight/Your Fight), wrote a retrospective on the rise to superstardom of her sister as part of a VICE Sports year in review series. The article includes candid family photos from the past year featuring Ronda.

    Thomas Golianopoulos has a really good article at Playboy.com about the death of Perro Aguayo Jr. and its impact on the business.

    WWE

    • Lemmy Kilmister, frontman of the band Motörhead, passed away Monday at age 70. In terms of pro wrestling, Motörhead provided entrance music for Triple H with such songs as “The Game” and “King of Kings” while also forming an apparent bond with Paul Levesque. In a story from this past summer, the band covered a Rolling Stones song on their last album at the request of Triple H. An English rock band that emerged in the 1970s, Motörhead became legendary in heavy metal and rock music. With Lemmy on lead vocals and bass guitar, they performed live at WrestleMania in both 2001 and 2005.
    • Based on the overnights (actual ratings not available until tomorrow), last nights game was the highest rated of the season with a 10.5 rating, although it peaked after Raw ended.
    • Heard the WWE Breaking Ground that aired on the WWE Network was very good.  The series wraps up with the final episode of the season next Monday after Raw.
    • Titus O’Neil is Coachman’s guest on Sportscenter tonight.

    UFC/MMA

    • The first episode of UFC 195 Embedded is up on the UFC YouTube channel.
    • M-1 Challenge lightweight champion Mansour “Tarzan” Barnaoui will make his first title defense, February 19 at Olympic Stadium, against Artiom Damkovsky at M-1 Challenge 64 in Moscow, Russia.  M-1 Challenge 64 will be streamed live from Moscow in high definition on M1Global.TV. Viewers will be able to watch the preliminary fights and main card by logging on to register at www.M1Global.TV. Fans may watch all of the action on their computers, as well as on Android and Apple smart phones and tablets.
    • We will have Sean Wheelock, head of the ABC rules committee as a guest on Thursday and we’re looking for any questions, thoughts or suggestions regarding rules and regulations of MMA in North America, rules you think should be changed, etc. to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

    MISC

    • A new promotion in India calling itself the Pro Wrestling League reportedly ran a stadium show in New Delhi. Basically the inaugural event featured what most would consider amateur wrestling matches except presented with the pageantry of contemporary pro wrestling or MMA. One article from The Times of India focuses on, of all things, trying to enter the stadium, while other coverage looks at the matches themselves.
    • Mike Mooneyham reflects on pro wrestlers who passed away this year in an article for The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC).
    • An article from Bloomberg related to the Concussion movie details new equipment designed to prevent concussions in contact sports. The creation of an anti-compression collar drew inspiration from woodpeckers. The article includes a quote from Chris Nowinski.
    • Newsday digs into wire service image archives to showcase some great classic black and white wrestling photos.
    • On this week’s Between the Sheets podcast, Kris Zellner and David Bixenspan are joined by Dylan Hales to go over the week that was December 22-28, 1989 including the famous of Blackjack Mulligan and Kendall Windham for passing counterfeit money, Paul Heyman’s plan to unite the major indies and remaining territories, a crazy week for the USWA, one of the worst weeks of Hulk Hogan’s life, and much more.
    • EVOLVE announced that WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising 2016 on April 2nd at the WWNLive Experience in Dallas, TX will be a Night Of Appreciation For Terry Funk. “We always strive to move the art of pro wrestling forward in the WWN Family. Sometimes the best way to do that is to pay homage to those that blazed the trail in the past. Mercury Rising 2016 will feature a ceremony honoring Mr. Funk. The legend will also be available for photos and autographs. Go to MoreThanMania.com for tickets and info.”
    • PWP runs tomorrow night, 12/30, at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha, NE with Michael Elgin headlining.
    • Kevin Doane talks to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. On the Spirit Squad gimmick and trying to make the main roster: “Eventually The Spirit Squad started coming about and they started liking it. They flew us into one of the Carolinas and they weren’t sure about it then. So we all came up with this idea that we are going to wait in Vince’s office and when he comes in we are going to blow the air horn in his face and do a cheer. We thought you either going to get fired or it will work. We don’t want to be in developmental so he was stuck in the production meeting for quite a while so we said let’s find him and break in. So we bust into the production meeting and blow the air horn, we did a big cheer and we just kind of stopped in our position and Vince looked up and he said ‘great, you will be on RAW next week.’”

    Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/29): Mankind wins the WWF World Title

  • UFC cancels March 5th pay-per-view in Brazil

    The UFC has canceled its March 5th PPV show from Rio de Janeiro.

    At a UFC media conference call to promote the Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping fight in London, Silva said that the entire show that he was expected to headline at first, is off.  No fights had been announced for the date.

    “(It) was to have me fighting in Brazil against I don’t know who,” said Silva.  “But with this situation going on in Brazil, economically and everything, the UFC decided to abort this event for now.”

    Guilhemre Cruz in a story at MMAFighting stated that Silva’s remarks were confirmed by sources close to the promotion.

    The Bisping vs. Silva fight will main event on Fight Pass, the highest-profile match to ever do so.  UFC officials are working to boost Fight Pass sales in 2016.

  • Rizin Fighting Federation Day 1 results

    Results from the Rizin show held earlier today at the Saitama Super Arena:

    Tsuyoshi Kosaka beat James Thomspon via strikes in the second round

    Kiril Sidelnikov beat Carlos Toyota via strokes in the first round

    Felipe Efrain beat Yuki Motoya via knockout from strikes in the first round -The official result of the fight was a no contest due to Efrain missing weight.

    Hiroyo Kawabe beat Akiyo Nishiura in a K-1 rules mach via third round knockout

    Hinata Watanabe beat Kazuyuki Miyata in a mixed match.  The first round was K-1 rules and Hinata, the kickboxer, destroyed him so there was no second round under MMA rules

    Anatoly Tokov beat A.J. Matthews via knockout in the first round

    Hideo Tokoro beat Kizaemon Saiga via armbar in the first round

    Hiroyuki Takaya beat DJ Taiki via decision

    Heavyweight tournament:

    Reserve fight:  Valentin Moldavsky beat Yuta Uchida with essentially a camel clutch submission

    King Mo Lawal beat Brian McDermott via knockout in 9:10

    Toedoras Aukstuolis beat Bruno Cappelozza via knockout in 3:32

    Vadim Nemkov beat Goran Reljic via knockout in 2:58

    Jiri Prochazka beat Satoshi Ishii via knockout in 1:36

    Shinya Aoki beat Kazushi Sakuraba in a one round slaughter via strikes

    Jerome LeBanner never came to Japan, so Peter Aerts will come out of retirement to face Baruto on Thursday’s show.  Aerts has been Baruto’s trainer to get him ready for his debut making it even more weird.

    The show was said to be entertaining except the main event was sad.  The heavyweight tournament was good although from a Japanese perspective, Ishii going down so quickly wasn’t good news.

  • Brock Lesnar’s next WWE opponent announced for Houston

    Brock Lesnar’s next opponent in WWE will be Sheamus as things are advertised.

    A Lesnar vs. Sheamus match has been announced for a 1/8 house show at the Toyota Center in Houston.  It is one of two Lesnar house show appearances thus far announced for this year, with the second one being on 2/16.

    Lesnar is advertised for a Raw return on 1/11 in New Orleans, which will likely be the night that his role in the Royal Rumble show will also be announced.

    Lesnar’s contract signed in April called for more dates, including an occasional house show, than his prior two contracts.  Lesnar did two house shows, one in Tokyo and one at Madison Square Garden, that ended up as live network specials.  But his third, held on 12/19 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, was strictly a house show match with Alberto Del Rio.

  • Sin Cara dislocated shoulder at last night’s RAW

    Jorge Arias, who works as Sin Cara in WWE, suffered a dislocated left shoulder last night in his match with Big E on Raw in Brooklyn.

    The spot, replayed multiple times saw Arias on the ring apron when E scooped his leg and pulled him off the apron and he took a bump off the apron to the floor, landing badly on the shoulder.

    The match was halted temporarily as The New Day backed off and played to the crowd while the trainer came out.  Even though it seemed clear he was hurt, even more so as the match continued, the match did in fact continue to its planned conclusion of E winning with the Big Ending, although he very much was protecting the left shoulder when he did the move.

    Arias did spots while the left arm was pretty well hanging there.

    Sin Cara on Twitter acknowledged the injury saying “Not even a dislocated shoulder could stop from performing in this great city.”

    There is no word on how long he may be out of action.  WWE officials stated that a full report is not in but the injury is not believed to be anything serious.

  • Daily pro wrestling history (12/29): Mankind wins the WWF World Title

    1937 

    St. Louis, Missouri:
    – Lou Thesz defeated Everett Marshall for the National Wrestling Association and Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Titles

    1955

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – Fritz Von Erich and Karl Von Schober defeated Whipper Billy Watson and Ilio DiPaolo for the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Titles 

    Amarillo, Texas:
    – Bob Geigel defeated Roy Heffernan to win the NWA Southwest Heavyweight Title 

    1956

    Fresno, California:
    – Ben and Mike Sharpe defeated Enrique Torres and Ron Etchison to win the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles

    1960

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – Tiny Mills and Stan Kowalski defeated Whipper Billy Watson and Ilio DiPaolo for the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Title 

    1961

    Columbus, Ohio:
    – Don Curtis defeated Karl Krauser (Karl Gotch) to win the NWA Eastern States Heavyweight Title 

    1964

    Tampa, Florida:
    – Tarzan Tyler defeated Bob Orton to win the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title

    1967

    Lafayette, Louisiana:
    – Bob Kelly defeated Don Carson for the NWA Tri-State Louisiana Heavyweight Title 

    1972

    Dothan, Alabama:
    – Rick Gibson defeated The Wrestling Pro for the NWA Alabama Heavyweight Title 

    Atlanta, Georgia:
    – Buddy Colt won the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title by defeating Bob Armstrong 

    1973 

    San Francisco, California:
    – Moondog Mayne defeated Pat Patterson for the San Francisco version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title 

    Chattanooga, Tennessee:
    – Don Greene and Bearcat Brown defeated The Interns (Tom Andrews and Jim Starr) to win the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Titles

    1974

    Dallas, Texas:
    – Fritz Von Erich defeated Blackjack Lanza for the WCCW American Heavyweight Title 

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – The Crusaders (Dewey Robertson and Billy Red Lyons) defeated The Love Brothers (Reginald and Hartford Love) to win the Toronto version of the NWA International Tag Team Titles 

    Memphis, Tennessee:
    – Ron Fuller won a tournament final for the vacant Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title 

    1976

    Denver, Colorado:
    – Death Match: The Crusher beat Mad Dog Vachon 
    – Verne Gagne & Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Nick Bockwinkel & Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum 
    – Pierre Poisson beat Larry Hennig dq 
    – Peter Maivia beat Moose Morowski 

    1985 

    East Rutherford, New Jersey:
    – At the AWA/NWA Star Wars Event; Stan Hansen defeated AWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Martel to win the title
    – Road Warriors beat Ivan Koloff & Krusher Khrushchev dq
    – NWA Champion Ric Flair beat Dusty Rhodes dq
    – Magnum TA beat Tully Blanchard

    1986

    Birmingham, Alabama:
    – Adrian Street defeated Wendell Cooley to win the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Title

    1990

    Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico:
    – Askari El Gringo defeated El Hijo del Black Shadow for the World Wrestling Association World Lightweight Title

    1991

    St. Paul, Minnesota:
    – Jerry Lynn defeated Ricky Rice to win the PWA Light Heavyweight Title 
    – Ken Patera and Baron Von Raschke defeated The Punishers (Sledge and Hammer) for the PWA Tag Team Titles

    1995

    New York City:
    – Mikey Whipwreck pinned ECW World Television and World Tag Team Champion 2 Cold Scorpio to win both titles 
    – ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Sandman pinned Raven to retain the title

    1996

    Nashville, Tennessee:
    – In a tournament final, Eddie Guerrero pinned Diamond Dallas to win the vacant WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
    – Lex Luger pinned The Giant 
    – Roddy Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan in a non-title match

    1997

    Baltimore, Maryland:
    – Ultimo Dragon defeated WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero to win the title 
    – Booker T won the WCW World Television Title from Disco Inferno

    1998

    Worcester, Massachusetts:
    – Mankind (Mick Foley) defeated The Rock to win the WWF World Title 

    1998

    Louisville, Kentucky:
    – Doug Basham defeated Rip Rogers to win the OVW Heavyweight Title

  • WWE Allentown, PA, house show results: Kane vs Bray Wyatt

    From Emerson & Brian Witner and Guy Ironstone (of WrestlingOutsiders.com)

    Attendance was between 2,000 and 3,000

    • Dolph Ziggler pinned Tyler Breeze. After the match Dolph left the ringside area and superkicked an inflatable reindeer.
    • Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow (who are still a team, believe it or not) defeated Los Matadores. The Colons played heel in this match.
    • Fandango pinned Bo Dallas with a sit out suplex.
    • Luke Harper, Erick Rowan & Braun Strohman defeated Tommy Dreamer & Dudley Boyz when Harper pinned Dreamer with a discus lariat.

    -Intermission

    • Titus O’Neil pinned Stardust. I had to ask if they could go back to intermission instead.
    • Divas Champion Charlotte submitted Paige with the Figure Four.
    • In a No Disqualification Match, Kane pinned Bray Wyatt after a chokeslam through a table. The Wyatt’s tried to interfere, but Dreamer and the Dudleys ran in for the save.

    The show went 2 hours, 10 minutes including a 20 minute intermission.

  • Rock confirms he’ll be at Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas

    Despite recent speculation that he wouldn’t be at Wrestlemania in 2016 due to ongoing movie commitments, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson confirmed via Instagram Monday that he would indeed make an appearance at the WWE’s marquee event.

    The show is expected to set an all-time pro wrestling attendance record and Rock admittedly wants to play his own part in helping set that attendance record.

    Here is his official statement:

    “IT’S OFFICIAL: People’s Champ is coming home to do 3 things with THE PEOPLE: Set an ALL-TIME attendance record, ELECTRIFY Dallas like never before & make all time #WRESTLEMANIA history. And we have FUN. Ok that’s four things but you know what the hell The Rock’s sayin’.. . THANK YOU #WWEUniverse! It’s always an honor coming home and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. #PeoplesChamp4L #MakingElectrifyingHistory #SmackethLaidDownOnThyCandyAsses“

    Wrestlemania 32 will be held at AT&T Stadium in Dallas as part of a big weekend that also features an NXT TakeOver event, the annual Hall of Fame ceremony and the always-raucous post-Mania RAW, traditionally the hottest and most highly rated show of the year.

    This will be the fifth straight Wrestlemania appearance for Johnson, who had a two-year break during which he and the company were on tenuous terms in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he made his return to host the Atlanta show, and got involved in the WWE championship match between John Cena and The Miz, leading to a challenge to Cena at the following year’s show in his hometown of Miami, which would end up being a non-title match.

    Following that show, Rock announced that he was “back” and his goal now was to win the WWE World title. He did just that at the following year’s Royal Rumble, ending CM Punk’s year-plus reign. This set up a return match with Cena, who had won the Rumble match. Rock dropped the belt to Cena in the main event of Wrestlemania 29 and suffered a serious injury in that match. The injury delayed the filming of the big-budget Hercules movie and put into question the idea of Rock ever wrestling another match.

    In 2014, at the New Orleans Superdome (or Silverdome), the Rock made an announced and unadvertised appeared in the show’s opening segment. He, Steve Austin and Mania host Hulk Hogan went back and forth in an entertaining verbal sparring match. The three shared beers without any physical confrontation.

    At least year’s show in another unadvertised, but not unexpected, appearance, Rock appeared again to break up a Stephanie McMahon/Triple H interview segment. This led to a verbal barrage by Stephanie on the Rock in which she also got physical. Not one to bestow physical violent on a woman (especially in this PG era), Rock introduced then-UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey to physically confront Stephanie. Rousey was seated at ringside and entered the ring in perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire show.

    This was expected to set up a potential match, or even matches, involving Rock, Rousey, Stephanie and Triple H at this year’s show. Rousey’s movie commitments and UFC contract led to her being taken out of the equation fairly early, and it was reported a couple months back already that Rock would not be available for a match either.

    His appearance on the show this year should help to some degree, but him not being in a match will prevent it from making a major impact. Nothing is going to top last year’s appearance and we’ve already seen him wrestle in high-profile matches at recent shows. But this certainly won’t hurt and gives WWE a name with some mainstream credibility to put on the show’s marquee and in advertising hype for the event.

  • Daily Update: The Rock returning to WrestleMania, Rizin

    We’re looking for reports on tonight’s Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with the dark matches and Superstars matches and anything else not evident on the house shows, as well as reports on the house show tonight in Allentown (Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Tommy Dreamer & Dudleys vs. Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan & Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze, Charlotte vs. Page).

    Raw tonight features both Vince McMahon appearing as well as the return of John Cena, as he faces Alberto Del Rio.  Santino Marella is also booked for TV so it looks like he’ll be a more regular comedy figure going forward.  With the house show tonight in Allentown, the names listed on that show are not expected to be on Raw tonight. 

    Bryan and I will be back with Wrestling Observer Radio tonight talking the latest wrestling and MMA news as well as taking your e-mail questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

    RIZIN DEBUT SHOW ON LATE MONDAY/EARLY TUESDAY FROM SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)

    Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. James Thompson

    Carlos Toyota vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

    Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain

    Hiroyoa vs. Wicky Nishiura under K-1 rules

    Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Hinata with alternate rounds of MMA rules and K-1 rules

    A.J. Matthews (Bellator) vs. Anatoly Tokov

    Hideo Tokoro (Bellator) vs. Kizaemon Saiga

    Hiroyuki Takaya vs. D.J. Taiki

    Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida – heavyweight tournament reserve fight

    King Mo (Bellator) vs. Brett McDermott – first round of heavyweight tournament

    Teodoras Aukstuolis vs. Bruno Cappelozza – first round of heavyweight tournament

    Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov – first round of heavyweight tournament

    Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochoazka – first round of heavyweight tournament

    Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki

    WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).

    Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).

    RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)

    Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match

    Heavyweight tournament semifinals

    Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa

    Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules

    Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares

    Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match

    Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)

    Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima

    Jerome LeBanner vs. Baruto (sumo star)

    Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)

    Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh

    Heavyweight tournament finals

    Figure Four Weekly

    Figure Four Weekly (12/21/15): Hulk Hogan and Nelson Frazier Lawsuit Updates
    Transcript gives new insight into the FBI/Gawker dispute, plus WWE gives us a peek at what their termination notices look like in the Nelson Frazier wrongful death lawsuit.

    Wrestling Observer Newsletter

    A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.

    We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.

    We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week.  We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.

    We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why.  We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.

    PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW

    The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 28, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Slammy Awards, MMA Weight cutting

    You can also order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer

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    Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 9, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jesse Ventura wins Minnesota Governor election, WCW trailing WWF, more
    Jesse Ventura becomes the Governor of Minnesota, WCW begins trailing WWF, ECW November to Remember recap, plus tons of news.

    TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

    Dwayne Johnson officially announced he would be at WrestleMania this year.  He said he was coming to set the all-time attendance record and make history.  Because of his filming the “Baywatch” movie, it was unclear if he could get the time off.  We had been told before it would be difficult, but not impossible, for him to wrestle on the show due to an issue related to insurance from one of the movies he’s doing but we will check if that has changed.

    Want to make mention of the sad news today of the death of Harry Simon, a longtime reader and huge fan who contributed trivia column for this site years ago.  Simon passed away on Friday due to suicide, a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had lost his father one year ago on the same day as well as another close family member and had battled depression along with other painful physical problems over the past year.  He was 40.  He used to love to tell people he thought he was the only person ever to write for both the Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling Illustrated.   Harry Simon had a wish that his friends could all get together on a date in January for a gathering.  If anyone is interested in attending the Harry Simon Memorial, please e-mail Joyce Katz at joyceworley1@cox.net  Simon was big into pro wrestling and comic books. 

    John Cena was a guest host on The Today show this morning, and will be on the show again tomorrow.   His segments are HERE and HERE

    Shinsuke Nakamura was announced today by ROH as appearing on its anniversary weekend shows on 2/26 and 2/27 in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town.  The 2/26 show, which will feature a number of New Japan stars (Kushida and Gedo have been announced, the Observer has also listed several other names) will be on PPV.

    A Wall Street Journal article on the year in review has Ronda Rousey in the headline of the story of 2015 as The Year of Ronda, The Royals and a Horse.

    RIZIN

    The press conference was held earlier today for the Rizin debut show which takes place tonight/tomorrow morning at the Saitama Super Arena.  We’ve got weigh-in weights at the top.  Sakuraba, who is 46, hasn’t won a fight since 2009, but because of his fame, is the headliner.  Another ex-pro wrestling star, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, comes out of a nearly decade in retirement.  James Thompson, his opponent, weighed in at 291 pounds.  All the fighters on both tonight’s show and the New Year’s Eve show were at the press conference except Bob Sapp and Jerome LeBanner.  Sapp is in Japan and there are no problems indicated.  The word we got is that LeBanner is not in Japan and may not be showing up at all.   LeBanner is scheduled to face Baruto on the New Year’s Eve show.  It’s something to follow up on.

    WWE

    • Paul Levesque today announced a 1/16 afternoon show at 1 p.m. for NXT in Chicago at the Portage Theater.  They had already sold the theater out for an evening show that night.  Tickets go on sale at Noon Central time on Wednesday.  They will probably go quickly.
    • Alberto Del Rio at yesterday’s show in Hartford was wearing a completely new outfit and had new ring music.  His tights were described as looking like the old Demolition tights with fake spikes and long pants.
    • Ratings won’t be out until Wednesday this week due to the holidays.  It should be noted that there is a strong NFL game tonight with the Broncos vs. the Bengals.  But WWE is loading the show up with returns of both John Cena and Vince McMahon.  It also should be the start of the build for the Royal  Rumble show.
    • WWE stock closed down 12 cents a share to $18.65 today.
    • Dwayne Johnson bought his “Uncle Tonga,” the former Haku, a truck as a Christmas present this year.

    UFC

    • FS 1 tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Eastern will have a special looking at the biggest fights of 2015.
    • Gegard Mousasi vs. Thales Leites will be the co-main event on the 2/27 Fight Pass card in London, underneath Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping.

    MISCELLANEOUS

    • Cleeng, the iPPV provider that aired, or at least tried to air the Christmas night CMLL show from Arena Mexico, has sent out a $5 coupon code for everyone who bought last week’s show so they can get this coming Friday’s show for half price. 
    • Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, Bobby Roode, Brian Myers, Karen Jarrett and Colt Cabana are announced for the GFW show on 1/22 in Poughkeepsie at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.
    • There will be a 1/17 show in Upland, CA at the Grizzly Den with The Young Bucks, Doc Gallows, Amber Gallows, Karl Anderson and Rocky Romero.
    • Lio Rush was announced for the ROH Top Prospect tournament which starts on 1/9 in Concord, NC.
    • CBS Sunday morning in a Hail and Farewell segments on celebrities who had passed away this year, listed former Roller Derby star Annis “Big Red” Jensen, although none of the major wrestling names.  They also showed 15 seconds of black and white footage of her skating.  It’s notable because while she was one of the top stars in the 50 and early 60s, the biggest Derby star ever, Charlie O’Connell, passed away a few months later and got shockingly little press, although in reality, we had a bigger story on Jensen than O’Connell, but that was because very quickly after O’Connell’s death, huge wrestling stars had passed away.
    • AAW from Saturday night in Merrionette Park, IL:  Davey Vega b Louis Lyndon to win Heritage title, Kongo Kong b Russ Jones, Heidi Lovelace & Zero Gravity b Bucky Collins & Zack Braxton & Eddie Machete, Hooligans b Shane Hollister & Markus Crane to keep the tgag titles, Tommaso Ciampa b Michael Elgin, Chris Hero b Colt Cabana (subbing for Davey Richards), Sami Callihan b AR Fox, Eddie Kingston b Ethan Page in a cage match to retain the AAW title.  Next show is 1/15 in Merrionette Park, IL with Eddie Kingston vs. Trevor Lee, plus Hero, Callihan and Abyss appearing.(thanks to Qumar Zaman)
    • Orlando Pro Wrestling from yesterday:  Josh Parker b Chris Saint, Siniestro b Derick Jordan, Cousin Earl b Gabriel Black Santana Garrett b Tammy Lynn, Mike Reed b King Tony DaBlack, King Tony DaBlack won Battle Royal (thanks to Al Haft)
    • Maryland Championship Wrestling from Saturday night in Joppa, MD:  Stockade b Rayo & Chief Homeboy RD in a handicap match, Paul Jordane & Bill Collier b Punk Rock All-Stars (Shaun Cannon & Drake Carter), Dixon Line (Rob Locke & Joe Keys) b Fed Up (C-Fed & G-Fed), Sean Studd (John’s legit son) b Fenix Fury, Oakley Woods & Bo Nekoda b Kai Katana & Sean Carr, Ethan Carter III b Brandon Scott, Lio Rush b Joey Janela, Renee Michelle b Kimber Lee to win the women’s title with Mickie James as referee, Billy Gunn b Ken Dixon to win the TV title,The Ecktourage (Eric Chapel & Dirty Money managed by Kevin Eck b Hell Cats (Jimmy Starz & Sexy Steve) in a cage match to retain the tag titles, King McBride b The Bruiser to retain the MCW title in a cage match.  Next show in four weeks features the Hardys.
    • The Buffalo News had a story today about when Gorgeous George came to the city
    • NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling on 1/16 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium

    Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/28): Sting defeats Hogan for WCW World Title

  • November 16, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: More on Ventura winning Governor election, media reaction, tons more

    There has never been a period in American wrestling history where pro wrestling has been the subject of so much mainstream media attention.

    Between the shocking victory of Jesse Ventura in the race for Governor of Minnesota, which resulted in front page coverage in newspapers around the country, and the attention pro wrestling itself is receiving due to the mainstream media discovering its popularity boom, it is virtually impossible to escape almost a total bombardment of pro wrestling articles the likes of which have never been seen before.

    The election of Ventura, a third party candidate from the Ross Perot-formed Reform Party, who had been running third, and up until the final week, a distant third, in the polls, came out on a national basis as the biggest individual election story, almost as much because of a third party political outsider beating the establishment as because of the novelty of Ventura as a former pro wrestler. Most newspapers gave significant coverage to Ventura on 11/5, many printing the New York Times front page story or localized versions of the same. The demand for Ventura skyrocketed, all the way to his appearing over the weekend on “Meet the Press,” where his comments on Bill and Hilary Clinton, in response to Hilary calling his campaign a “sideshow” and his responding that “I think that she maybe ought to not leave the White House as often as she used to

    Bad things seem to happen when she leaves,” springboarded yet another round of front page coverage nationally for Ventura on 11/9. During the show he challenged host Tim Russert to take off his shirt and show off his chest, a challenge Russert didn’t take, but clearly clever methods to get as much media stretch out of his time in the sun as well. CNN did a one hour feature on his life over the weekend, and newspapers across the country and actually around the world were preparing major features on this improbable election result that nobody saw coming. His election inspired the “Today” show to interview Vince McMahon on 11/5 about Ventura, a subject he didn’t seem all that pleased to discuss, probably because Ventura won a much publicized $1 million plus verdict over McMahon in a lawsuit several years ago, although sensing the media tide, both McMahon and Jim Ross changed their tune from days earlier by the time Monday night came around as everyone in wrestling tried to jump on the bandwagon, none more pathetically, however, than Hulk Hogan.

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