Elias Samson beat Josh Woods. Elias was the face tonight, as Woods interrupted his song about Citrus Springs. Hard hitting match. Woods has a lot of impressive wrestling ability.
Cameron beat Aliyah and Billie Kay in a triple threat match. Aliyah was the face in peril during this match against two heels. Cameron scored the pin on Aliyah after a few hope spots.
Bull Dempsey beat Angelo Dawkins. Comedy early on with Bull doing jumping jacks to annoy Dawkins. Seated splash off the top by Bull for the win.
In ring interview with Noah Kekoa, says he’s here for the people and this is his friend zone. Acting shy and naive.
Asuka and Carmella beat Alexa Bliss and Emma. Stat reaction for Asuka. Entertaining match as the faces were very over. Asuka caught Alexa with her submission for the win.
Tye Dillinger beat Tino Sabatelli. Tye was the face tonight, got worn down by Tino early on before hitting his exposed knee finish for the win.
Rich Swann and Levis Valenzuela beat Marcus Louise and Sawyer Fulton. Another great performance by Swann. After a lot of punishment by the heels, Swann made the hot tag to Levis who got the win with the windup punch.
Tucker Knight beat Axel Tischer with a butterfly suplex. Crowd was in to Knight here, a group of fans cheer for him at a lot of house shows, chanting for his silver boots and singing songs for him. Good match, a lot of hard hitting action.
The Vaudevillains beat Dash and Dawson by DQ in the main event. Back and forth match, well worked, finish came when English had hit the swanton and Dash pulled the ref out. Post match saw Enzo and Cass clear out Dash and Dawson, celebrating with the crowd to send them home happy.
Donald Haviland, better known as Hack Myers, passed away today, reportedly from complications after brain surgery at Johns Hopkins University hospital in Baltimore. He would have turned 42 on Monday.
Haviland was an independent wrestler who was brought into ECW in February, 1994, by Paul Heyman, largely as an enhancement wrestler. Because he used to grunt and say “Sha” when doing offensive maneuvers, fans in Philadelphia would start chanting “Sha” during his matches whenever he’d do something. He became a cult favorite quickly, and even though he almost always lost, he was wrestling some of the biggest names in the company at the time, like Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk, within a few months of his arrival. Eventually that led to his moniker as “The Shah of ECW.”
Heyman used him better, not as a headliner, but he was a featured undercard act who usually got a big reaction. The gimmick started running its course and he was going to leave the promotion, so he did a loser leaves town match with Too Cold Scorpio on the 1996 November to Remember show, which he lost. He did a couple of matches as a nostalgias act later, and wrestled mostly Florida independent shows through around 2011.
Big Show defeated the Ascension in a handicap match. Played to the crowd a lot. Big Show won with a double choke slam.
Miz defeated Fandango, called out anyone else and Jack Swagger beat him within 30 seconds with an ankle lock. Miz then called out anyone else and Mark Henry came out and they had a dance contest. Mark Henry surprisingly had some good moves.
Hype Bros defeated Adam Rose and Bo Dallas. Hype Bros very over with the crowd.
Goldust defeated Stardust. An okay match. Crowd chanted Cody most of the match.
Tag Team Chamionship match
New Day defeated The Dudleyz and The Lucha Dragons. Fun match, Dudleyz hit Woods with a 3D after the match was over.
Charlotte defeated Paige to retain the title.
Luke Harper defeated R Truth in a surprisingly decent back and forth match.
WWE Chamionship Match
Roman Reigns defeated Sheamus by DQ when Sheamus threw a chair at Roman’s head. Reigns hit a spear to send the crowd home happy.
The UFC is in the business of selling fights, number one. Anything earned elsewhere is gravy, but too much gravy smothers the turkey. UFC has made a variety of branding decisions that will earn them a ton of money in the short term, but it may hurt the product in the long run. I’m not the first person to point any of these things out, but it begs repeating. Choosing the Reebok brand is bad for business.
Reebok is a weak brand. The Reebok Company is most closely associated with basketball. Their famous Reebok Pump sneaker put them on the map in the 80’s, but it’s a basketball shoe. If UFC couldn’t sign Nike or Adidas, they shouldn’t have bothered with branding. It’s third tier sports apparel at best. Sure, Reebok paid the most, but Nike is number one, and so is UFC. They sold themselves short. Kids don’t want to buy Reebok stuff. It’s not cool.
Reebok created the most boring fighter wear ever. This most recent TUF episode showcased exactly why the Reebok deal is making the product lame duck. The first fight of this show featured two average looking men, both from Team Europe, both sporting crew cuts, both wearing gray trunks, and both executing some pretty average fighting skills. Not to harp on the fight, because fights can be boring, and TUF is essentially a training camp, but the fight was in no way helped by the drab gray trunks. We all know personalities sell fights. How are these guys supposed to display any uniqueness when dressed exactly the same? Not only did the UFC upset almost everyone by eliminating their ability to get sponsors, but they also took away any individuality that a fighter may have displayed via their trunks.
Reebok chose some horrible colors. Black with white, or white with black are your only uniform options as a UFC fighter. These things seriously look like the original “biker” short of the 80s. They are unflattering and worse, the same for everyone. I’m assuming they will start to expand with colors, but so far, six months into the rebranding, it’s terrible. The fighters are generic and hard to tell apart for a casual fan. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the NASCAR style trunks prior to Reebok, but a fighter’s colors are important. It’s part of the individual fighter’s brand. Fans remember colors. I loved Bret Hart because he wore pink and I thought that made him tough. I hated Cheick Kongo because he wore blue Muay Thai trunks with the silly drawstring. The point is that I remember the fighter because of the specificity of the outfit. I couldn’t pick Marcin Wrzosek out of a line-up and I’ve watched every episode of TUF 22.
The corner men are now wearing pajamas. Have you seen these outfits up close? They’re paper-thin. Remember when Lulu Lemon made those see-through yoga pants? I guess Reebok bought the template. The corner men look like they’re getting ready to go to sleep in the 20’s. All they need is one of those starched up long pointy hats.
Finally, the Reebok emblem looks like a vagina. Am I the only person who has pointed this out? I can’t be. Maybe it’s because I live with a doctor that specializes in women’s health, and thus I have a model of a vagina in my house of which to compare, but it looks exactly like one of those models I’ve seen on my kitchen table. For those of you who don’t know anatomy, it looks specifically like the uterus. The vagina is technically the canal from the external to the internal reproductive organs.
Bonus Bad Branding: NOS Energy Drink. NOS is terrible. The term “nos” was first brought into the nomenclature of Americana with the prestigious Fast and Furious movies. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel spoke the word “nos” a combined total of 457 times in that first movie. It is the energy drink most closely associated with supercharged douche bags. A few episodes ago on TUF, we saw Team USA dousing each other with NOS drinks after a victory, like the KC Royals after winning the World Series. NOS cans are displayed at every opportunity in the UFC. Yes, the UFC and the Fast and Furious franchise have a lot of crossover audience, but again NOS is a bottom of the barrel energy drink behind Monster, Rock Star, and Red Bull (probably not in that order). Not only does NOS taste terrible, but also the only people who actually drink NOS are guys who wear Axe Body Spray, and Danny Bonaduce.
UFC is trying to be the NFL with branding and selling its rights to everything. The replays are brought to you by Harley Davidson, the round is brought to you buy Bud Light, etc. Eventually, the UFC will lose its identity and instead of the NFL it will just be “football.” That’s bad.
The fight industry is based on creating stars with personality. Dressing these guys all the same is counterproductive. Even if the UFC is making big bucks on the fees, it’s not worth it. Selling the naming rights to everything is literally the definition of selling out, and that’s bad for business.
The Monday Night Raw on April 4th in Dallas, Texas, AKA the night after WrestleMania show, officially sold out immediately today. Most tickets were sold yesterday in the pre-sale, as unlike some concert promoters, WWE doesn’t restrict the pre-sale to certain limited blocks of tickets.
Upcoming Event Schedule
NEW JAPAN TAG TOURNAMENT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD FROM KOBE
Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Michael Bennett & Matt Taven
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano
Saturday has WWE house shows in Augusta, GA (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, plus Big Show, New Day, Dudleys, Charlotte and Paige), WWE in Fayetteville, NC (Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose, Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler, Rusev vs. Ryback), NXT in Citrus Springs, FL and ROH in Fort Lauderdale at the War Memorial (Jay Lethal & Donovan Dijak vs. Young Bucks, Roderick Strong vs. Delirious for TV title, Matt Sydal vs. Jay Briscoe, Bobby Fish vs. ACH, Adam Cole vs. Kenny King, Moose vs. Dalton Castle vs. Cheeseburger vs. Rhett Titus, Mark Briscoe vs. Will Ferrara plus War Machine and Kyle O’Reilly).
LIVE ON NEW JAPAN WORLD FROM NAGOYA AT 2 A.M. EASTERN AND 11 P.M. PACIFIC LATE TONIGHT
Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan & Sho Tanaka vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Ryuske Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & Yohei Komatsu
Jay White & David Finlay vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Juice Robinson vs. A.J. Styles (who is unlikely to be wrestling due to his back injury) & Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Kushida vs. Matt Taven & Michael Bennett & Gedo
Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil
Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi
Sunday has WWE in Charlotte (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, plus New Day, Dudleys, Charlotte and Paige) and in Florence, SC (Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose, Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler, Rusev vs. Ryback).
Raw will be live Monday in North Charleston, SC. Nothing special has been announced for the show.
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday in Jacksonville.
Mick Foley’s talk on WWE creative and a look at all the new moves WWE tried this week on television is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. We look at the changes WWE attempted after a week of record low ratings, as well as the fan questionnaire sent out, what can be learned from it, and why they are asking exactly the wrong people.
We also look at the strengths and weaknesses of the current WWE business, as well as why the ratings may be important, but other factors are probably more important,when it comes to WWE’s next television deal. We look at the different potential changes in the landscape look at what aspects of business are and aren’t improving, as well as WWE’s business in the big picture.
He also update the situation with A.J. Styles, and the New Japan tag team tournament with standings and notes on the tournament matches over the past week.
We also look at the TLC PPV update, more on La Sombra in WWE, questions about all the shoulder injuries, WWE security at live shows, Cena movie release, Brad Maddox firing, Maddox’s WWE history, talents WWE has shown interest in, WWE overseas tour lineup and WWE weekend live event notes and business.
We have a look at the debut of the new Rizin promotion, major announcements for the first weekend of shows, the tournament, just how big Bob Sapp vs Akebono was the first time.
We also have a story on the domestic abuse claims by the girlfriend of Tomoaki Honma, and his response.
We look at the realities of the free agency of Benson Henderson, judging of the key fights, as well as full rundown of UFC’s debut in South Korea this past week.
We’ve got notes of TNA’s canceled tour of India, notes on the death of Tommy Gilbert and El Bello Greco, along with a feature on Stan Holek, a member of two of the most decorated tag teams of the 50s and 60s, the Lisowski Brothers with Crusher and the Neilson Brothers with Art Neilson. We look at the unique reason why all of his success was as a tag team wrestler, his biggest rivals, and his 13 runs as world tag team champion.
We’ve got a feature on the retirement of Act Yasukawa and the sad reason it happened.
We’ve also got the awards ballot for the 2015 awards and information on how well Hell in a Cell did this year on PPV.
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@wrestlingobserver.com” target=”_blank”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com
For the United States, it is $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52.
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.
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. 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.
UFC’s YouTube channel has put up a lot of hype videos for next week’s three cards, including episode #1 of UFC Embedded for Thursday’s “Paige and Sage” Fight Pass card, a preview of the Embedded-branded countdown show for UFC 194, Paige Vanzant vs. Alex Chambers from UFC 191 as a free fight to hype the Fight Pass card, Robin Black’s technical breakdown of Aldo vs. McGregor for The Fight Network, and a promo pushing that the winner of Aldo-McGregor joins Ronda Rousey on the EA Sports UFC 2 cover.
WWE
A note on the Stampede Wrestling shows added to WWE Network this week: A number of people have been commenting on just how good they look. The shows were shot on film (presumably 16 millimeter) and it looks as if WWE has the original reels and got those re-scanned in HD instead of converting old transfers to standard definition video tape. That would mean that these are the first older wrestling shows available in HD. 16mm or better film is effectively higher resolution than HD, which is why old movies (as well as TV shows shot on film) look so stunning when released in HD for the first time.
WWE’s “Owen: Hart of Gold” Owen Hart set will be released this Tuesday on DVD and Blu-Ray and can be pre-ordered now. WWE released a teaser of the documentary (and “Owen Tales” rib story special features) on the network during the week.
UFC/MMA
Shooto Brasil airs on UFC Fight Pass starting at 5 pm eastern today. UFC has been pushing the fact that Michael Bisping will be doing commentary far more than any of the fighters on the card who, quite frankly, are virtual unknowns in North America. Main event is a Lightweight title bout between Ronys Torres and Wallace Lopes.
The Fight Network in Canada will air UFC 189, probably the card of the year, tomorrow at 9 pm eastern. They’ll replay it several times over the next week.
Meisha Tate had lots to say since she was shut out of a title shot in favor of Holly Holm, but now believes with Rousey’s loss to Holm it shakes up the division and she may get her title shot anyways.
If you wondered how well, or in this case how little referees are paid to work the UFC matches. Check this article out. Big John’s UFC 194 pay.
On the latest episode of the 6:05 Superpodcast, David Bixenspan and Brian Last talk about Vince Russo’s earliest days in wrestling with his radio show, the most horrifying botched spot they’ve ever seen, Ole Anderson as a Hall of Fame candidate, the real story behind the AWA Team Challenge Series, and much more.
Metro Pro Wrestling returns to the Turner Rec Center on Saturday night, December 5 with “Yoga Monster” Mike Sydal vs. The Math Magician; Tag Team Championship Elimination Match: The King Brothers (c) vs. The American Bulldogs vs. The Commission vs. Kobra Kai Dojo; Kansas Championship Match: Redwing (c) vs. Kraig Keesaman; Central States Championship Match: Ace Steel (c) vs. “Rock ‘n Roll Express’s” Ricky Morton and 60-minute Iron Man Match for the Metro Pro Championship – Jeremy Wyatt (c) vs. Mark Sterling. If Wyatt loses, he is fired!
Tyler Breeze distracts Dolph Ziggler into the ignominy of losing a match to The Miz, thus setting up a presumed rubber match between the two at TLC. Hopefully they’ll remember to give Tyler an entrance this time.
The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler by pinfall (7:13)
Tyler Breeze and Summer Rae are already at ringside as the show opens to take in this clash of the titans from the comfort of their “VIP Lounge”. Dolph was tasked with confronting the pair upon his entrance to the ring, which consisted of him standing in front of them forever and unconvincingly selling his apparent rage. At one point, he actually held both fists by his sides and shook them in anger. Maybe hit the guy, or something? I know Dolph is dumb, but those VIP ropes do not in fact create an impenetrable velvet forcefield. At least knock over their drinks again. Really lame.
“The Zig Man”, as The Ryback likes to call him, does however throw his hoodie at the gorgeous ones after referee Mike Chioda rings the bell. Summer is not impressed. What a badass.
Perfectly acceptable TV match here, albeit with a weak finish. Miz used a referee-enforced rope break to cut off Dolph’s early shine, before throwing him shoulder-first into the ringpost to start the heat. Miz continued to work the shoulder after a commercial break, prompting one loud and eager Dolph fan in the crowd to try and get a “Let’s Go Ziggler” chant going. I reckon about five people joined in.
Ziggler’s comeback begins with a dropkick to counter a Miz flying nothing. This leads us quickly into a pretty decent near-falls exchange, ending with Dolph hitting a Fame Asser for two, after a second failed Skull Crushing Finale attempt from Miz.
Miz rolls out of the ring after this near-miss to collect himself. Dolph goes to fetch his opponent, but gets distracted by Tyler upon re-entry, allowing Miz to kick him and finally hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. Looks like we’re getting the Dolph/Tyler rubber match at TLC.
Sasha Banks w/Naomi and Tamina defeated Alicia Fox w/Brie Bella by submission (2:55)
Continuing the enthrallingly one-sided gang warfare between these two factions. Fox lost to Naomi thanks to a distraction finish a fortnight ago on this very show, while Sasha triumphed over Brie in similar circumstances on RAW. The story, in other words, is that Team BAD is using the numbers game to their advantage, in the absence of the Bellas’ “fearless” leader, Nikki.
Fox, for the record, works babyface again here, as did Brie on Monday night. Naomi distracted Lil’ Naitch early, allowing Tamina to superkick Alicia in the head from the outside – Foxy’s incredible sixhead providing her with a, quite frankly, unmissable target.
Briefest of brief comebacks from the honorary Bella, culminating in a sloppy tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Naomi tries the distraction again, but Sasha’s attempt at the always devastating schoolboy fails.
Alicia then voluntarily distracts herself, booting Tamina off the apron, before attempting a bodyslam and getting backcracked and Bank Statement-ed for the submission. Super-short, awkwardly worked match, that only existed to further drive home the aforementioned storyline. Such as it is.
Ryback defeated Bo Dallas by pinfall (4:11)
Bo gets fatter every time I see him now. Which is mercifully rarely. Tom Phillips makes reference to this in the most awkward way possible, segueing from talking about how poor Bo is at making friends in the WWE with the line: “He’s the type of guy who goes to the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory by himself.” What!?
Byron then goes on to speculate that Bo may have thought there was “inspiration in chocolate”, to which Tom replies “It shows!” I always regret the fleeting moments when I don’t tune these two geeks out.
Ryback misses a big (guy) splash early, allowing Bo to hit a DDT. Although Ryback’s kickout sends Bo flying right out of the ring, he still treats us to a victory lap anyway. So much jiggle.
“Flyback” (thanks, Byron) hits a missile dropkick, followed by a delayed vertical. He signals for the Meathook, but Bo rolls to the ropes to escape. Ryback rushes him and becomes the second of three babyfaces on this show to pay for it with an ensuing heat segment. Top work, road agents.
Bo’s heat is dull and uninspiring as always, which he tries to mask by screaming at the crowd and at his fallen foe. He yells at Ryback: “ARE YOU HUNGRY!?” Ryback promptly responds with a Shellshock for the pinfall victory.
– We get a recap of the main event storyline from RAW, climaxing with the newly-formed League of Nations standing tall at the show’s close.
Titus O’Neil defeated Stardust by pinfall (5:46)
Fortunately, Darren Young is not on commentary for this highly-anticipated rematch of last week’s countout win for The Big Deal. Tom, by the way, refers to this as the night’s “featured contest” on more than one occasion. Okay. I guess calling it the main event would be a bit Russian doll-y.
Shine for Titus to start with, consisting of a slam and – you guessed it – forehand chops in the corner aplenty!
Stardust then becomes heel #3 to take advantage of a rope break to kick off the heat segment of the match. He intersperses some hissing – and a cartwheel, at one point – to interrupt the tedium.
Titus blocks an attempted punch to spur his comeback, which he performs with Stardust’s silver paint all over one side of his bald dome, before hitting the Clash of the Titus for the win.
Final Thoughts
A second “featured contest” in three weeks for Titus. Unfortunately for him, both took place on Main Event. And he’s not getting any better as a worker.
This was an unremarkable show really, capped by a decent Dolph/Miz opener that was unfortunately marred by yet another distraction finish. At least it served a purpose in storyline however, as we look set to get a third singles match between Ziggler and Breeze at the TLC PPV. The result of that match, if it goes down, will tell us a lot about Tyler’s future career trajectory.
St. Louis, Missouri: – Man Mountain Dean beat Ernie Dusek – Gus Sonnenberg beat Tiny Roebuck – Joe Dusek and Paul Jones wrestled to a draw – Ernie Zeller beat Jules Strongbow – Emil Dusek beat Hank Metheny
1940
Kansas City, Kansas: – Orville Brown and Lee Wykoff wrestled to a 1-1 draw – Steve Brody beat Jimmy Coffield in 2 out of 3 falls – Andy Mexiner defeated Jack Hader dq – Ray Schwartz beat Sammy Feeback
1965
Omaha, Nebraska: – AWA Champion Mad Dog Vachon beat Don Jardine (The Spoiler) – Mongolian Stomper beat Harley Race – George Drake beat Frisco Montana – Pampero Firpo beat Ivan Kalmikoff dq
1970
St. Louis, Missouri: – Terry Funk won a 15-man Battle Royal – Rocky Johnson & Dick the Bruiser defeated Nick Bockwinkel & Blackjack Lanza by disqualification – Terry Funk defeated Stan Stasiak – Pat O’Connor pinned Lord Alfred Hayes – Ox Baker pinned Les Thornton – Bob Brown pinned Bob Backlund – Jerry Oates and Khosrow Vaziri defeated Tank Patton & Johnny Starr
1976
Green Bay, Wisconsin: – The Crusher beat Mad Dog Vachon – Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Pierre Poisson & Moose Morowski – Baron Von Raschke beat Billy Francis dq – Peter Maivia beat Blackjack Lanza – Pedro Morales beat Roger Kirby
1977
Memphis, Tennessee: – Bill Dundee & Norvell Austin defeated Dennis Condrey & Phil Hickerson to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Titles – Jerry Lawler defeated Jimmy Valiant for the AWA Southern Heavyweight Title
1984
Osaka, Japan: – Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdock beat Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami to win the NJ MSG Tag League tournament
1988
Memphis, Tennessee: – AWA Champion Jerry Lawler beat Jimmy Garvin dq – World Class Light Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett beat Eric Embry – Samoan Swat Team beat Michael Hayes & Ricky Morton – Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden beat Bill Dundee & Wendell Cooley – Steve Cox beat Texas Champion Iceman King Parsons – CWA Champion Brian Lee beat Don Bass – Sid Vicious beat Scott Steiner – The Beast beat Alan Reynolds – RPMs beat Ken Raper & Todd Morton
1997
Tokyo, Japan: – Toshio Kawada & Akira Taue defeated Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama to win the AJ Real World tag tournament
2004
Orlando, Florida: – Chris Harris & James Storm defeated Elix Skipper & Christopher Daniels in a steel cage – Eric Young & Bobby Roode defeated BG James & Ron Killings to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship
2014
Tijuana, Mexico: – Atlantis defeatd Negro Casas to win the WWA Jr Lightheavyweight title – Bestia 666 & Damian 666 defeated Rayman & Rey Horus to win the tag title – Lady Apache beat Datura to win the Women’s title
New Japan Pro Wrestling today reported that A.J. Styles is officially off the rest of the current tour due to his herniated disc in his lower back.
It was reported in Japan that he has returned home to Gainesville, GA. At the show earlier today in Kobe, the company officially announced him as off the rest of the tour, while up until this point they had been acting as through the injury was a day-to-day thing.
ROH officials are hopeful that Styles will be ready on 12/18 for his title match with Jay Lethal on the Final Battle PPV.
New Japan announced today that Styles would return on 1/4 for his Tokyo Dome match with Shinsuke Nakamura.
New Japan likely had to re-book several B block matches to get to the ending that they wanted.
The final night of the round-robin tournament is tonight in Nagoya which airs live on New Japan World starting at 2 a.m. Eastern time. We will have live coverage of the show on the site.
The winner of the A block faces the winner of the B block on 12/9 in Sendai.
Currently, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin are “in the clubhouse” finishing with a 4-2 record and in first place in the A block. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma face Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi with both teams having 3-2 records. If Okada & Yoshi-Hashi win, then Tanahashi & Elgin go to the finals since they won the head-to-head match on 11/21 in Tokyo. If Makabe & Honma win, they go to the finals based on beating Tanahashi & Elgin on 11/27 in Hiroshima.
In the B block, both Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito & Evil have 4-1 records, and by the strangest of coincidences, they are wrestling tonight. So the winner of that match goes to the finals.
– Samoa Joe and Bayley were advertised but didn’t appear. – Return date is January 29.
1. Levis Valenzula Jr. def. Angelo Dawkins with a knockout punch. Some comedy with Valenzula dancing while applying a headlock and Dawkins losing his headbands.
2. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan def. The Vaudevillans when they hit their finisher on English. Jordan has a towel that says “CALL ME JAY JAY” to go along with Gable’s. Vaudevillans were working as the heels. Great hot tag spot to Jordan where he cleaned house with a t-bone suplex and a belly to belly.
3. Nia Jax def. Daria the Jersey Devil (from Tough Enough). Daria was dressed as an MMA fighter. Nice hope spot where Daria got a triangle on but Nia power bombed her out of it. Total squash otherwise. Nia cut a promo on Bayley afterwards.
4. Hugo Knox def. Tino Sabatelli. Knox is huge but can move. He hit a jumping enziguri and a split leg moonsault off the top for the win.
5. Bull Dempsey def. Sawyer Fulton. Tons of comedy. Bull had a Santa hat and Fulton stomped on it for heat. The story was Bull couldn’t slam him all match, but after a hulk up, he slammed him and hit the Whoopie cushion.
6. Asuka and Carmella def. Emma and Alexa Bliss. Asuka got Bliss with the chicken wing on a roll-up reversal. Asuka got a star reaction.
7. Apollo Crews def. Noah (Kekoa). Quick match.
8. Cameron def. Peyton Royce with some sort of neckbreaker. Not a lot of heat on Cameron for someone who was on the main roster for so long.
9. Finn Balor, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady def. Tye Dillenger, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. Long heat segment on Enzo. Dash and Dawson have become great tag workers. They should have a great match at Takeover. Balor won with the foot stomp on Dillenger. Match of the night by far.
Three more matches in the World Tag League took place early on December 4 in Kagawa. Only a few more days until the World Tag League finals, and two shows away from deciding the finals. Every match is becoming more important as we wind this tournament down!
Block A: Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata vs. Kazarian and Daniels
There wasn’t a lot to this match, and most of it was just dull. Nagata worked on Daniels for a very long time. Addiction made a brief comeback after Nakanishi was tagged in. Daniels shoved Nakanishi to the floor then used the ropes to pin Nagata.
Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin vs. Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale
Fine match but it felt like it dragged on a bit. Elgin and Fale did a lot of big guy power spots. Elgin and Tanahashi made their comeback but Fale and Tonga made a comeback. They isolated Elgin but he made comeback until getting cut off by a Fale lariat. Then in somewhat of a surprise, Fale pinned Elgin after a spear and a lariat combo.
Block B: Tomohiro Ishii and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tencozy
A lot of back and forth. Good stuff for the most part, but at this stage of the tournament it’s all been done. Some good double team maneuvers towards the end of the match though by Ishii and Nakamura. Ishii tried to whip Nakamura into Kojima but he dodged and hit a lariat on Ishii. Nakamura rebounded and hit a tope rope boma ye, then followed with another for the win.
