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  • A look at WWE TLC 2012: Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena for the MITB contract

    This week…

    TLC 4: December 16, 2012, Brooklyn, New York, Barclays Center

    This was the first WWE show ever at the Barclays Center. Cole, Lawler and JBL on the sticks. 

    – Dark Match:  JTG defeated David Otunga in a singles match

    – Pre-show Match: Naomi won the Santa’s Little Helper battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship, by eliminating Kaitlyn last

    Main:

    – Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio vs. Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damian Sandow) in a tables match to become the number one contenders to the tag team championship

    • How did they drop the ball on this team?  I love the Rhodes Scholars!
    • Only one member of the team has to go through the table.
    • King made a joke about manila envelopes that legit got Cole to crack.
    • Sandow has to be on that post Wrestlemania clearinghouse list with Alex Riley.
    • Fun match with some nice flying spots and a pretty sick bump for the finish.
    • Cody shoved Sin Cara off the top rope and it launched him through the table outside the ring.
    • Then Sandow did a cartwheel.  Why did they break up?  Why are we being punished with Stardust?

    – Antonio Cesaro (c) vs. R Truth for the WWE U.S. Championship

    • Cesaro’s old music was terrible.
    • I’ve heard that R Truth is Vince’s favorite wrestler.  How?
    • I’m glad Cesaro stopped wearing the weird leg wraps.
    • Cole with some accusations that JBL hides money in Swiss banks.  Then JBL corrected him and said his money was actually hidden in the Cayman Islands.  IRS, are you listening? 
    • Cesaro apparently has a real broken hand during this match. 
    • Is Little Jimmy still around? 
    • Cesaro wins with the Neutralizer.
    • Stryker then got in the ring and asked Cesaro what he thought about the crowd booing him?  Cesaro said he was the greatest U.S. Champion, which he may have been, until this last John Cena U.S. Championship Open run.

    Ugh, then we got a bunch of “Touts.”  Remember those awful things?  WWE kills everything it touches. 

    Josh Matthews interviews Dolph Ziggler about illegality, then Dolph says he will be the biggest star in 2013, and he will end John Cena’s career.

    Then the Miz is introduced and comes to the ring for a Miz TV segment.  I love all WWE in ring TV shows.  It’s hilarious to me that they put seats and couches in the ring on a red carpet.  I now hate this show, as he brought out Three Man Band.  I change my mind.  I love it again.  3MB claims they are better than Jay Z.  I’d agree.  Miz’s zingers must have been written by 6th graders.  Then 3MB does a rather racist angle by calling out the Spanish announce team and running them down for not speaking English.  Ricardo comes to the rescue but starts to get bullied, until Del Rio makes the save.  Finally, Miz and Del Rio clean house to save the Mexicans.  So it’s going to be Miz and Del Rio and a partner of their choice to take on 3MB later. 

    Now we see Kane and Daniel Bryan backstage as Team Hell No.  Short hair and medium beard Bryan seems so odd now.  They get hyped to take on The Shield later.

    Now Stryker interviews Wade Barrett.  I guess we’d seen too much wrestling in a row and needed five talking segments.

    Wade Barrett vs. Kofi Kingston (c) for the Intercontinental Championship, a.k.a. The Kiss of Death Championship

    • Wade is on a winning streak coming into this match.  Must have been nice.
    • Remember when the IC title made you the number one contender to the World title?  Which makes Kevin Owens next in line.  I’m fine with that.
    • Kofi beat Wade after an average match and a Trouble in Paradise kick.

    We now see CM Punk in a skybox with Paul Heyman.  Punk is on crutches.  He’s giving us a status update on his knee.  He’s wearing his Knees 2 Faces shirt, as he runs down Brooklyn and calls them dumb.  Hey now, words hurt too.  He then runs down Ryback, and reminds us that he is a fan of The Shield but not involved with them and that he’s the longest reigning WWE champion of the modern era.  Day 392.

    Ryback and Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) vs. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins) in the first ever six-man TLC tag match

    • Since no belts are hanging, this is basically just a weapons match. 
    • Poor Reigns is still having to do that dumb crowd entrance.
    • It starts in a big brawl. 
    • A lot of mainly ladder smashing spots.  Why would you ever climb in this match?  But… I’ll bet that happens anyway.
    • Ryback was going for a double shell shock.  I hope he gets it later.  Now it’s isolation on Ryback.
    • Reigns screams at the Spanish announce team.  Poor fellas.  Their table is about to get broken.  Triple power bomb by The Shield on Ryback through the table. 
    • The Shield is laying waste to all three guys with some interesting table stuff.
    • Ambrose took a choke slam through a chair, which looked like it sucked.
    • Reigns speared Kane through the barricade.  The timekeeper looked terrified. 
    • WWE rule number 2:  Don’t go for a belly to back suplex on Daniel Bryan.  He will back flip out of it. 
    • “This is Awesome,” chants for a match with Ryback, after, of course, the “Goldberg” chants.
    • I think Tim Kennedy could beat Ryback. 
    • This match is still going on.  The Shield is beating Ryback with chairs out on the ramp. 
    • Yep, Seth is climbing a ladder!  Ryback is climbing after him.  Ryback tossed him off the ladder through the double table stack.
    • Daniel Bryan was pinned by Reigns after a power bomb off the top turnbuckle through a table.
    • Fun match!

    Eve Torres vs. Naomi in a singles match for the WWE Divas Championship

    • Eve won with the neck breaker.  Then her husband told Ronda Rousey she was doing great after round one.  Great career advice.

    Big Show (c) vs. Sheamus for the World Championship in a chairs match

    • I really hope they cancel the chairs match this year. 
    • Chair shots are legal, but we’re supposed to believe that neither man has the desire to hit his hated rival in the head with one. 
    • Big Show Choke Slammed Seamus, but Seamus kicked out so Big Show went out and threw in 10 more chairs, because that will help.
    • Seamus hit White Noise on to some chairs, but Show kicked out.
    • Knock Out Punch by Show, and Seamus kicked out.  Big Show’s finish is a punch.  A punch!  Why doesn’t he win every match?
    • Big Show pulls out a monster-sized folding chair!  What?  Hilarious!  He hit Sheamus with the really large folding chair for the pin.  Why would that be under the ring?  Why would it exist?

    John Cena is backstage throwing air punches and AJ Lee walks up in a Cena shirt, which she cut to look girly.  Cena told her he was going to beat Dolph. 

    Three Man Band vs. Miz, Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez), and the Brooklyn Brawler

    • The air guitar playing by 3MB pales in comparison to the air guitar played by the New Day.
    • Del Rio rolls out in his Lamborghini.  The person in the room watching with me just proclaimed, “This is really stupid.” 
    • Then the Brooklyn Brawler came out.  He was wearing a number 8, Deron Williams, Brooklyn Nets NBA Jersey. 
    • Heat on Brawler as the announcers just name old wrestlers with dumb gimmicks.
    • Miz hits the Skull Crushing Finale on Jinder Mahal then Brawler put him in the Brooklyn crab for the submission win.

    John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler in a ladder match for the Money in the Bank contract

    • Dolph was putting a sleeper on Cena and Cena still climbed the ladder until Cena fell and put both of them through a table.
    • WWE rule 3:  Tables are allowed in ladder matches.  But not chairs.  We mean it.
    • Cena lifted a ladder with Ziggler on it, onto his shoulders.  Really cool spot.
    • JBL is vehemently opposed to this match, as it’s unfair to Dolph, somehow. 
    • Zig Zag on Cena.
    • Cena was busted hard way. 
    • Dolph must have gotten my memo on ladder climbing speed.  Cena did not.
    • JBL spouts out some stats about Ziggler’s amateur wrestling credentials, and Cole said that those don’t matter.  Noted.
    • Wait, chairs are legal after all.  So WWE Rule 4 is now: All ladder matches are TLC matches.
    • Vicki runs down and gets a chair to hit Cena, but AJ runs in and makes the save.  She bumps Vicki then does the “You Can’t See Me,” then Cena starts to climb the ladder and AJ turns on Cena and shoves over the ladder.  Dolph super kicks him and climbs the ladder and wins back his brief case.
    • Great finish.  Great match actually. 
    • The crowd went nuts on the AJ turn and on the Dolph win. 

    Great show.  Well worth watching.  It’s now number one on the list, which is now 4,3,1,2.

  • MMA Weekend Ratings: UFC down, Bellator steady, WSOF way down

    This past weekend saw televised shows from the big three MMA organizations in North America with differering results.

    UFC — 

    UFC Fight Night 78 from Mexico featuring Kelvin Gastelum vs. Neil Magny in the main event did a below average 750,000 viewers for Fox Sports One for the main card, but a well above average 732,000 viewers for the four fight prelims show that was also on FS1.

    The show wouldn’t have been expected to do a great rating with the main event, especially with Magny replacing the popular Matt Brown who was injured in the lead-in to the event. Additionally, the TUF Latin American 2 final matches were on the main card featuring 4 completely unknown fighters to the US audience since that series only aired on UFC Fight Pass in the US.

    The year to date average for UFC Fight Nights on FS 1 now stands at just under 908,000 viewers, so Saturday’s show was 17% below that average. However, that number is still 9.5% higher than the 2014 average of just under 829,000 viewers.

    Better news for UFC was the continued trend of the FS 1 prelims doing well above average. The 732,000 viewers for that show were 23% higher than the year-to-date average of 595,000 viewers. That number is also up 9.3% from the 2014 average of 544,000. The prelims bouts had an unofficial “Mexico vs the World” theme with the biggest name on that portion of the show being longtime UFC/WEC fighter Scott Jorgensen, a loser to Alejandro Perez.

    This week’s numbers was down significantly from the 903,000 viewers for UFC Fight Night 57 one year ago this weekend. That show had a much bigger main event with Frankie Edgar vs Cub Swanson. The prelims for that show were also slightly higher at 777,000 viewers with veteran Yves Edwards being the biggest name.

    Bellator —

    Bellator 146 on Spike TV was right at its year to date average for regular Friday night shows with 650,000 viewers. Headlined by Melvin Manhoef vs Hisako Kato, the show was virtually identical to the year to date average of 656,000 viewers. It was also up 19% from the most recent non-“tentpole” show in October which did 555,000 viewers. The year to date average is down 3.5% from last year’s 676,000 viewers. There is no similar show from last year to compare to as Bellator took an extended break after the Bellator 131 show with Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar.

    WSOF —

    WSOF on NBC Sports Network did a disappointing 148,000 viewers for an event featuring a one night lightweight tournament for a title shot in 2016. The 25th show in company history had its lowest viewership total since 96,000 viewers watched WSOF Canada on Feb 21, 2014. It was their third lowest total in their run on NBC Sports Network.

    Although the show was advertised around the lightweight tourney, there was only one fight actually announced ahead of time featuring former Strikeforce fighter Jason High vs Estevan Payan. The 148,000 viewers for the show is 23% lower than the year-to-date average of 192,000. The 2015 average is down 11% from the 2014 average of 216,000 viewers.

    Despite the steady numbers for Bellator and the gradually rising UFC numbers, there has been a steady decline for World Series of Fighting that traces back to their high water point when almost a million viewers tuned in to their one and only live card on the main NBC network in July of 2014.

  • Daily Update: Mick Foley frustrated with WWE, Solomon Crowe out at NXT

    In today’s update, the WWE’s decisions of late have a lot of fans scratching their head including Mick Foley, Jonathan Coachman continues to defend his statements on Twitter, Jon Jones breaks his media silence, and Solomon Crowe is now a former NXT talent.

    Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on tonight in Indianapolis.  Please send your reports to NEWSTIPS

    FEEDBACK AND REPORT REQUESTS

    We’re looking for live  Raw reports tonight from Nashville as well, with Superstars matches, dark matches and anything else that wouldn’t be evident from the live show.  We’re also looking for reports on last night’s Lucha Underground tapings as well as the NXT shows this weekend from Venice and Fort Pierce, FL at Dave Meltzer

    Figure Four Weekly

    Figure Four Weekly (11/16/15): Rey Mysterio vs. Low-Ki and The Anatomy of a Dream Match
    A road report for Jersey All-Pro Wrestling’s 19th Anniversary show takes a deep look at the latest match in Rey Mysterio’s dream match tour vs. Low-Ki.

    Wrestling Observer Newsletter

    We have one of the biggest issues of the year, with such a huge news week this past week.  We look at exactly what went into Holly Holm’s victory over Ronda Rousey, a story on the life and times of Nick Bockwinkel, the Reid Flair angle and build to Survivor Series, Destination America dropping wrestling, and the 104-year-old attendance record being broken, as well as the story behind the firing of Billy Gunn, an update on The Rock at WrestleMania, La Sombra to WWE, the AAA world title gets decided and a lot more are headline stories in the new double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter which is on the site right now.

    If you have an interest in history, this is a huge issue, as well as a perspective on what happened in the most talked about UFC fight in history.

    We look at the fight, the background of Holly Holm, what is going on in Rousey’s life, what led to the upset, thoughts on a rematch, what it means for business, the early business notes on the fight including where PPV may come in, previous fights like this, and what happened after the fight. We look at UFC’s biggest upsets, the gambling perspective, rematch odds, business notes and match-by-match coverage with poll results.

    The life and times of Nick Bockwinkel is one of the best bios we’ve done, with comments from people whose careers he has touched, my own personal thoughts on Bockwinkel, what current WWE superstar had his career path changed greatly because of a suggestion by Bockwinkel to an independent promoter, a look at his life, his career, some of his most famous matches, his career title history, the controversy over Hulk Hogan not getting the AWA title, his place in the business when it changed and life after wrestling.

    We also look at the Reid Fliehr angle, how it was set up, comments by Ric Flair, how ESPN got exposed in its wrestling coverage, the Owen Hart DVD and more.

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

    The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: November 23, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Holm defeats Rousey, Nick Bockwinkel passes away, more

    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

    You can also order print issues at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

    Rates are:

    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.

    Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

    TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

    • Here’s an hour-long MMA Fighting interview where Ariel Helwani interviews former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones about everything that has gone on in his life in the past year, the hit-and-run, arrest, and more. This is Jones’ first interview since everything went down this year.
    • Solomon Crowe is no longer with NXT.  According to one person very close to the situation, “He left on his own terms.”  They hadn’t done much with him at all during his entire run there.  They had a hacker gimmick for him, and I’m told there were actually a lot of really cool ideas that were bandied about, but WWE went with the most absolute basic, simplistic hacker gimmick that didn’t get over at all and the rest is history.
    • Dave Meltzer will be a guest on the Ross Report tonight at 9PM ET.  

    WWE:

    • Jonathan Coachman is denying that WWE’s Sportscenter segment is a time buy. Coachman also had a classic line that he’s been defending himself on about how there weren’t any wrestling insiders who had ever taken a bump.
    • Former WWE Champion Mick Foley said that he’s tired of being told as a WWE viewer that his favorites don’t matter and that he can “get used to watching football on Monday nights.” We’re guessing he might not doing his usual Santa Claus appearance there this holiday season.
    • Tonight’s Smackdown will be a Thanksgiving-themed episode of the show.  You know, the Divas in Pilgrim costumes and the like.  All the things that make it so easy to take the Diva’s Revolution seriously.
    • WESH TV in Orlando put up the video of the WWE Performance Center shooting from several months ago.  It’s not much.  Well, aside from Armando Alejandro Montalvo being shot, though that seems to take place behind a police car.  The first 15 minutes is him standing outside the Performance Center acting all crazy and trying to get inside.  He does, in fact, rush the cops prior to being shot.  He survived and is out of both the hospital and jail on bond, and will go to trial in February 2016.  He is pleading not guilty to charges of resisting arrest, trespassing and aggravated assault on a police officer.
    • 2K Sports released the New Moves Pack downloadable content for WWE 2K16 today and there’s a trailer to promote it. It includes new moves for Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Nikki Bella, and more. Bryan & Vinny & Craig will be giving away two copies of WWE2K16 on the show tonight.  Subscribers have access to pretty regular contests with great prizes.
    • WrestlingDVDNetwork reported that the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set will include a CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno dark match from 2012. The set comes out on March 8, 2016.
    • In spite of what Road Dogg says, WWE is not making record profits this year.

    MMA

    Other Wrestling:

  • Ratings for WWE RAW disastrous, lowest in almost 20 years

    There is no way to spin the Monday, 11/23 WWE Raw ratings other than that they were a disaster.

    The show did 2.95 million viewers, more than 200,000 viewers lower than what had previously been the non-holiday low dating back to 1997 when Raw was losing badly to WCW Monday Nitro.

    Part of the reason was the NFL’s Monday night game featuring the New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills that did 14.26 million viewers, which is about two million more than football has been doing in recent weeks but nowhere near a record.

    It is the first time Raw averaged less than three million viewers since 1997.

    To make matters worse, this was the day after the Survivor Series event where the WWE heavyweight title changed hands, which usually would lead to at least a strong first hour. In case you needed to be reminded, Sheamus now holds the gold after cashing in his MITB briefcase against five minute champion Roman Reigns.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.19 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 2.99 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.71 million viewers

    Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discuss last night’s WWE Raw on Wrestling Observer Radio.

  • Scott Hudson: “Michael Cole sucks” & “JBL is terrible”

    Former WCW & TNA commentator Scott Hudson didn’t hold back in a two-hour conversation with IYH Wrestling Radio, unloading on current WWE announcers, the failed Invasion angle, and the recent Reid Flair death mention in an angle with Charlotte and Paige.

    Excerpts provided by IYH’s Vic Vic Schiavone with the full interview available here:

    – On the current state of wrestling commentary:

    “Well first, Michael Cole sucks. That guy couldn’t call a one-horse race. Unfortunately, the best announcer they have on RAW is Byron Saxton, and they don’t let him show his stuff. JBL…he’s terrible, he’s horrible…They don’t know what to do, but then again I’ll give Cole at least a little bit of credit in that he’s doing what he’s told. If he wasn’t doing what he was told, he would be working for Joey Styles at the dot com office. And that’s sad, is that they’ve got the best announcer in the last twenty years on staff not announcing. The guy for New Japan, Mauro Ranallo, he’s the best announcer in wrestling and it’s not even close. He’s fantastic. The guys on Ring of Honor, Kevin Kelly and the rest of that bunch, they’re good, too. But the announcing on basically every WWE product across platforms is atrocious.

    I’ve gotta say this, I’m a huge mark for The King (Jerry Lawler); he could read things out of the phone book and I would listen. So I love The King, take him out of that equation, otherwise the announcers there are worthless. But, to their everlasting credit, they’re doing what they’re told. And Vince (McMahon) is happy as a clam, watching ratings…and viewership and everything else and gimmick sales go right in the tank.”

    – On the WWE Invasion angle:

    “Keep this in mind…when they bought us out, should there ever have been a bigger angle than the Invasion Angle? Because you had ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) thrown in there, too…That angle, start to finish, should still be going today, fourteen years later. And the problem is one person’s fault, and that’s Vince McMahon. He would not in his dying breath put over a WCW talent or an ECW talent. Now…some guys got over in spite of Vince trying to bury them, but Vince’s whole idea was to bury both companies. It wasn’t to make money by saying “Oh my God, this is WCW vs. WWE vs. ECW”, it was “This is WWE, stop. WCW and ECW guys are job guys.” That’s all he wanted, that’s all he saw, and he did not care that he was sitting on a 20-million dollar profit. He was comfortable with a 2-million dollar profit because he got to bury WCW and ECW.”

    – On the current state of wrestling:

    “Actually I like all the guys in The Shield, the Wyatt Family guys are entertaining to watch, but the guys out there now, to bring this whole show full circle, it’s all promos. When we had WCW, we had the Power Plant and we brought in the bunch called The Natural Born Thrillers ((Chuck) Palumbo, (Mark) Jindrak, (Shawn) Stasiak, Reno, Mike Sanders). All those guys, with the exception of Sanders, they were all horrible promos. I mean, terrible. But they were great athletes…I mean you go back and watch that stuff they were incredible workers, but they couldn’t cut a promo if you had a gun to their head…And it’s like The Natural Born Thrillers are now the entire roster of the WWE top to bottom: great looking guys, average to fantastic workers, no promo ability; none. I think I mentioned on some discussion the other night that I had online that listening to Roman Reigns cut a promo has all the fire of a Dr. Ben Carson haiku reading. And that’s probably being kind to both of them.”

    – On using Reid Flair’s death as part of an angle:

    “Well, there’s been so much made of that from Monday night with Charlotte and Paige, but…has the death of Ric Flair’s son ever been used in an angle before? No. But has something as disgusting because it’s real been used in a promotional angle before? Sure…Katie Vick…Hunter accused Kane of murdering and I guess burying a high-school cheerleader…That obviously wasn’t real, but that’s disgusting. And there have been other disgusting things like Blackjack Mulligan’s heart attack…there was a David and Mike Von Erich memorial parade of champions…they named the show after the two dead guys, much less invoking the name of Reid Flair Mondaynight on RAW. The fact that it’s raising so many eyebrows means that wrestling might have actually not had to resort to that level of angle to get stuff over for so long that this seems so disgusting when in the whole course of history it has been lapped several times in the disgusting category.”

  • Daily Pro Wrestling History (11/24): 1st Starrcade & tons of Thanksgiving day shows

    1938 

    Mexico City, Mexico:
    – Sammy Stein defeated Lobo Negro for the World Lightweight Title

    1950 

    Atlanta, Georiga:
    – Lord Finis Hall defeated Jack Kennedy to win the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title

    1952 

    Huntington, West Virginia:
    – Ed Francis defeated Joe Scarpello to win the Midwest Wrestling Association Junior Heavyweight Title 

    1956

    Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
    – Nicoli & Boris Volkoff defeated Reggie & Stan Lisowski to win the Chicago version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles

    1960

    Amarillo, Texas:
    – Nikita Mulkovich won the Amarillo version of the NWA North American Heavyweight Title from Pancho Lopez 

    St. Paul, Minnesota:
    – AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Gene Kiniski
    – Joe Scarpello beat Aldo Bogni
    – Bob Rasmussen drew Larry Hennig

    1961 

    Calgary, Alberta, Canada:
    – Tiny Mills & Jack Daniels won a tournament to win the Stampede International Tag Team Titles 

    1965

    Osaka, Japan:
    – Giant Baba defeated Dick the Bruiser to win the vacant NWA International Heavyweight Title

    Mobile, Alabama:
    – The Mysterious Medics defeated Ken and Chris Lucas to win the Gulf Coast version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Title 

    Tampa, Florida:
    – Hiro Matsuda & Dick Steinborn defeated Kurt & Skull Von Stroheim for the Florida version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles

    1966

    Minneapolis, Minnesota: Thanksgiving card attendance was 7,462
    – The Alaskan & Big K beat Larry Hennig & Harley Race
    – Killer Kowalski won 14 man battle royal
    – Billy Red Cloud drew Reggie Parks
    – Killer Kowalski beat Doug Gilbert
    – Verne Gagne beat Steve Druk
    – Jim Raschke (Baron Von Raschke) beat Blackjack Daniels

    1970

    Macon, Georgia:
    – Bob Armstrong & Paul DeMarco defeated Buddy Colt and Skandor Akbar to win the NWA Macon Tag Team Titles

    1972

    St. Joseph, Missouri:
    – Omar Atlas defeated Harley Race for the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title 

    1975 

    Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:
    – Pat & Mike Kelly defeated Dale Lewis and Siegfried Steinke for the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Titles

    1979 

    Shreveport, Louisiana:
    – The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes) defeated Bill Watts & Buck Robley for the Mid-South Tag Team Titles

    St. Petersburg, Florida:
    – Bad Leroy Brown defeated Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young) to win the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title 

    Bayamon, Puerto Rico:
    – Invaders I & II won the WWC Tag Team Title, defeating Terry and Dory Funk, Jr. 
    – Dick Steinborn won the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Title by defeating Jose Rivera

    1980

    Greenville, North Carolina:
    – Ric Flair defeated Greg Valentine to win the Toronto version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title

    Memphis, Tennessee:
    – Guy Mitchell & Roger Kirby defeated Ken Lucas & Ricky Morton to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Titles

    1983 (Thanksgiving Day)

    Dallas, Texas:
    – Chris Adams defeated Jimmy Garvin to win the WCCW American Heavyweight Title 

    Greensboro, North Carolina: (First Starrcade)
    – Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood defeated Jack & Jerry Brisco in a No DQ match to win the NWA World Tag Team Title 
    – Ric Flair defeated Harley Race in a Steel Cage match to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title
    – Roddy Piper defeated Greg Valentine in a Dog Collar Chain match

    Minneapolis, Minnesota: Attendance 13,162
    – AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Mad Dog Vachon by dq (Special Referee: Ray Stevens)
    – Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell dq
    – Rick Martel drew David Shults
    – Brad Rheingans double count out Mr Saito
    – Superstar Billy Graham beat Buck Zumhofe
    – Billy Robinson beat Bill White

    1988 (Thanksgiving Day)

    Jackson, Tennessee:
    – Jeff Jarrett defeated Eric Embry to win the WCWA Light Heavyweight Title 
    – AWA Champion Jerry Lawler beat Kerry Von Erich

    Carolina, Puerto Rico:
    – Ron Garvin defeated Carlos Colon for the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Title
    – Ricky Santana defeated Bobby Jaggers for the WWC Puerto Rican Heavyweight Title

    Atlanta, Georgia:
    – Ivan & Nikita Koloff defeated the Russian Assassins in a chain match
    – Dusty Rhodes & Bam Bam Bigelow defeated NWA World Champion Ric Flair & NWA U.S. Champion Barry Windham via disqualification
    – Sting & Lex Luger fought NWA Tag Team Champions the Road Warriors to a double countout

    Richfield, Ohio:
    – Andre the Giant (w/ Bobby Heenan), Dino Bravo (w/ Frenchy Martin), Mr. Perfect, Harley Race, and Rick Rude defeated Jake Roberts, Ken Patera, Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, and Scott Casey (sub. for B. Brian Blair)
    – WWF Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior, the Blue Blazer, Jim Brunzell, Sam Houston, and Brutus Beefcake defeated the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart), Greg Valentine, Ron Bass, Bad News Brown, and Danny Davis

    1990 

    Jonesboro, Arkansas:
    – Jeff Jarrett & Cody Michaels defeated Doug Gilbert & Tony Anthony for the USWA Tag Team Titles

    1993 

    Boston, Massachusetts:
    – The Heavenly Bodies defeated The Rock N’ Roll Express to win the Smoky Mountain Tag Team Titles

    1996

    Norfolk, Virginia:
    – The Giant won the 60 man, three-ring, World War 3 battle royal
    – WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko defeated Psicosis
    – WCW World Tag Team Champions Scott Hall & Kevin Nash defeated The Faces Of Fear and The Nasty Boys in a Triangle match

  • The Week In British Wrestling: Lucha Britannia, PROGRESS season tickets, more

    By Alan Boon for WrestlingObserver.com

    1) The big news this week is tickets!

    PROGRESS put their 2016 season tickets on sale: valid for every one of the eleven events held at Camden’s Electric Ballroom next year. They sold over TWO HUNDRED of them with the front row (priced at £264, roughly $400) and the gold (second and third rows, £242/$360) selling out in under a minute. The promotion has always had a great record of selling out shows without announcing a single match, but this is a leap of faith that demonstrates just how essential their shows have become to UK fans. Later in the week on the heels of their triumphant Fear & Loathing VIII show at Glasgow’s SECC, Insane Championship Wrestling put tickets on sale for Fear & Loathing IX at the Hydro, a building set up for 11,000 seats. On the first day alone they sold FIFTEEN HUNDRED tickets, which is more than TNA sold the last time they ran the Hydro in January of this year. All that for a promotion with no TV and a niche product which owes more to classic ECW than a mainstream pro-wrestling product.

    2) One of the UK’s best kept secrets is Lucha Britannia, presenting chaotic and innovative showcases in a disused railway arch in London’s East End.

    The promotion started way back in 2006 out of the ashes of RAMWA – Rock And Metal Wrestling Alternative. Showing no sign of – nor desire to – moving out of the two-hundred-capacity Resistance Gallery (which they own), their monthly shows sell out to a crowd made up of wrestling fans, hipsters, and curious onlookers. As well as products of their training school, the London School of Lucha Libre, their shows are populated by a who’s who of the UK’s brightest with Will Ospreay, Paul Robinson, RJ Singh, and even WWE World Heavyweight champion Sheamus having walked through the tightly-packed crowd to the ring. The school, by the way, has regular guest training spots by lucha legends Juventud Guerrera and Cassandro who are the only people from “our” dimension to have entered the “RetroFutureVerse” unchanged.

    Last Friday’s show saw Jimmy Havoc return to the promotion, resurrecting his exótico alter-ego Glamsexico to face Juventud Guerrera, as well as the debut of “Anunaki Pharaoh” Marduk Malik, a “Sumerian god” who hit an EIGHT-FOOT dropkick on his way to winning the opening Lucha Chaos match, which also featured Freddie Mercurio, the resurrected rock star.

    3) Another bold diversion from the traditional pro wrestling route trodden by most UK promotions is Tetsujin, who held their first show on Friday night in Liverpool.

    Aiming to present a shoot-style spectacle, along the lines of classic UWFI and Battlarts, and with bouts decided only by submission or knockout, they engaged a ton of the UK’s top names for a one-night only tournament, as well as two of Europe’s finest in Tommy End and Big Daddy Walter for a non-tournament slugfest. Fittingly, Jack Gallagher – a northern-based pure grappler who works a traditional British style of holds and reversals – came out on top, overcoming Zack Gibson, Dave Mastiff, and Chris Brookes on his way to the title. The show, held at the Black-E nightclub, did not draw fantastically well, but it’s a sign of the breadth of the UK scene that this promotion can exist and run on the same night as a lucha show.

    4) Zack Sabre Jr. made his final appearance for Pro Wrestling NOAH.

    Although he spends most of his time outside the UK, we still claim Sabre Jr. as our own and he made his final NOAH appearance with his future endeavours somewhat shrouded in mystery at this point. The smart money has him moving to California, where presumably he will continue to be a regular for Pro-Wrestling Guerilla, as well as EVOLVE and other US indies. The California aspect raises questions of whether Lucha Underground is in his future, but him being featured in a WWE.com article on EVOLVE’s best talent – along with the aggressive acquisition policy of NXT lately – can’t rule out a run in Orlando. Like Neville, who worked all over the UK for the best part of a decade as Pac, Sabre Jr. is held in high-regard by British indy fans, and his any further success will shine brightly on the scene that birthed him.

    5) After two quiet weeks show-wise, things woke up with a score of shows last weekend from the southwest of England to Scotland’s capital.

    Discovery Wrestling presented Live In Edinburgh, and brought TNA bootcamp stars Mark Andrews, Grado, and Rampage Brown in, alongside ICW’s Joe Coffey & Joe Hendry, Nikki Storm, and the “Beast of Belfast” Big Damo. Across Scotland, in Glasgow, Pride Wrestling also brought in Big Damo, Joe Coffey, and Nikki Storm, while further south in Manchester, Futureshock Wrestling held a tournament won by Zack Gibson. HOP:E did a quick two-day shot, in Mansfield and Milton Keynes, with el Ligero, Jack Jester, Doug Williams, the GZRS, and Martin Kirby featuring, and Mark Andrews and former-NXT prospect Joel Redman pulled on their boots for Pro-Wrestling Evolution in Trowbridge.

    The biggest show of the weekend, though, was Tidal Championship Wrestling’s 2nd Anniversary show at the University of Leeds, which drew a decent crowd to witness Dara Diablo retain his TCW title over el Ligero, on a show which also featured Rampage Brown, Tyler Bate, and Addy Starr, a former Inter-Species Wrestling (Quebec) competitor.

    *****

    Next weekend is a HUGE one for the UK scene, with PROGRESS opening their doors for their latest chapter and Preston City Wrestling presenting their Supershow Of Honor weekend, with Ring of Honor sending over reDRagon, Roderick Strong, Dalton Castle, and ROH champion Jay Lethal to mix it with the UK’s best.

  • NJPW World Tag League results: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Shibata & Goto

    Here are quick results for the 11/23 World Tag League show held in Mie, Japan:

    B Block: The Kingdom vs. Tetsuya Naito and Evil. Match was just there. Lots of stalling from the heels, who worked over the Kingdom most of the match. Crowd was pretty dead for most of it which hurt the match as well. Kingdom made a great comback and were nearing the finish when Bushi ran in and sprayed mist on Benett, which allowed Naito to hit Destino for the victory.

    A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin vs. The Addiction. Pretty good back and forth match. Crowd was into it slightly more than the first due to Elgin and Tanahashi’s work and chemistry together. The Addiction were going for near falls when Tanahashi took out Daniels. Elgin then hit a deadlift powerbomb and Tanahashi followed with the high fly flow on Kazarian for the win.

    B Block: Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows vs. Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto. Anderson and Goto were brawling into the crowd at on point. Another good, solid back and forth match. This had the most heat out of anything on this show. Shibata escaped from the Magic Killer and the faces went on offense. Goto took out Anderson on the outside with a plancha as Shibata was putting the sleeper on Gallows. He followed that with the penalty kick and pinned him.

    Current Standings:

    Block A:

    Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin- 4
    Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano- 2
    Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi- 2
    Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata- 2
    Christopher Daniels and Kazarian- 0
    Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga- 0
    Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma- 0

    Block B:

    Evil and Tetsuya Naito- 4
    Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata- 4
    Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima- 2
    Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson- 0
    AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi- 0
    Matt Taven and Michael Bennett- 0
    Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii- 0

  • Figure Four Weekly (11/23/15): Lots of Updates in Hulk Hogan-Gawker case

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  • October 12, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Monday Night War ratings effect on Monday Night Football, UFC woes, plus more

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