Results from Saturday night’s show in Charlottesville, VA.
John Cena worked with no apparent sign of an injury after his match was temporarily stopped and he was hurt the previuos night.
Big E & Kofi Kingston b Lucha Dragons
Cesaro b The Miz
Fandango b Adam Rose
Dolph Ziggler b Rusev
Charlotte & Becky Lynch b Tamina Snuka & Sasha Banks
Sheamus b Jack Swagger
John Cena b Kevin Owens in a street fight
By Joel Kolsrud
Saturday, September 5, 2015Ashford University FieldClinton, Iowa Clinton, Iowa has no real wrestling heritage or history. It’s a town of 26,000 people in eastern Iowa, about forty miles northeast of the Quad Cities, which has had a wrestling heritage and history. It’s no different than any other town of this size, despite the recent downturns in employment with several industries having closed down in the past fifteen years. In fact, they no longer feature “Riverboat Days”, once Iowa’s largest 4th of July festival. It’s just the area Clinton is and everyone is used to it. One thing people aren’t used to, however, is live pro wrestling in Clinton. The AWA came here four times between 1968-1971, usually the night before heading down to Burlington, Iowa, a town with almost the same exact population, a two-hour plus drive. They came back in 1983, the night prior to a Fond du Lac, WI show as well. Around that same time, Ringside Wrestling Promotions, owned and operated by Randy “Rocky” Brewer of Clinton ran a few shows in the area. Brewer wrestled all over during the mid-to-late 1970s and into the early 1980s before starting up RWP. He was mainly a television enhancement talent, though once held the NWA Mid American Tag Team Titles with Pat Rose in 1980 for the Nick and George Gulas. The fall of 1985 saw the the birth of Midwest Championship Wrestling by Dale “Crybaby” Edwards (the late George Hill). They ran monthly cards in Clinton (and surrounding areas), including using Ox Baker a time or two. In a big surprise, they also got television on the (at the time) brand new Fox affiliate, KLJB-TV in Davenport. The promotion made a go of it, including once having the actual contract to become a legit member of the National Wrestling Alliance, though which never came to fruition. They mainly used area talent but also had some of Eddie Sharkey’s guys like Teijo Kahn and Ricky Rice. The promotion eventually folded in the summer of 1986. The AWA made a return on September 2, 1989 to what was then known as Riverview Stadium, the current Ashford University Field. It was a sold show with about 400 in attendance featuring name guys like Larry Zbyszko, Baron Von Raschke, Colonel DeBeers and Mike George. The non-name talent at the time were the likes of Paul Diamond, Derrick Dukes and The Destruction Crew, Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos. Between 2001-2003, Riverboat Days brought in an indie pro wrestling show. Because it was part of getting into the fair itself, the grandstands at the ballpark were full. Still, the lineups announced never even came close to the card presented. This included one show with the ridiculous billing of the Rock and Roll Express (yes, that Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) by promoter Manny Fernandez (yes, that Raging Bull) claiming their failure to appear was due to having been in an auto accident. Another year had Harley Race become a no-show due to being injured, even though Race had been retired from wrestling by then. So, in 2015, we were fortunate enough to get Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling, the first pro wrestling event in Clinton in 12 years, and only the fifth in the past 30. About 300 fans turned out for a nice evening of old school wrestling, complete with an appearance by both Jarrett himself and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Duggan was out front at his souvenir table prior to the show and was just like I remembered him back in the 1980s and 1990s for the WWF in both Peoria and the Quad Cities (Moline and Davenport) when signing autographs for fans. He seemed real glad to be there and when a few fans mentioned coming out specifically to see him, he quickly added that Jarret was there as well. This crew started in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, drove the hour to Waterloo on Friday and then 2½ hours from there to Clinton. Not quite as bad as the old days. 1. Sonjay Dutt pinned DJZ (the former Xena Ion) at 7:20 after a tornado DDT.The ring was at homeplate of the ballpark and all fans were seated in the grandstands. Like the six matches featured this night, they all worked real hard playing to the crowd and encouraging their participation in the respective matches, but with the whole show itself. Fun match, especially the comedy with Dutt getting ahold of DJZ’ headphones and trying to mess up his hair. 2. Matt Bentley won a Triple Threat Match over Tommaso Ciampa and Kevin Matthews at 9:05, pinning Ciampa after hitting him with The Showstopper.Matt Bentley’s hometown is Clinton, Iowa and this was an unadvertised surprise. Bentley is the former Michael Shane, and is a first cousin with “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels, whose real last name is Hickenbottom, and who has family still living in the Clinton area. Bentley has short hair now and looked pretty good considering he rarely, if ever, wrestles anymore. It was mostly Ciampa and Matthews double-teaming the hometown guy, but they ended up turning on each other and Bentley scored the fall using his famous cousin’s finisher. Special Appearance: Hacksaw Jim DugganDuggan came out and thanked everyone, Global Force Wrestling, etc. and then in an about-face, started talking about world’s troubles with terrorists. This brought out Ariya Daivari, who then stole Duggan’s 2×4 (the very one he has always brought to the ring with him all these years, or so said Brandon Baxter) and ran off. It was almost more comical that all of the wrestlers were coming out of the same dugout, as opposed to the old days when the heels were in the visiting team side and the faces were on the home team side. 3. ODB pinned Mickie James at 9:56, rolling her up and holding her tights.This got little reaction and the action inside the ring was a little rough, as in, painful to watch. On that note, it was somewhat interesting to see a spot where the referee was breaking them up, and holding them apart from one another. In this attempt at comedy, however, he had one hand on the breast of both women while doing this. After a few minutes more, ODB then gave James a “titty rub”, all in front of the young kids, making up about 20-25% of the crowd. ODB kept drinking from a flask as well, so it was what it was, and what it was, wasn’t real good. Or entertaining. 4. Nick “Magnus” Aldis pinned Chris “the former Chris ‘Masterlock’ Masters” Mordetzky at 11:59 after a flying elbow drop from the top rope.This was pretty solid, much like the opener, and was mainly Mordetzky trying to put Aldis into the Masterlock. He did manage to get him into it twice, but Aldis escaped both times, which led to him winning the match. 5. The New Heavenly Bodies (Desirable Dustin and Gigolo Justin) defeated Zero Gravity (CJ Esparza and Brett Gayika) at 11:30 when Justin pinned Brett.This was a fun match as well, and pretty much all action the entire time. Zero Gravity are really small, but had some of the coolest double tag team moves. All four guys were in the ring at the same time pretty much the entire time, and while not a Texas Tornado Match, made it tons better than it might have been otherwise. Special Appearance: “Double J” Jeff JarrettJarrett came out and gave a real cool speech about presenting old time wrestling, how they’re just starting and then mentioned possibly returning in 2016. We’ll see, but I’d definitely go. He spoke about the upcoming main event with Colt Cabana, mentioning it would be entertaining and fun and that Cabana would make us laugh and cry and want to slap the person next to each of us lol. MAIN EVENT:6. Colt Cabana pinned Ariya Daivari at 15:37, with revenge interference from Hacksaw Jim DugganI’d never seen Colt Cabana before tonight. In fact, on the way through the parking lot heading towards the ticket window, my brother says, “Is that Colt Cabana?” and I’m like…I have no idea. I’ve only ever heard of him, but have never seen him. Of course, it was. And for anyone who’s never seen him, this was the most entertaining pro wrestling match I’ve seen in decades. Daivari wanted to pray on his rug, so Cabana put his sweat towel right next to him and did the same thing. It was hilarious and Cabana later on put Daivari’s turban-like headwear over Daivari’s face and then tied it with the necklace they played the blind angle for several minutes. Another deal was Cabana grabbing Daivari’s prayer rug and jumping off of the top rope with it and landing onto Daivari. So I’m guessing this was The Magic Carpet Ride? They got down to wrestling with Daivari gaining the upper hand. The finish came down to a ref bump and Daivari grabbing the 2×4 he’d also brought out to the ring with him. Duggan, sitting in the dugout watching the match, came running out (well, running isn’t accurate, but ol’ Hacksaw is 61 years old these days and did the best he could), slid into the ring, grabbed the 2×4, gave a big “Hoooooooooooo!!”, whacked Daivari with the board, slid back out of the ring and the ref revived just in time to see Cabana covering Daivari and counted the fall. LAST NOTES:They allowed anyone who paid $20 to climb into the ring and get a photo taken with both Jarrett and Duggan. There must’ve been at least 50 people lined up (though some of them had photos taken as a group). Still, it was very impressive and everyone seemed to have a great time. Including yours truly, who has finally gone a wrestling show that was enjoyable for a change. Oh, and my brother never did follow through with slapping me, as Jarrett had alluded to earlier would happen watching a Colt Cabana match. Instead, he thanked me. Because we had fun. Joel KolsrudCamanche, IAlakedoorjournals@gmail.com
By Jeremy Wall
CBS aired a PBC card Sunday, September 6th at 4pm ET. It was a two-fight card headlined by Anthony Dirrell beating Marco Antonio Rubio via unanimous decision in a one-sided showcase fight for Dirrell. Dirrell was coming off a loss to Badou Jack on Spike TV in May, where Dirrell dropped the WBC Super Middleweight title via majority decision in the first loss of his career.
In the co-main, Jamie McDonnell retained his WBA Bantamweight title against Tomoki Kameda via unanimous decision. It was a rematch of a close fight that aired on CBS in May, which McDonnell also won via decision.
The show took place at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi. It was co-promoted by Tom Brown of TGB Promotions and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Matchroom mainly does shows in Britain, but handles the promotion of McDonnell.
Dirrell had no problems with Rubio. Scores were three straight 100-90s. Dirrell improved to 28-1-1 (22 KOs) and Rubio fell to 59-8-1 (51 KOs).
Both Dirrell, 30, and Rubio, 35, were coming into the fight off losses. The difference is that Dirrell is in his prime and Rubio is washed up. Besides being five years older than Dirrell, Rubio looked bad getting made into a drama show by Gennady Golovkin in October. Golovkin knocked Rubio out in the second round after Rubio failed to make weight for the bout.
Against Dirrell, Rubio came into the fight the second heaviest he has ever been, weighing in at 169 ½ pounds. Dirrell weighed in at 169 ¾. Both guys were actually over the 168-pound limit for super middleweight (although no one seemed to care), so this was technically a light-heavyweight bout.
“I love boxing. I will get back in the gym and train for another fight because this is what I love to do,” Rubio said in the post-fight press release.
Boxing has a weird thing going on right where weight limits aren’t being respected and there are a ton of catchweight fights at unusual weights. The truth is that the championships and weights don’t mean as much in boxing as people think they do, unless it is a title held by someone forever, like Mayweather or Wladimir Klitschko. If two promoters get together to create a fight, they are going to have the weight limit as whatever is best for their fighters, unless they absolutely have to make weight for a major title. And even then, as Miguel Cotto has shown by demanding catchweight fights at less than the middleweight limit even though he is a major middleweight champion, weight limits can still be rendered meaningless for title fights.
It is because, of course, that promoters run boxing and decide what happens and not the athletic commissions. On top of that, boxing is so fractured with multitudes of promoters, which means that there is going to be a multitude of strange weight limit fights because the promoters are going to do what is best for business. If a promoter feels forcing their fighter (or fighters) to make weight will be bad for business because it will lead to a lame fight or because the fighter just doesn’t want to do it, they’ll do a catchweight fight instead.
Nevertheless, Rubio was clearly brought in to get Dirrell a win after Dirrell dropped the WBC title to Badou Jack. Against Jack back in May, much of the shoulder programming was based around the idea that Dirrell was a rising star who beat cancer early in his career to become the WBC champion. And then he turned in a mediocre performance and dropped the title to Jack.
Badou Jack is set to make the first defense of his title on the pay per view undercard of the Mayweather-Berto fight on September 12th. He will be facing George Groves. Dirrell would seem to be the logical next opponent for whoever wins the title.
You can see a major difference here comparing the matchmaking of PBC and the UFC. In UFC, if a previously undefeated fighter dropped his title in a close decision to an underdog, the champ would likely get an immediate rematch. If not, in most cases the champ would be paired with someone near the top of the rankings, with the winner being in the mix for the next title shot. That’s not always the case with the UFC, as the attempted Pettis-Myles Jury fight earlier this year illustrates, but that is their typical booking pattern for a former champ who just lost his title.
In PBC, they don’t bother booking the former champ in an immediate rematch or against another top competitor. They book him against a jobber to give him an easy win on network television. Part of that is because boxing is so fractured that many of the top competitors in any given weight class fight for different promoters, making it difficult to frequently put together competitive matches unless the money is there.
If UFC and the major boxing groups (mainly PBC and HBO) were in direct competition with one another (they are in more ways than people think), then UFC has a distinct advantage here because of the nature of their two respective industries. UFC is able to book better fights more frequently, while still protecting their stars if they choose to since UFC calls all the shots, has nearly all the best fighters, and doesn’t have to co-promote with anyone else. In boxing, no group has most of the top fighters and promoters frequently have to work with one another to get a fight made, even when they don’t want to.
The co-main between McDonnell, 29, and Kameda, 24, for the WBA Bantamweight belt was a much better fight than Dirrell-Rubio. McDonnell and Kameda had an exciting fight on CBS in May. This time, the bout wasn’t quite as exciting, but it was just as close. They went to a close decision, with McDonnell scoring a knockdown in the twelfth round. Many people watching the fight, however, thought Kameda won, including colour commentators Paulie Malignaggi and Virgil Hunter. Scores were 117-110, 116-111, and 115-112 for McDonnell.
““I thought I won this fight a lot more clearly than the last fight,” Kameda said in the post-fight press release.
McDonnell obviously disagreed. “I didn’t think it was a controversial decision, because I always felt in control and I believe that I won the fight comfortably.”
McDonnell improved to 27-2-1 (12 KOs) and Kameda fell to 31-2 (19 KOs).
It is hard to say if this will lead to a third bout between the two. The first fight was close and a lot of people thought Kameda won the second bout. Both guys have upped their profiles by having two good fights on network television this year, but I wouldn’t say either of them are stars in the making or anything like that. McDonnell is from Britain, but is not that big of a deal there. Kameda is Japanese, but moved to Mexico at the age of fifteen and has lived there ever since. He speaks fluent Spanish and is popular with the Mexican audience. He also has two brothers who have held world titles in boxing. His brother Daiki Kameda lost a split-decision on Sunday’s show in a fight that didn’t air on TV.
The belt the two were fighting over is not actually that big of a deal. It is the “regular” version of the WBA Bantamweight title. The WBA awards two belts for each weight division, one “super” champion who is widely considered the real champion, and one “regular” champion who is widely considered not a champion at all. I guess they do this to collect more sanctioning fees, although it completely ruins any prestige that most of the WBA belts have. McDonnell retained the regular belt. The super belt is held by Juan Carlos Payano. Payano is also a PBC fighter who beat Rau’shee Warren on a PBC on Bounce show in August.
Being that both Payano and McDonnell are both PBC fighters they could feasibly be matched against one another. I’m not sure how that would work with the WBA, though, since I’m assuming they want two separate champs in each weight division to collect twice the sanctioning fees.
This is where having titles controlled by outside groups doesn’t really work. I know people argue that having titles controlled by sanctioning bodies and not promoters means the promoters can’t manipulate titles. But the sanctioning bodies are manipulating the titles in a way that damages boxing’s reputation anyway. Plus the UFC is a promotion that handles its own titles and frequently has better title fights and better matchmaking compared to boxing.
I think PBC is going about things incorrectly when it comes to matchmaking. They are putting on mostly lousy showcase fights. I don’t have a problem with television squash matches being used to build guys. But if PBC is competition for the UFC and the UFC books competitive fights more often than not, then PBC has to match them. Also, HBO has probably booked better competitive fights this year compared to PBC and HBO is PBC’s top competitor within boxing.
If PBC came in from the start with the mission of revolutionizing boxing so that it becomes more of a business model akin to the UFC, then they needed to book competitive fights frequently during the first year or two in order to get people to believe that this is boxing without politics holding the sport back. Once people believe they are seeing a new way of doing boxing, they can scale back a bit and add in some squash matches.
I understand what they are trying to do in booking squashes like Dirrell-Rubio, because they are trying to create new stars and it gives someone with star potential an easy win. It’s just that PBC is doing it too frequently and they shouldn’t have been doing these types of matches during their first year, anyway.
Also, and this is just me, but I would have started the promotion with PBC title belts and dropped recognition of all the other sanctioning bodies. It would have pissed a lot of people off, but Al Haymon is already pissing a lot of those people off anyway, so what’s the difference. Haymon could then book title fights as he pleases, protect the integrity of the titles, and use the titles to elevate guys and create new stars.
Another problem is that PBC is all over the place. They are on nearly every major network and nearly every major cable sports station. They have fights all over the country with a wide variety of alphabet titles. A lot of the fights don’t lead anywhere. There’s no overarching storyline to many of these bouts and they are just kind of random fights at random times on random television channels.
They have shoulder programming on Spike and on Showtime, but they need a regular magazine show and maybe a “Best Of” show similar to UFC Tonight and other UFC programming on FS1. I think magazine shows are important because they set the official story of fights, so that fans are told why certain fighters are important and why the fights they are involved in matter.
This is where being on every channel imaginable is a disadvantage because PBC is everywhere at once, but in a way that is confusing and random.
The unaired prelims for Sunday afternoon’s show included wins by prospects Miguel Flores (17-0, 8 KOs, 23 yo, super featherweight) and Mario Barrios (11-0, 6 KOs, 20 yo, super featherweight), among other fights.
Ratings for PBC afternoon shows on CBS and NBC have been steady, but have shown a bit of attrition. Ratings have been slightly better for afternoon shows on Saturdays compared to Sundays.
PBC’s last show on CBS was July 18th, featuring Carl Frampton vs. Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. It drew a 0.8 rating on a Saturday afternoon at 4pm ET. Previously, PBC also drew a 0.8 for a Sunday afternoon show on June 21st. Other past ratings on CBS include a 0.9 on May 9th and a 1.1 on April 4th, the latter which was PBC’s debut on CBS. Both of those shows were also on Saturdays.
PBC has also done two weekend shows on NBC. They drew a 0.85 on Saturday, May 23rd and a 0.95 on Saturday, June 6th.
Dirrell’s fight against Badou Jack on Friday, April 24th drew 569,000 viewers (0.2) on Spike, which is not a great rating, but PBC hasn’t been drawing well on Spike, so it was typical.
There is a tremendous amount of boxing on television between now and September 12th, when Mayweather faces Berto on pay per view.
On September 8th, PBC debuts on FS1 with Austin Trout vs. Joey Hernandez. On September 11th, Adonis Stevenson debuts in Toronto versus Tommy Karpency. The same night on TruTV in Las Vegas Top Rank has a show headlined by Oscar Valdez vs. Chris Avalos and Jesse Hart vs Aaron Pryor Jr. On September 12th, NBC has an afternoon show with Cornelius Bundrage vs. Jermall Charlo and Peter Quillin vs. Michael Zerafa, which will be a final push for the pay per view later that night. There’s also a boxing fan convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center the day of the Mayweather fight and probably some other stuff in town that I am not aware of.
Jeremy Wall can be contacted at jeremywall1984@gmail.com and found on Twitter @jeremydalewall.
John Cena ended up okay after being banged up from doing the infrared move that had previously been used by Amazing Red and Rey Mysterio Jr.
Cena was hurt in last night’s match in Hampton, VA, but was back in action tonight in Charlotteville, VA, beating Kevin Owens.
by David Bixenspan | davidbix@wrestlingobserver.com | Follow @davidbix
Show notes for the weekend:
UFC 191 live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada:
Main Card live on oay-per-view at 10:00 p.m. ET (Playstation Plus subscribers get 10% off the PSN version)
Demetrious Johnson (124.5) vs. John Dodson (125) in a five round fight for Johnson’s UFC Flyweight Championship
Andrei Arlovski (237.5) vs. Frank Mir (266)
Anthony Johnson (205) vs. Jimi Manuwa (204)
Jan Blachowicz (205) vs. Corey Anderson (205)
Paige VanZant (116) vs. Alex Chambers (115)
Prelims on Fox Sports 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET
Ross Pearson (155.5) vs. Paul Felder (155.5)
Francisco Rivera (136) vs. John Lineker (135.5)
Jessica Andrade (134.5) vs. Raquel Pennington (136)
Clay Collard (146) vs. Tiago Trator (146)
Prelims on UFC Fight Pass at 7:00 p.m. ET
Joe Riggs (187.5) vs. Ron Stallings (184)
Joaquim Silva (154.5) vs. Nazareno Malegarie (156)
While there’s little in the way of drawing power beyond maybe Mir, this really is a strong card. Yes, Blachowicz-Anderson is a bit of an odd choice for a main card fight, but it still has some divisional relevance and potential for action. Everything from Andrade-Pennington on should be at least fun, and the top two prelims have tremendous potential as fight of the night candidates. Arlovski-Mir is literally a decade in the making while Johnson-Dodson is a rematch of the best title fight in divisional history so far.
WWE has house shows tonight t in Charlottesville, VA (John Cena vs. Kevin Owens) and Wildwood, NJ (Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt, Ryback vs. Big Show, Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose)
GFW runs tonight in Clinton, IA.
WWE runs tomorrow night in Fairfax, VA (John Cena vs. Kevin Owens) and Salisbury, MD (Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt, Ryback vs. Big Show, Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose).
Raw on Monday night will b in Baltimore, while SmackDown and Main Event will be taped Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Please send reports from major shows, recommended links, etc. to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com:
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Figure Four Weekly:
The newest issue of Figure Four Weekly is now up for subscribers (subscribe to the site here and get access to Figure Four, the Observer, tons of audio, and more) featuring an article catching up with WWE announcer Kyle Edwards (formerly Arda Ocal of Aftermath on The Score) about his first year ine company. On top of that, we have all the usual stuff like Vinny’s reviews and international news from Dr. Lucha Steve Sims and and Alan”4L” Counihan.
The recnt FREE Figure Four Weekly is still up with a look at the crazy story of why Gawker thinks the FBI may have helped Hulk Hogan cover up his racist and homophobic comments. A judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the records of their investigation, and what Gawker is saying in court about what has and hasn’t been turned over paints a very interesting picture.
Also, now available for the first time on Kindle (meaning Kindle devices and anything with the Kindle app) is Fall Guys, the seminal 1937 book that has been described as being like the 1930s version of the Wrestling Observer. It was surprisingly not on Kindle already, so we put together a nice version with a full table of contents w/ chapter marks, proper formatting on everything, etc. Right now it’s available from the American, Canadian, and Australian Amazon/Kindle stores OR you can also buy it from anywhere in the world on PayHip, who will provide you with both Kindle and ePub (every other e-reader) format files, and you can either sideload them to your device or have them email it to your Kindle.
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
It’s a gigantic news week in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter with the main feature story on everything that led to the indictment of Jimmy Snuka after 32 years, plus Irv Muchnick, who has reported on the story for years gives his views on the proceedings, and we also look at Hulk Hogan’s attempt at redemption of his character, the full story behind the shooting at the Performance Center, notes from Battle of Los Angeles, the retirement of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Hayabusa walks to the ring, Bram gets arrested, WWE fires Zahra Schreiber, UFC brings back Travis Browne, a rundown of the PPV business in WWE in 2015 and the latest monthly business report from WWE & TNA.
The latest Wrestling Observer: September 7, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Snuka indicted, shooting at WWE Performance Center and tons more
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The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.
Our lead story goes back to 1983 with an in-depth look at the death of Nancy Argentino, how the media caused the case to be reopened, a look at the charges against Jimmy Snuka, the different statements on the subject by Snuka, Snuka’s lawyer speaks, notes on documentation and testimony from the time, lots of notes regarding evidence, where Jimmy Snuka stood in the wrestling business in 1983, how Buddy Rogers fits into this story, what Snuka told police the morning after Argentino died as well as testimony from those who treated Argentino before her death.
We also look at the autopsy report, the police report from that time, the strange question that was never answered regarding the case being dropped, what Snuka has said to different people, the brawl in Syracuse before Argentino’s death, how the pro wrestling business in 1983 is so completely different from today and the previous legal action regarding this case.
Irv Muchnick also does a piece on the indictment talking about several points from the indictment.
We also look at Hulk Hogan appearing on Good Morning America and Nightline in a way to get his job back and repair his public image. We look at the WWE reaction, what Hogan said, what does and doesn’t hold up, the timeline issues with his various stories, neighbors of his growing up contradict his story and more.
We also look at the story of the man who was shot in front of the Performance Center, the circumstances of the shooting, and the different things he had done in recent months regarding his obsession with wrestling.
We also look at Battle of Los Angeles, how the tournament went, highlights from the weekend and celebrities at the shows.
We also look back at the career of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, including his new job with UFC, his becoming the top heavyweight in the sport at one time, his background, his debut in RINGS, his move to Pride, his fight with Bob Sapp, his three fight series with Fedor and his UFC run.
We look at the arrest of Thomas “Bram” Latimer of TNA, police details of what happened, TNA’s response and what is next for him.
We’ve got a story on Hayabusa, one of the best high flyers from 15-20 years ago and his attempted recovery from near paralysis.
We’ve got a look at Travis Browne and his reinstatement in UFC.
We look at the firing of Zahra Schreiber, the girlfriend of Seth Rollins, by WWE.
We also look at WWE & TNA business when it comes to house shows, merchandise, ratings and other categories for the past month.
We also have a PPV chart with how all the shows in the first seven months of the year have been, and compared them with the last few years.
We also look at WWE signing one of the major international women stars and why she’s not going to be wrestling in NXT, the return of Dr. Wagner Jr. & L.A. Park to Arena Mexico and how it got over, top pro wrestling star gets a reality show gig, and some major title changes.
We also look at maneuvering for the 2017 and 2018 WrestleMania, and the favorites, the 10/3 Madison Square Garden WWE live special, notes on lots of indie stars on WWE’s radar, ticket sales for NXT in the U.K., a new WWE movie, Update on Wade Barrett, action figure sales, announcing changes, SummerSlam edits, lots of notes on various WWE lawsuits, Dean Ambrose talks Renee Young, Fan tries to attack Ambrose, Sara Lee in NXT, plus notes on all the WWE & NXT house shows over the past week.
We also look at a number of top stars who worked recently in Bolivia, the last AAA TV taping and AAA wrestlers in a bodybuilding contest.
We update Wrestle-1 and the three generations of green mist stars trios match.
We also look at the Dragon Gate summer tag team tournament and its big show in Fukuoka and what came out of it.
We look at All Japan’s last major show and its current singles tournament.
We look at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s next major show, including a title match that was set up in the U.S., a well as the bracketing in the upcoming junior heavyweight tag team tournament.
We look at the weekend IGF show, a record that will be set at the next Tokyo Dome show, and the NWA title change.
We also look at U.S. stars who usually don’t tour Japan that are going shortly.
We’ve got more on the planned bio movie on Chris Benoit, Angelo Mosca getting his number retired, the weekend GFW shows and angles, Preston City Wrestling’s weekend show, former TNA star retires and a unique main event, plus early notes on this year’s WWC Anniversary show.
We also update the TNA TV situation, the Lucha Underground TV situation, the next ROH PPV show, new roles for people in ROH and notes from the weekend show.
We also look at changes in UFC main events, can UFC sell 70,000 tickets to its November show with Ronda Rousey, Rousey talks when she expects to retire, Cyborg, the date with the marine and notes about live shows on Fight Pass this month. We also look at this week’s PPV show, talks about the Jan. 2 Las Vegas card, a star fighter retires, Chad Mendes wants a rematch with McGregor, what happened recently with Jose Aldo, Rousey T-shirt sales, plus lots of more fights.
We also have a look at Bellator’s next major show, including the updated card, as well as plans for the big November show. We look at the Fan Fest with Fedor and Sakuraba, as well as notes on last week’s show.
We also look at the arrest of Chris Leben, and new restrictions on weight cutting that is being tried out for in California.
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***
Saturday Daily Update
— This got lost in the shuffle with all of the big stories during the week, but legendary Memphis wrestling announcer Dave Brown retired from his job as WMC-TV’s head meteorologist this past wee. Of course got plenty of coverage since he’s been the most popular TV nws personality in the market for decades:
* Lance Russell’s video wishing him a happy retirement.
* WMC’s retrospective of Brown’s career.
* Behind the scenes video of his final broadcast from a coworker’s Facebook page.
* WMC’s story on Brown’s last day.
* Successor Ron Childers’ tribute to Brown.
* Local artist Adam Exelbierd paints a tribute to Brown.
* Story about Brown’s very personal campaigning against drunk driving.
— This happened:
https://twitter.com/HulkHogan/status/640009577619136512
Hart had said that he figured Hogan was relieved when Piper died because it took the media focus off of him.
— Jim Ross’s latest blog post has a great section on Hulk Hgoan: “If I was advising Hulk Hogan I’d suggest him to lay low and let things settle down. He does deserve forgiveness, as we all do, if he’s sincere and I want to believe that Hulk is sincere but trying to promote himself to have “one more match” is not advisable. Just my two cents.”
— The Scenic City Invitation tournament from last month with Moose, Jimmy Rave, Gunner, Kongo Kong, and a number of southern indie standouts is now available on DVD from WHOO! Wrestling’s Facebook store and video on demand in full HD (streaming and MP4 downloads) on their Vimeo page. The DVD is 1$1 off through tomorrow, while the VOD is $1.10 off through Monday with the coupon code LABORDAY, making it just $9.89 for the four and a half hour show in HD. It’s great to have Allan Barrie/WHOO! back in the fold and he’s doing some very cool things when it comes to experimenting with different distribution strategies and price points from most indie distributors.
— Dave has an article about UFC’s 2015 pay-per-view turnaround at MMAFighting.
— Another Wrestling Podcast talks to Sabu about the allegations that Pat Buck made against him after the last PWS show among other things. Sample quote:
And they’re right I had a dog and it made a mess, but there was no shit, there was no drugs, no needles, there was blood because you know I bleed and that’s the way it is, you know i didn’t bleed all over the place.I bled in bed and probably on the shower curtain but they made it sound like I murdered somebody in that room and sacrificed my dog and shit all over the room. And that sounds great but that’s not true. They said they had a bill stating that the hotel…when we checked in under my name and my credit card was not denied like they said it was, when we check out the room had my name on it, not theirs. The pictures of the bill they’re showing has Pat Bucks name on it, so fuck him! He probably shit all over the place and bled and killed someone all over the room and sacrificed a dog.
Um…
— Monday Night War Vol. 2: Know Your Role comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray this Tuesday. Also, Bob Backlund’s book is now in stock at and shipping early from Amazon.
— PWX Pure Results from last night in Winston-Salem NC: Mason Maddox b Rob Killjoy, Smith Garrett and the returning Lance Lude in a 4way scramble, Elijah Evans IV b James Drake, Anthony Henry b Man Scout Jake Manning, Bravados b Josh Powers & Timmy Lou Retton. Bravados brawled with Adam Page & Corey Hollis afterward, they’ll meet in street fight tonight, Ricochet b Caleb Konley. Tommy Thomas was put in as heel ref by PWX management and fast counted Konley every time. Ricochet rejected their help throughout and kicked Tommy in the nuts post match, Cedric Alexander b Darius Lockhart. Lockhart was originally slated against another Pure prospect but Alexander attacked them and took the match instead. Alexander reaffirms his spot in the X16 with the win, Tessa Blanchard b Lexia Averym and PWX World Champion John Skyler b Zane Riley with assist from Gunner who joined Skyler and Country Jacked post match. Same crew plus Tomasso Ciampa, Moose, Tim Donst and others are back in Winston-Salem tonight and tomorrow afternoon for a two night tournament. Both shows are at the Benton Convention Center downtown.
By Brian Hoops
1952
Tarzan White defeated Art Nelson to win the Southern Title in Atlanta, Georgia.
1958
Freddie Blassie defeated Ray Gunkel to win the Southern Title in Atlanta, Georgia
1967
Enrique Torres & Alberto Torres defeated Stan Vachon & Butcher Vachon to win the Southern Tag Team title in Macon, Georgia.
1963
Kansas City, Kansas
Dick the Bruiser drew Bob Geigel
Mongolian Stomper beat Jose Azteca and Harvey Race (as Danny Race)
Rock Hunter beat Joe Millich (sub for Les Thatcher)
Enrique Torres beat Larry Williams
1964
St. Paul, MN at Midway Stadium
Loser Leaves Town match
AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat The Crusher
Mad Dog Vachon beat Pat Barrett
Jack Lanza & Dale Lewis & Billy Red Cloud beat Mitsu Arakawa & Stan Kowalski & Moose Cholak in 2 of 3 falls
Reggie Parks beat Guy Mitchell
Attendance was 4,548
1965
Davenport, Iowa
Non Title Death Match
Mad Dog Vachon beat AWA Champion The Crusher
AWA Tag Team Champions Larry Hennig & Harley Race beat Danny Hodge & Reggie Parks
Chris Markoff beat Eddie Sharkey
Billy Red Cloud beat Gene Anderson
1968
Bob Geigel & Bob Brown defeated Ron Etchison & Sonny Myers in Kansas City, Kansas to win the NWA North American Tag Team Title.
1972
Rocket Monroe and Skandor Akbar defeated Bob ARmstrong and Argentina Apollo to win the Macon Tag Team Title in Macon, Georgia.
1973
Terry & Ron Garvin defeated Tojo Yamamoto & Johnny Marlin in Nashville, Tennessee to win the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Title.
1974
Kansas City, Kansas at Memorial Hall
Lord Alfred Hayes & Bob Orton defeated Bobby Whitlock & Bad News Beach
The Viking fought Ronnie Etchison to a draw
Killer Karl Krupp defeated Bob Geigel
Bob Brown defeated Bob Ellis via DQ
The Interns defeated Pat O’Connor & Mike George in three falls
1979
Mike George defeated Mr. Wrestling II in Shreveport, Louisiana to win the Mid-South Wrestling Association North American Heavyweight Title.
1982
Kevin Von Erich defeated King Kong Bundy to win the World Class Championship Wrestlng America’s Heavyweight Title.
1983
World Class Championship Wrestling holds their first Labor Day Weekend ‘Star Wars’ event in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Iceman Parsons defeated Buddy Roberts.
Bruiser Brody defeated Kamala via disqualification in a Lumberjack match.
Kerry Von Erich defeated Michael Hayes in a Country Whipping match.
Kevin Von Erich defeated World Class American Champion Jimmy Garvin via disqualification.
World Class Texas Champion David Von Erich defeated Terry Gordy in a two-out-of-three falls match.
World Class Six-Man Tag team Champions The Fabulous Freebirds (Hayes, Gordy & Roberts) defeated David, Kerry & Kevin Von Erich when Hayes pinned Kerry.
1988
John Tatum & Jimmy Jack Funk defeat Steve & Shaun Simpson to win the World Class Championship Wrestling Texas Tag Team championship.
1991
At the Clash of the Champions XVI in Augusta, Georgia; Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko, defeated Rick Steiner & Bill Kazmier in the finals of a tournament to become new WCW World Tag Team Champions. Also, World Television Champion Steve Austin defeated Tom Zenk.
1996
Johnny Ace & Steve Williams defeated Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa to win the AJPW Unified World Tag Team championship.
1997
Donovan Morgan defeats Michael Modest in Hayward, California to win the All-Pro Wrestling Universal Heavyweight Title.
2007 – Paul London & Brian Kendrick defeat Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch to win the WWE World Tag Team championship.
2010
At the TNA PPV No Surrender; TNA Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Generation Me, AJ Styles defeated Tommy Dreamer in a I Quit Match and Abyss defeated Rhyno in a falls count anywhere match.
By the Secret Psychic Spy (secretpsychicspy@yahoo.com)
Starting Bankroll: $1,500
Current Bankroll: $751.66
Last week (Aug 22): 3/5 Overall 78/139 (56%)
Small profit again last time out at UFC Saskatoon as I try to inch my way back to even. UFC is back on PPV this weekend with UFC 191. Playing it safe this weekend with all favorites so let’s take a look at which five picks I think have the best value on this show.
Pick 1 – Jan Blachowicz (18-4) -140 over Corey Anderson (5-1) I’m betting $100 to win $71.43
Blachowicz has the experience edge, having fought for years against top-level competition despite just making his UFC debut last year. His only UFC loss was to top 15 contender Jimi Manuwa. Anderson is coming off the first loss of his career, to Gian Villante (who was just knocked out by this site’s own Tom Lawlor). Go with experience here and Blachowicz.
Pick 2 – Nazarene Malegarie (30-3) -145 over Joaquin Silva (7-0) I’m betting $100 to win $68.97
Malegarie has been out of the spotlight for years, with his last high profile fight coming in 2012 for Bellator, where he lost to Rad Martinez. Since then he’s rung up 8 straight wins in South America and will make his UFC debut here after 8 years and 33 pro fights. Silva is also making his debut and is unbeaten with all finishes. Silva’s wins have been far less highly profiled and again, go with experience here.
Pick 3 – Clay Collard (14-6) -135 over Tiago Trator (19-5-1) I’m betting $100 to win $74.07
Collard’s had a rough start to his UFC career, going 1-2 but I think he’s prime here to turn that around and get back on the winning track. He was brought into UFC with a lot of hype and he was really impressive for Showdown fights. Trator is also coming off of a loss and it was a devastating KO at the hands of Mike de la Torre. I like Collard here.
Pick 4 – Andrei Arlovski (24-10) -155 over Frank Mir (18-9) I’m betting $100 to win $64.52
This is the real main event of tonight’s show for a lot of people. Arlovski’s been on a roll since returning to UFC with 3 straight wins. Mir has two straight wins of his own after a long losing streak. Arlovski has a title shot starting him in the face if he can get past Mir and I really think he will. I don’t think Mir will be able to withstand his power after a long career in the Octagon. One thing I’m virtually certain of is this fight will end quickly.
Pick 5 – Jessica Andrade (13-4) -210 vs Raquel Pennington (5-5) I’m betting $100 to win $47.62
This is the second fight for these two, with Andrade having won a split decision back in March of last year. Since then Andrade has won 2 of 3, including a decision over Sarah Moras in her last fight. Pennington has fought just twice with her most recent being a loss to Holly Holm in the co-main event of UFC 184. Andrade is more experienced and has fought a higher quality of fighters in her career. I think she marches up the contender list with a second straight win over Pennington here.
All told, I’m betting $500 with a chance to win $326.60
On with the betting game.
2015 Betting Game: Secret Psychic Spy vs Ryan Frederick
Current Standings:
Ryan Frederick: $1,082.53 (Picked Oliveira, Watson, Aguilar, Eye, Leites, Lawler, Gordon, Hein, Alvarez, Ortega, Noons, Browne, Magny, Matthews)
Secret Psychic Spy: $1,470.18 (Picked Stout, Salazar, Bruno, Duke, Rivera, Samman, Bosse, Amirkhani, Henderson, Breese, Pyle, Wee, Andrews)
We’re both on a losing streak with both of our guys losing quickly in Saskatoon. I will turn things around with my pick this week, Andrei Arlovski as he’ll make quick work of Frank Mir and allow me to retain my lead.
Ryan’s pick:
I’m going John Lineker -135 over Francisco Rivera Jr
Good luck, enjoy the fights and remember, don’t bet more than you can afford to lose and try to have fun with it!
–
Fight week continues on with the build-up to tonight’s UFC 191 event in Las Vegas with UFC 191 Embedded. In this episode, it is media day and we get to hear from the competitors fighting on the card. Alex Chambers shows off a unique way of cutting weight for her fight. We hear from Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes, teammates of Paige VanZant, as VanZant is shown cutting weight. Demetrious Johnson, John Dodson and Frank Mir enjoy final training sessions. It is then time for Friday’s Go Big event and the weigh-ins as the fighters weigh-in and have their final staredowns. All of that and more, so check out episode five of UFC 191 Embedded above.
WWE has added a new match to the 9/20 Night of Champions, no surprise, with Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper & Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose and a mystery partner.
Originally Sting was going to be the mystery partner in this program.
By Ross Blair
1. Tyler Breeze surprisingly opened the show with a victory over Sawyer Fulton. Great opener with Breeze as the babyface, gaining a pinfall victory after the “beauty shot” finisher.
2. Emma & Dana Brooke defeated Carmella & Billie Kay when Carmella submitted to the Emma lock.
– Interview segment with Riddick Moss, which spurred a hilarious chant of “AC Slater” due to the all-too-true resemblance between the NXT newbie & Mario Lopez’s “Saved by the Bell” character. Sylvester Lefort interrupted the superstar’s interview time to offer his managerial services. Despite the crowd’s enthusiastic chant of “Oui, oui!” (complete with Daniel Bryan finger gesturing), Moss turned down Lefort before assaulting the Frenchman.
3. Bull Dempsey pinned Angelo Dawkins after his top rope diving seated senton finisher.
4. Babyface Tye Dillinger (who was very much over with the crowd) pinned heel Solomon Crowe after his “Perfect 10” neckbreaker finishing move.
5. Eight man tag match: Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady, Zack Ryder, & Mojo Rawley defeated Jason Jordan, Chad Gable, Scott Dawson, & Dash Wilder in a crowd-pleasing match when Ryder pinned Gable after a Hype Bros doomsday device.
6. Bayley successfully defended the NXT Womens Title by rolling up & pinning rookie monster heel Nia Jax after dodging a splash into the turnbuckles after a hard fought victory.
7. Apollo Crews earned perhaps his biggest NXT victory to date versus Baron Corbin. Corbin dominated the match before Crews made a last minute comeback concluding with two consecutive standing moonsaults.
8. The main event & Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic – First Round: the Vaudevillians defeated Blake & Murphy. Unlike the other matches on the card, a video cameraman was present at ringside (in addition to an unmanned wide stationary camera) for this match. Hopefully it will air on NXT TV in its entirety as it was the best match on the card.