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  • More UFC feedback from weekend

    big thumbs up for ufc 189 

    I got to hooters around 9:30pm it was pretty packed. By 10:00pm there were people lined up behind me. The crowed was really good, bigger then last years July show. I would say the last time there was this many people would be when st pierre fought last. What was different is that everybody stayed through the main event it was packed all night, last year everyone left after the Ronda fight.  

    Lawler vs. MacDonald was the best fight (maybe of the year.)

    i watched evolve 45 (thumbs up) over the weekend as will Roderick Strong vs. Zack Sabre Jr. was really good…i haven’t gotten to evolve 46 yet.
    John Juett

    FIGHT WEEK

    INVICTA 13

    Gotta go thumbs down on this one. Most fights noncompetitive. Presentation continues to decline as Julie keeps getting worse (although wasn’t off-her-ass drunk this time), the guy whoever he is doesn’t even understand what he’s looking at, and they are under obvious orders to shill.
    Best fight: Moyle vs. Montenegro
    Worst fight: pretty much everything else
    Best performance: Cyborga I guess
    Worst performance: too many
    KO: Cyborga
    Sub: Brown (default)

    Marina Shafir (Ronda’s sparring partner) gets dropped and and pounded out early by pro debuting Amber Leibrock, who was getting a ‘little extra leverage’ blatantly holding the cage with her free hand, which Magoo Mazzagatti managed not to see. Commentators barely mention it either. 37s.

    Jamie Moyle more than holds her own with the much bigger Amy Montenegro and should take a 29-28 and does on two cards, the other going the other way.

    Amber Brown completely squashes Catherine Costigan with a quick TD to mount then alternating pounding, smothering and submissions till Costigan gives up her back and the RNC.

    Pannie Kianzad comes on after a close first and should take the UD over Jessica Rose Clark and does 30-27. Clark landed a knee to the liver but too late to help.

    Styles Make etc. Ayaka Hamasaki is much harder for Herica Tiburcio than Watterson was and that fight sort of looking like a fluke. Hamasaki able to land strikes from outside and score TDs more or less at will. Tiburcio busy on the bottom but to not much avail. Hamasaki looked to win 4 rounds, 49-46. Tedious fight. Oh God it’s split. 48-47 split and the last judge gets it right. Ayaka takes the AW title.

    Irene Aldana reportedly down with the flu and just can’t keep Tonya Evinger off or even outspeed her and the ref steps in with a few seconds left in the 4th, even though the punches were missing, but didn’t matter. Reffing is dreadful. Evinger takes the vacant BW title. ALdana shouldn’t have fought.

    Another squash for Cris. Faith Van Duin just in way over her head. Everything Cyborga landed did immediate damage. End comes off a knee to the liver and G&P in 45s. Cris retains the FW title.

    UFC 189

    Thumbs schmumbs. Lotta people are saying ‘best card of all time’. Very possibly.
    Best fight: Robbie vs. Rory. Almost everything else would have been most nights.
    Worst fight: Pendred-Howard and Garcia-Swick were tedious.
    Best performance: Robbie but again, almost everybody was top of game
    Worst performance: Swick or Pendred
    KO: Robbie
    Sub: Brown (default) 

    Cody Pfister survives Yosdenis Cedeno’s early barrage of low kicks and grinds his way to taking the 2nd and 3rd and should take a 29-28 and does on all cards. Terrific technical fight between Louis Smolka and Neil Seary, who spends most of the fight on his back but is effective from there. Smolka edges all three rounds on all cards.

    Another good fight as Cody Garbrandt and Henry Briones alternate technical boxing with heavy leather. Garbrandt scores a big KD in the 2nd and hits all the throws and takes all rounds on all cards. John Howard pretty much exposes Cathal Pendred and should take a 30-27 but made it harder than it had to be by not keeping up the low kicks in the 3rd. Split 29-28 but at least the right guy wins. Not sure how Pendred won one round let alone two. Mike Swick trying again after several years no longer very quick, and gets beaten to the punch and ragdolled by Alex Garcia, himself off a year, for three rounds. One judge (wanna bet it was the same one that gave Pendred two rounds?) somehow gives Swick a round. First FotN candidate as Tim Means rocks Matt Brown early, Brown lands an eyepoke that Means maybe does not take enough time for and then it’s constant back and forth till Brown counters a Means elbow with a harder elbow and snags a Guillotine late in the round ftw.

    Immediately topped for FotN as Thomas Almeida makes the mistake of boxing with Brad Pickett early and gets dropped twice and his nose broken. He then drops Pickett with an elbow. Pickett comes out in the 2nd with a flying knee. Almeida counters with his own flying knee and knocks Pickett cold.

    Gunnar Nelson drops Brandon Thatch early and easily works his way to RNC for the tap.

    FotN now becomes ridiculous as Jeremy Stephens and Dennis Bermudez tear it up too until Stephens nails him with ANOTHER flying knee early in the 3rd and finishes with G&P. Stephens bad weight miss obviously not a cardio problem.

    We now forget FotN and start thinking about all-time with Lawler vs. McDonald. Rory edges a feeling-out 1st. Robbie outboxes Rory in the 2nd and most of the way through the 3rd, stuffs his TDs, and busts him up. Rory stuns Robbie late in the 3rd with a HK and nearly finishes him. Robbie, now busted up also, fights his way back in the 4th. At the end of the round they stand there and stare at each other. Robbie finishes Rory with a straight left to the nose early in the 5th and retains the WW title. Just amazing fight. I had it even after 4 but the judges had Rory up 3-1.

    Live music walkouts to the main fail dismally IMO. Sinead’s voice is gone. Chad Mendes comes out to some mopey country that makes you want to go lie down in the hog pen and die. Conor McGregor lands pretty much at will standing but Mendes takes him down pretty much at will and both do damage. Mendes off only a 19 day camp uncharacteristically gasses and Conor drops him late in the 2nd and Dean is perhaps a little suspiciously quick to jump in. Gotta wonder what if it had been an in fight shape Mendes but in the meantime ‘it’s what’s best for business’. 

    TUF FINALE

    Thumbs up. Had a tough act to follow but good card. Seemed to be new judging directives as more of the 10 points were used.
    Best fight: Waterson vs. Magana
    Worst fight: Blanco-de la Torre for Lavigne’s as usual inept reffing
    Best performance: Thompson, HM to Samman, Usman and Masvidal
    Worst performance: Lavigne
    KO: Thompson
    Sub: Samman

    George Sullivan fails to finish late sub Dominic Waters at the end of the 1st but dominates the 2nd and holds off from back mounted in the 3rd to take a 29-27, 30-25 (which seemed a bit much), 29-28 UD. Dan Miller back from long layoff effective striking early but does not have the strength or cardio to deal with Trevor Smith’s top game which totally dominates the last 2 rounds. Miller maybe too small for MW in 2015. 30-25 X 2, 30-26. This time I agree. Heavily favored Russell Doane chooses to wrestle with former NCAA D1 champion Jerrod Sanders and it appears to have backfired on him as Sanders is the one who comes on late after a back and forth contest and takes the 30-27 29-28 X 2 upset. Josh Samman walks through Caio Magalhaes, busting him up and taking RNC from standing back mount for the tap in short order. Magalhaes spits blood at him afterwards.

    Another premature stoppage from the always too early or too late Yves Lavigne gives Maxi Blanco an asinine 16 second KO over Mike de la Torre, who was already shooting a single by the time Lavigne got there after the KD.

    After a competitive 1st, Michelle Waterson takes over and drubs Angela Magana, finishing with RNC from back mount in the 3rd. Too bad she’s going to have to fight in a weight class she’s too small for. They should just add 105 and 125. There’s enough fighters.

    Jorge Masvidal coming up to welter from light, drops Cesar Mutante, coming down from middle, with an elbow/punch combination coming off the fence and finishes him with followup G&P. ATT 1 BZs 0. Masvidal calls out Matt Brown.

    Michael Graves controls pretty much the entire fight and takes a 29-28 UD over Vincente Luque. ATT 2-0.

    In the fight to decide the season, Kamaru Usman ragdolls a still pudgy Hayder Hassan at will throughout the 1st. Could be a 10-8 the way they’re scoring tonight. Hayder comes out winging desperately and rattles Kamaru but Kamaru reacts by taking him down again and cinching up an arm tri and forcing the tap without fully passing to side position. Really one sided fight. Final score: BZs $300,000—ATT $200,000.

    Jake Ellenberger lands one punch and knocks Stephen Thompson down with it but that’s the best it gets. His TD gets reversed and Thompson hits him with everything plus the sink, dropping him twice with spin back hook kicks, the second time for good. Jake may be shot but this was scary.
    Crimson Mask

    Hi Dave,

    A solid thumbs up in my mind

    Best Fight: Lawler vs MacDonald but Bermudez vs Stephens isn’t far behind

    Worst Fight: Pendred vs Howard

    Best Performances:  Thomas Almeida, Jeremy Stephens, Robbie Lawler

    I really liked the big feel aspect to the card. Having the main event players have their opening music sung live was a big plus and added to the event. I wouldn’t do it for every card but definitely for the big card of the year much like a Wrestlemania event.

    Main card really delivered. 

    *Great start to the PPV with that sick knockout by Almeida. I hope they don’t cut Pickett as he is usually in an entertaining fight.

    *Nelson totally controlled Thatch and Thatch’s stock has suddenly dropped quickly. From fighting Bendo in a main event with people thinking he was going to be a player in that division to be being stopped quickly.

    *Bermudez vs Stephens was an awesome fight. Hoping they both get a bonus as they went for it and brought the atmosphere up huge.

    *Lawler vs MacDonald – what another war. Both showed great heart in this fight and delivered a possible fight of the year. I was rooting for the Ruthless one here and going against my fellow Canadian. Something about MacDonald’s personality I just don’t like, maybe it is because he doesn’t really have one. Is he going to change his nickname every few fights? He picked another stupid name here..The Red King..WTF?  Maybe he should just combine them all and go for the worst nickname of all time, Rory “Ares, the Red Waterboy King” MacDonald.

    *McGregor vs Mendes – I thought it was weird that McGregor came out first. The show was being built around him so he should have came out last. He proved that he could weather a storm and has a great chin as those were some vicious elbows from the mount he was taking. He looked calm the whole time he was on his back and kept talking to Mendes the whole time. Couldn’t have been a better ending for UFC and the future Aldo vs McGregor fight. Let the hype begin!

    Everyone, check out my current ebay auctions featuring some great wrestling memorabilia including some fantastic Stampede wrestling programs which feature Owen Hart, Chris Benoit, Brian Pillman, Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid, Bad News Allen, Keichi Yamada, Shinya Hashimoto, Hiro Hase and so many more. Seller name is grantsindex

    Email me for some recent wrestling observer specials including UFC, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, Wrestlemania and more including some Dave Meltzer pre-Observer publications.

    grantsindex@nexicom.net

    Grant Zwarych

    Wrestling Observer Index

  • Jarrett and Global announce title situation

    Global Force Wrestling announced today that they will have four different championships and that tournaments for all four titles will begin at the 7/24 tapings in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.

    The main singles title will be the GFW Global championship, where TNA’s Bobby Roode has been announced as one of the competitors.

    A secondary singles title will be caleld the NEX GEN title, which will be a title for younger wrestlers on the way up.  It’s takeoff on the X Division title which his father named for TNA, but without copying the terminology.

    There will also be a tag team title and a women’s title tournament.

    The release indicated the tournaments would begin at the first tapings, but didn’t announce when they would conclude, past announcing follow-up dates on 8/21 and 10/23 in the same arena for TV tapings.

    At this point, there has been no announcement of a television deal or where these tapings wouild land.

  • Gail Kim talks training and changing women’s wrestling

    TNA Impact Wrestling’s Gail Kim took some time to participate in an interview with Marc Madison of The News Hub. The former WWE Women’s Champion and TNA Knockout champion revealed her thoughts on her early training, her rekindled passion for the sport and what the future holds for her. Check out excerpts of the interview below and to read the interview in its entirety please click here:

     About here training under Ron Hutchison, Rob Etcherverria and Dave ‘Fit’ Finley:

    Ron was the first person that I went to and trained with and obviously a lot of people associate him training Edge and Christian, Trish Stratus, many great Canadian wrestlers so I knew that was the place to be. He really taught me psychology and taught me the basics and taught me right. A lot of wrestling schools would grab the student and say hey you can learn this cool move and do a moonsault your first month in and he really just pump trained us on the basics in terms of psychology and train wrestling and after we moved onto the more advanced stuff and he was a great trainer.



    When I trained with Rob and I was a student of his (Ron) and Rob decided later on to open up his own school and he favored the Mexican style of wrestling, the Lucha style also I took a liking to that as well. Once I had enough experience where I could have matches, pretty much a year after that I could be fearless with Rob and he was very supportive towards the women.



    When I joined the WWE, Dave “Fit” Finley was our first agent that we worked with all the time and he brought in another form of aggression in me. I was very green when I started but he always said to me, “you need to be more aggressive”. I thought I was being aggressive but he was would say “no, more aggressive” and then more aggressive. I think each one of them gave me a little piece of who I am today and I think if you were to ask any of the women that I work with I think that is one of the things that they’ll acknowledge about me is that I like to be physical and I’ve become more aggressive. I think each one of them (Ron, Rob and Dave) you’ll see a part of me when I wrestle.

    About her initial run with TNA and the decision to be aligned with America’s Most Wanted:

    He (Scott D’Amore) said we want to build the women’s division and but the only thing is we only have an hour of programming and realistically it won’t happen for a little while and he said we want to bring you in and we want you to manage and they wanted to give me a prominent role, this was Jeff Jarrett and America’s Most Wanted and I said oh, I’d love to do that and I did that for over a year and that was really fun. All the guys in that company were always so supportive of the women including women. Sometimes you may see back in the day women come down there and really do nothing and hope to be a part of and get camera time. They always included me and then eventually me just having a passion for the sport of wrestling was very hard for me to just stand on the outside and watch the guys do what I’ve loved and eventually I said, ‘you know guys’ you said that you wanted to have a women’s division and I’ve been waiting and you know I just can’t wait anymore so luckily Jeff (Jarrett) said can you work with Jackie Moore and I said yeah, absolutely.

    I can work with whoever you want me to work with she’s absolutely amazing and the toughest women I’ve been in the ring with so we just had some amazing catfights as you would call them, physicality and people loved it and people were like oh, holy crap these girls are beating the crap out of each other and so just went slowly with Jackie and brought in Jamie D from the Independents and they would bring in girls slowly one at a time and then all of a sudden they said they wanted to bring in a title and bring in 10 girls and it was just a success overnight virtually and it just happened so perfectly I couldn’t have asked for anything better.



    On whether or not TNA Impact Wrestling capitalized on #GiveDivasAChance:

    I don’t think it’s ever really changed. The true wrestling fans that watch TNA Impact, I think they’ve always known. I don’t want to say they take it for granted in anyway but they always just know that TNA and Impact Wrestling are going to give them women’s wrestling. It’s almost like they want to see it in the WWE and this is why they are so vocal as well. I don’t know if anything really changed.

    I think we’ve always been strong with women’s wrestling and I think the fans have always known that. I think that’s a lot of the reason why they would tune in from the feedback I get from it through social media or meeting fans or that’s one of the things that I think that they love is that they would always say Impact Wrestling treats the women really well and one of the reasons they love watching it is because the women’s actually wrestle. I’m just glad when I was fighting for us to wrestle I would always have people tell me Gail, women’s wrestling is for the bathroom breaks, you know they really don’t want to see it. I would get discouraged a little bit but I was very adamant so I’m glad that we girls proved them wrong.

    —–
    Marc Madison – Columnist
    @TheMarcMadison

  • On this day in pro wrestling history: Murdoch vs. Bruiser, Bockwinkel vs. Tsuruta, Rockers vs. Rose & Somers, Benoit wins Super Juniors, Kane & Mankind win WWF tag title

    By Brian Hoops

    1936 – Yvon Robert defeated Danno O’Mahoney for the AWA (Boston-based American Wrestling Association, World Heavyweight Title in Montreal.

    1939 – In Kansas City, Kansas; Orville Brown beat Mike Kilonis in 2 straight falls, Bob Castle and Prospector Pete  
    drew, Steve Brody beat Bill Davison and Don George defeated Abe Freeman (promoter: George D. Simpson).

    1944 – At Memorial Hall in Kansas City; MWA World Heavyweight Champion Lee Wykoff defeated Billy Bartush in 2 out of 3 falls. 

    1945 – Dave Levin defeated Bobby Managoff in Houston, Texas to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight Title.

    1968 – In Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dr X beat Wilbur Snyder in 2 out of 3 falls, Dick the Bruiser & the Crusher beat Mad Dog Vachon & Butcher Vachon and Bill Watts no contest Harley Race

    1972 – In Kansas City; Central States Heavyweight Champion Harley Race defeated Bob Ellis and Roger Kirby & Black Angus & Percival A. Friend beat Rufus R. Jones & Danny Little Bear

    1973 – In Denver, Colorado; In a No Time Limit match; The Crusher beat Superstar Billy Graham by dq. Also, Ivan Koloff beat Ken Patera in 2 out of 3 falls, Ricky Romero beat Roger Kirby, Reggie Parks beat Rene Goulet and Greg Gagne drew Bob Bruggers. 

    1976 – In Omaha, Nebraska; In a Lumberjack match, Larry Hennig & Jos Leduc beat Mad Dog Vachon & Baron Von Raschke, Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum in 2 out of 3 falls and Peter Maivia beat Buddy Wolff

    1979 – Dick Murdoch defeated Dick The Bruiser to win the NWA Missouri Heavyweight title in St. Louis. 

    1979 – In Denver, Colorado; AWA Tag Team Champions Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon beat Nick Bockwinkel & Bobby Duncum, Greg Gagne beat Ray Stevens, Billy Robinson beat Jesse Ventura dq and Paul Ellering drew Super Destroyer Mark II.

    1982 – In Regina, SK; Mr. Hito beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel by dq, Bruce Hart & Davey Boy Smith beat Danny Davis & Ken Wayne by countout, Duke Myers beat Mike Hammer and Gerry Morrow beat Bad News Allen via dq. 

    1983 – In Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan in a non title match, Jumbo Tsuruta beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel

    1986 – In St. Paul, Minnesota; In a Non Title match; Nord The Barbarian beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel, Midnight Rockers beat Buddy Rose & Doug Somers to win AWA Tag Title (Decision later reversed as Somers was ruled to be the wrong man pinned) and Jimmy Snuka beat Colonel DeBeers by countout. 

    1989 – Riki Choshu & Takayuki Iizuka defeated Super Strong Machine & George Takano to win the International Wrestling Grand Prix World Tag Team Title. 

    1982 – Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito defeated Chief Jay & Jules Strongbow for the WWF World Tag Team Title in Allentown, Pennsylvania

    1991 – The Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) defeated Jerry Lynn in Dallas, Texas to win a tournament to crown the first Global Wrestling Federation Light Heavyweight Champion. 

    1992 – Ricky Morton defeated Eddie Gilbert for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee.

    1995 – Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) defeated Shinjiro Ohtani to win the finals of New Japan’s “Best Of The Super Junior” tournament.  

    1996 – Shane Douglas defeated Chris Jericho, Too Cold Scorpio and Pitbull #2 to win the ECW TV Title in Philadelphia, PA.

    1997 – Doomsday defeated Spellbinder for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee

    1998 – Kane & Mankind defeated Billy Gunn & the Road Dog for the WWF World Tag Team Title in East Rutherford, New Jersey

  • WWE house show report 7-12 Macon, GA

    By Wynn Etheridge

    1. Prime Time Players d. New Day (X and E)
    Great crowd work by New Day. Very good match. Lots of nice tag work by New Day. Titus pinned Xavier after sit out spinebuster. 12 minutes.

    2. Zack Ryder d. Bo Dallas.
    Good prematch promo by Dallas.  Ryder won outta nowhere with Rough Ryder. 5 min.

    3. Jimmy Uso d. Luke Harper. 
    Top rope splash. 8 min

    4. Mark Henry d. R. Truth
    Truth did lots of dancing spots early, then Henry squashed him. 5 min.

    5. Ryback d. Big Show
    Show took a very impressive slam off the top. Then The Ryback won with a flying splash off the top. 10 min

    6. Nikki Bella d. Naomi and Paige in triple threat match. 
    Bellas were total babyfaces. Crowd was super dead. Match wasn’t good. Nikki pinned Naomi with Rack Attack after Tamina laid Paige out on the floor. 5 min

    7. Kevin Owens d Neville
    Best match of the night. Owens cut a promo promising to beat Balor at Takeover, but before that beat Cena at Battleground, but before that beat Neville tonight. Crowd was really into it. Every time Neville climbed the ropes everyone rose to their feet. Owens hit a popup powerbomb after rolling out of the way of the Red Arrow. 13 min.

    8. Randy Orton d Sheamus
    Lots of brawling on the floor to start. Took a while to get going, but the crowd was super into it at the end. Orton hit the RKO after a missed Brogue Kick 20 min.

    One odd thing was they kept announcing Battleground as “available ONLY on the WWE network.” 

    Thanks
    Wynn Etheridge

    —
    W

  • UFC News: Conor McGregor, Urijah Faber pegged as TUF 22 coaches

    By Ryan Frederick, WrestlingObserver.com

    Interim UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber were announced as the coaches for season 22 of The Ultimate Fighter. UFC President Dana White made the announcement during tonight’s The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale event in Las Vegas. The season begins filming this month with a debut date of September 9 on FOX Sports 1.

    The season will feature lightweights from two countries. McGregor will coach eight lightweights from Europe and Faber will coach eight lightweights from the United States. White clarified that McGregor and Faber will not fight following the season.

    The following is the press release:

    Las Vegas – The next season of The Ultimate Fighter ® will feature no shortage of star power as interim UFC® featherweight champion “The Notorious” Conor McGregor coaches opposite Team Alpha Male’s Urijah Faber on the 22nd edition of the UFC’s storied reality television series.

    The Ultimate Fighter®: Team McGregor vs. Team Faberwill feature 16 competitors in the lightweight division and, in addition to a UFC contract; national pride will be on the line as McGregor leads eight European hopefuls against the Faber-led American squad. The sixth season to air on FOX Sports 1 will kick-off on Wednesday, September 9 with a two-hour season premiere airing at 10 p.m. ET. The season will continue with 11 one-hour shows Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET. The series is the highest rated and most watched original program since the network’s inception in August 2013.

    Since bursting onto the scene in 2013, McGregor (18-2) has taken the MMA world by storm. Declaring in July 2014 “we’re not here to take part; we’re here to take over” when referring to the Irish presence in MMA, the Irish sensation has done exactly that. Originally scheduled to fight Jose Aldo at UFC® 189, McGregor defeated Faber’s friend and training partner Chad Mendes to claim the interim UFC featherweight title last night by second-round TKO. Now he awaits his next fight, a highly anticipated title unification bout with the Aldo in the coming months.

    The former WEC featherweight champion, Faber (32-8) has been vocal in his disdain for McGregor. Long considered a pioneer for the lighter weight classes, Faber has assembled one of the top gyms in the sport, Team Alpha Male, featuring UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, No. 2 flyweight Joseph Benavidez and Mendes. Now, he’ll bring his high-powered team to Las Vegas in hopes of leading the Americans past the Europeans.

  • SUN. UPDATE: UFC 189, McGregor vs. Aldo dates, New Japan star hurt

    By dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>Dave Meltzer

    We’re looking for your thoughts on last night’s UFC 189 show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

    We’re also looking for reports on today’s WWE in Macon, GA (Randy Orton, Sheamus, Ryback, Big Show, Kevin Owens, Prime Time Players) and Knoxville (Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Kane, Cesaro, Dean Ambrose), as well as this weekend’s GFW shows in Appleton, WI and Erie, PA, and last night’s Evolve show in Orlando,  to dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

    UFC ON SUNDAY FROM THE MGM GRAND GARDEN ARENA ON FS 1 AT 7 P.M.

    George Sullivan vs. Dominic Waters
    Mike De La Torre vs. Maximo Blanco
    Dan Miller vs. Trevor Smith
    Caio Magalhaes vs. Josh Samman
    Willie Gates vs. Darrell Montague
    Russell Doane vs. Jarrod Sanders
    Angela Magana vs. Michelle Waterson
    Michael Graves vs. Vicente Luque
    Cezar Mutante Ferreira vs. Jorge Masvidal
    Hayden Hassan vs. Kamaru Usman in the TUF 21 season finale
    Jake Ellenberger vs. Steve Wonderboy Thompson

    Raw will be live on Monday from Atlanta.  Brock Lesnar is booked on the show.

    Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Birmingham.

    We’ve got a double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week, highlighted by part two of our look at the career and life of Dusty Rhodes.  This focuses on his babyface turn in Florida, his quest for the title, his rise to national prominence, and his feuds with Terry Funk, Superstar Billy Graham and Ole Anderson.  Plus, we look at this year’s G-1 Climax tournament, New Japan Dominion, lots of injury notes regarding some of WWE and TNA’s biggest stars, WWE lawsuit, Beast in the East and much more.

    The Latest Wrestling Observer:  July 13, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Dusty Rhodes bio part 2, back to back major shows in Japan

    Web site subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show in the history of the site are at  Sign up here for as low as $9.99 per month!

    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”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

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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 this week looks at the babyface heyday of Dusty Rhodes as a touring attraction.  We look at how the business was in the 70s, the changes in the business in the Southeast and why, the rise of pro wrestling on cable television, his departure from World Championship Wrestling, and his first babyface run that people have forgotten.

    We look at the heyday of Championship Wrestling from Florida, the work of Gordon Solie, Eddie Graham, and Rhodes arrival in Florida in 1973.  We look at the angle that changed Rhodes’ career, the transition from Jack Brisco to Dusty Rhodes as the big star in Florida and how that changed the business, the Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk I Quit match, the relationship between Rhodes and Funk, Dusty Rhodes’ first two NWA title runs, how the NWA title changed during the 70s and why and Rhodes’ quest for the title.  We also look at who Rhodes worked with, and his travels around the globe during his heyday, including some unique matches and opponents that most Americans don’t realize ever took place.

    We look at his Madison Square Garden feud with Superstar Billy Graham, pro wrestling at the Omni in Atlanta, Dusty Rhodes on TBS and the role pro wrestling made in the early history of cable television, as well as the famous angle where Ole Anderson & Ivan Koloff kicked off their feud with Rhodes that set cable records.

    We look at the famous Ole Anderson interview after turning on Dusty Rhodes and why their angle is so fondly remembered, The last Tangle in Tampa, the night that cable television changed the history of pro wrestling, the end of Roy Shire’s promotion, and the second world title run.

    We also have a look at the G-1 Climax tournament for this year, including the favorites, all the matches, as well as full coverage of the Dominion show from Osaka with Kazuchika Okada beating A.J. Styles for the IWGP title. 

    We’ve got a look at WWE’s latest legal action, including filing suit against four wrestlers in Connecticut.  We also look at the cases of wrestlers who are suing WWE.

    We’ve also got complete coverage of Beast from the East, how the show came together, why Brock Lesnar was on the show, and match-by-match rundowns with star ratings and poll results.

    We also have more on the NXT show in Brooklyn before SummerSlam, how it will be promoted, a scary note on how bad the Tyson Kidd injury could have been, Battleground update, Dolph Ziggler storyline notes, more WWE injury notes, thoughts on Cesaro, Big Show talks about his demotion to OVW, Thoughts on the memo from five years ago with the notes for WWE announcers and how things have changed since then, Brie Bella talks NXT women coming up as well as vague notes on Daniel Bryan’s injury, thoughts on Bryan’s future as well as an update on Bruno Sammartino after back surgery.

    We also look at the Sports Illustrated article on pro wrestling this week, social media numbers, Ambrose movie release, why Regal was in Japan, WWE’s Japan tryouts, Piper leaving Podcast One, Austin talking Piper leaving Podcast One, longtime WWE writer takes new job, notes on Randy Orton, USA Network take on Tough Enough, Jamie Noble and Becky Lynch injury updates, WWE stock, movies with WWE talent, lots of Tough Enough news, as well as notes from all the weekend live events, business notes and highlights from all the shows.

    The Observer is the world’s most detailed weekly pro wrestling publication, in its 32nd year of publication, and is read by the biggest names in the pro wrestling, industry, MMA industry, sports world and on Wall Street.

    We also have our regular features such as the most complete look at ratings, plus results of the major house show events each week in pro wrestling and MMA, and complete inside rundowns of all the TV shows.

    Also in this week’s issue:

    –CMLL running a free live stream this week

    –Notes from the latest shows at Arena Mexico

    –Controversy coming from a womens’ hair vs. hair match

    –Notes from this past week’s AAA TV taping

    –A look at the monthly Dragon Gate show at Korakuen Hall

    –A look at the next two Dragon Gate iPPV shows

    –A look at the last Pro Wrestling NOAH show at Korakuen Hall

    –Notes on Tetsuya Naito’s apparent heel turn

    –New Japan’s last Korakuen Hall show

    –Zero-One Fire Festival notes

    –Notes on the heyday of OVW

    –A look at the upcoming GFW shows 

    –Hulk Hogan lawsuit news

    –A look at the careers and lives of who are believed to be the two oldest living pro wrestlers

    –A look at a former WWE star who will star in a reality show piggy backing off Total Divas

    –Former AAA star has a major accident

    –Notes on the next PWG show

    –Wrestling returns to Royal Albert Hall in London

    –Update on Lucha Underground

    –NXT and ROH go head-to-head in Brooklyn and what ROH is running

    –Notes on return of Austin Aries to ROH nest week

    –Notes on Andy Barton leaving TNA

    –Update on Kurt Angle

    –Thoughts on the GFW deal

    –Notes on Gilbert Melendez failing his drug test

    –Dana White talks about how much Aldo would have made if he had fought McGregor

    –Update on Jon Jones

    –Notes on all the UFC shows this week

    –Notes on the IV ban

    –UFC fighter retires

    –Crazy street fight story involving a former UFC fighter and a current one

    –Notes on charges against the husband of Britney Palmer

    –Notes on fighters cut from UFC

    –Jose Aldo drug test note

    –Sonnen pranks Mendes just before the fight

    –Notes on Jacare Souza

    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.

    New subscribers ordering 24 or 40 issues have to let us know what major stories of the past 11 years you are most interested in and we’ll send the issue with the best coverage of that story. 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.

    Our most requested issues in our history are:

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    *March 26, 2001 (death of WCW and history of pro wrestling on the Turner networks)a

    *October 22, 2001 (why the adult audience has left pro wrestling in such great numbers and what needed to have been done to save them)

    *July 8, 1991 (Ric Flair leaves WCW as world champion/Zahorian steroid trial)

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    *August 16, 2004 (History of the Olympians in pro wrestling)

    *August 23, 2004 (2004 Hall of Fame issue and biggest issue of the year with huge profiles on Kazushi Sakuraba, Undertaker, Bob Backlund, Masahiro Chono, Ultimo Dragon, Kurt Angle and Tarzan Lopez–this counts as one issue if you are asking for a free issue, but ordered separately, due to size, is $6 in North America and $7 overseas)

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    *November 21, 2005 (Life and Times of Eddy Guerrero and Crusher, double issue $6 on its own and $7 overseas)

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    *January 9, 2006 (The life and times of Superstar Billy Graham, plus New Year’s Eve 2005 coverage)

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    *July 24, 2006 (The History of the Von Erichs and World Class Championship Wrestling–the most unreal story ever in wrestling)

    *September 4, 2006 (The Rise and Fall of Kurt Angle; 2006 Hall of Fame inductions of Eddie Guerrero, Paul Bowser, Masakatsu Funaki, Aja Kong and Hiroshi Hase including tons of wrestling history around the world from the 20s through the 60s, the evolution of working to not working in Japan, and a look at Guerrero in hindsight, double issue $6 or $7 overseas)

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    *November 15, 2006 (History of WCW part one, Eric Bischoff’s book and how the industry was changed forever)

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    *November 27, 2006 (History of WCW part three, When Bischoff challenged McMahon to fight; Truth and fiction around Bret Hart signing with WCW and why it didn’t click)

    *December 6, 2006 (details behind Pride’s offers to sell promotion and Part four of History of WCW part four, Hogan-Goldberg match and why there was no rematch, WCW loses NBC network deal in 1999 and the real reasons the company fell apart)

    *January 22, 2007 (2006 Awards issue, double issue $7 on its own, $8 overseas)

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    *March 5, 2007 (WWE begins plans that will change the business)

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    *July 10, 2007 (Part three of the Benoit double murder-suicide)

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    *July 23, 2007 (Part five of Benoit double murder-suicide)

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    *August 15, 2007 (The legend of the God of Japanese wrestling and his influence on MMA, Karl Gotch)

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    *August 11, 2008 (Ric Flair leaves WWE; Updated history of pro wrestlers and MMA fighters who went to the Olympics)

    * September 8, 2008 (2008 Hall of Fame double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas; part one of Killer Kowalski bio)

    * September 15, 2008 (Life and Times of Evan Tanner)

    * September 22, 2008 (The amazing career of Killer Kowalski, one of our most in-depth bios)

    You can also order any of these issues on their own for $4 in North America or $5 overseas.

    We now have available personally autographed copies of Tributes II, our latest book, as well as a DVD that comes with it talking more about the subjects in the book. The book covers the life stories of Lou Thesz, Wahoo McDaniel, Elizabeth, Fred Blassie, Road Warrior Hawk, Andre the Giant, Curt Hennig, Johnny Valentine, Davey Boy Smith, Terry Gordy, Owen Hart, Stu Hart, Gorilla Monsoon, The Sheik and Tim Woods..

    To get all of those biographies as back issues of the Observer would be a $60 value today. This is a collection of some of the best Observer articles of the past several years in a hardcover, full-color format that is 239 pages. There is also a foreword by Bret Hart. The book price is $12.95 plus $3.50 for shipping costs in the U.S., $20 for shipping costs to Canada and $25 for shipping costs outside North America. You can order the book the same way you order the newsletter.

    SUNDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

    –Want to say thanks to everyone we got to meet, both convention related and UFC related over the weekend, from all over the world.  It was a wild scene last night, and felt like a UFC version of WrestleMania as far as the show aspect was concerned.  Bryan and I have a ton of comments regarding the show, the weekend, the Hall of Fame and everything else in last night’s audio show.

    –Conor McGregor at the press conference was running down Jose Aldo, and said that he had more severe injuries than Aldo did.  McGregor suffered a knee injury when they were doing the world tour.  He was really on Aldo for not showing up, talking like his belt is the real belt and talked about facing somebody else for it rather than Aldo.  The scary thing is, if they did McGregor vs. anyone and not Aldo, and Aldo headlined defending the real belt vs. Edgar, the interim belt kills it be leaps and bounds.

    –Interesting note that McGregor had issued a bet of $3.5 million to Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White that he’d knock Mendes out within two rounds.  The bet was never agreed to, but he came in just under the wire.

    –Regarding ratings in Ireland and the U.K., the show last night only aired on BT Sports which is a subscription channel with limited penetration, although a lot of sports fans have it because of soccer coverage.  It will air on regular TV in Ireland on 3e at 9 P.M. Monday night. (thanks to Sean Herbert)

    –Regarding Dana White saying there are more Irish in the U.K than in Ireland, that depends on what you call Irish.  In 2011, there were 403,000 born in Ireland living in the U.K., while the population of Ireland is 4.6 million.  But if you take Irish to mean someone living in the U.K. with at least one Irish grandparent, that could be true due to the migration from Irish into the UK in the 30s and 40s.  McGregor vs. Mendes wasn’t that big in the U.K., but it was huge in Ireland.  I was told that if you lived in the U.K. and weren’t a UFC fan, you probably didn’t know an Irish fighter was challenging for the UFC title. There still was more U.K. coverage as the BBC had reps at the show and it made the BBC’s digital text service which is the first time that’s ever happened for UFC. (thanks to Matthew Singh=Dosanjh and Keith Harris)

    –Lorenzo Fertitta told ESPN.com that Aldo vs. McGregor could take place on January 2 at the MGM Grand, and also talked about possibly December 5.  Because they can charge the highest prices and get the most tourists from Ireland, the decision has been made that if the match happens, it will be in Las Vegas.

    –Chad Mendes didn’t protest the stoppage, saying if Herb Dean thought he was done, then it’s is decision.  Referees are not supposed to consider time when making stoppage decisions, such as, well there’s only a few seconds left so I’ll let it go.  Timing is part of everything.  Mendes was done with three seconds left in the round.  Robbie Lawler may have been a few seconds from done and was saved at the end of three, and came back to win in five.

    –In Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald, that is going to get a lot of consideration for fight of the year.  Both were hospitalized, and in fact, took a photo together from the hospital.  MacDonald suffered both a broken nose (and badly at that) and a broken foot. 

    –MacDonald was up 39-37 on all three scorecards going into the fifth round.  Had he not been finished, MacDonald would have won the decision.

    –UFC 189 had 1,000,000 searches on Google, which is the level of a major PPV show.  It’s not necessarily a million buys nor does that indicate any kind of a record, but it’s big numbers.  Robbie Lawler had 50,000.  Keith Thurman had 20,000.

    –As far as Twitter numbers at press time, UFC’s show was 387,000, Cathal Pendred vs. John Howard was 4,719 and Brock Lesnar’s birthday (38) was 1,464.

    –UFC ran a promotion that if you bought last night’s show and UFC 190 with Ronda Rousey on 8/1, you would get the 9/5 PPV for free. 

    –Katsuyori Shibata was injured on Friday night. No word yet on what that means as far as G-1, which starts on 7/20.

    –According to WWE, Roddy Piper has not been released from his legends deal.

    –Steve Yohe has a book on the life of Ed “Strangler” Lewis, one of the biggest stars in wrestling history (probably top 20 of all-time in importance) that will be coming out very soon.  Will update on it.

    –Last night’s All Elite show in Queretaro didn’t happen, which is never a good sign.  Octagon then went on Facebook and said promoter Javier Montes was a  fraud.  Mistico said Montes wouldn’t pay the wrestlers.   

    –Combat Zone Wrestling at its show last night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia announced a deal where CZW will be doing live PPV shows in the U.S and Canada working with Stonecutter Productions, which helped put ECW on PPV and has been doing taped shows.  They announced full U.S. coverage with DirecTV, all the major cable systems and The Dish Network.  They indicated the first show will likely be announced this week.  There have been rumors the first show would be the annual Cage of Death show.

    –Hornswoggle was at the GFW show on Thursday night in Appleton, WI.  We were told that there’s nothing to read into this.  He’s not talking to GFW but was there because he lives 15 minutes from the stadium and there were several ex-WWE guys and crew members working the show, plus he’s friends with a lot of ACW guys and a lot of their wrestlers and fans came to the show because Joey Avalon worked it (Eric Young beat him up).  

    –Glory will be running a show on 8/7 in Las Vegas.

    –CZW results from last night:  Shane Strickland (Lucha Underground Killshot) b David Starr Devon Moore & Lucky 13 b Buxx Belmar & Jonathan Gresham, Pepper Parks over Joey Janela and Rich Swann, Chrissy Rivera & Greg Excellent b Neiko Sozio b The Front, Speedball Mike Bailey b AR Fox (best match), Tim Donst b Joe Gacy to win the Wired TV title, Matt Tremont b Blk Jeez-DQ (Jeez retained the CZW world title), Nick Gage b Drew Gulak, Bill Carr & Dan Barry (Team Tremendous) won CZW tag titles in four-way over champs Dave & Jake Crist, Young Bucks and Alex Reynolds & John Silver.  Just was told they drew a good crowd (thanks to Bob Magee)

    –I’ve already had several people rave to me about Friday night’s Roderick Strong vs. Zack Sabre Jr. match on the Evolve show.  I have their PWG match, which in clips looked phenomenal, cued up for as soon as I have free time, which isn’t going to be for a few days.

    –CM Punk was really popular at the Fan Expo, so the idea that UFC fans won’t like him because he’s a fake wrestler, well, there are some vocal about it but the rank and file fans seemed to see him like a top guy.

    –TNA is looking for a Senior Manager of Digital Content & Engagement.

    –The New York Post story on John Cena at

    http://nypost.com/2015/07/11/john-cena-is-the-worlds-biggest-make-a-wish-superstar/

    –Jadat Sports LLC and Jerry Jarrett have reached a deal to release DVDs of old Memphis wrestling.  Right now the plan is four DVD releases that will total 35 hours of classic Memphis Wrestling.

    –John Finnegan has been keeping track of WWE TV and PPV matches starting in November 2006, and Sheamus’ win over Roman Reigns on Raw this past week was his 200th TV win during that period.  Nobody else has won as many TV matches.  Randy Orton right now has 197 in that period and John Cena has 188.    

    –Congrats to Premier promoter and sometimes web site contributor John LaRocca, on the birth of his baby girl Khloe Elizabeth LaRocca on Friday at 4:25 a.m.  Congrats to John and Katrina, as well as to grandpa Joe, who I’ve known since grade school.

    –Wrestlemerica, which is Luke Gallows’ promotion in Barnesville, GA, had a TV taping on Friday night:  Shane Marx won three-way over Chip Day and AJ Steele, Iceberg b Pain-DQ, Murder One & Tommy Too Much b Razor & Rowdy, Mickie James b Pandora with Amber Galllows as referee, Sal Rinauro b Kevin Cage, Jimmy Rave b Mike Posey, Andy Anderson & Tyson Dean b Gunner & Iceberg to win the Southern tag team titles due to help from Pain & Tommy Too Much.  They announced an 8/15 show at the Academy Gym in Barnesville with Matt Hardy vs. Tyson Dean. (thanks to Kris Zellner)

    –Dynamo Pro Wrestling from last night in Glen Carbon, IL  Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby b CJ Perry & Snitch, Lucy Mendez b Rachael Freeman, Michael Magnusson & Dave DeLorean b Rocket Mapache & Jackal, Brandon Aarons b Adrian Surge, Mike Outlaw b Jayden Fenix, Ricky Cruz b Evan Morris, Jack Gamble & Jon Webb won four-way over Shorty Biggs & Outtkast, Elvis Aliaga & Jay Howard and Justin D-Air & Keon Option, Jake Dirden b  Billy McNeil (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)

    –Anarchy Wrestling TV tapings from last night in Cornelia, GA:  Tommy Penirelli b Strykyn, Kevin Park b Marco Polo, Trever Aeon b Stitch Osiris, Todd Sexton b Raphael King, Mikael Judas b Jeff Lewis Neal, Slim J & Fred Yehi b Geter & Blaze, Azrael & Supernatural and Billy Buck & Bobby More, Kevin Blue b Jeremy Foster, Lars Manderson & BJ Hancock & Tommy Penirelli b Logan Creed & Shadow & Ashworth.  Next TV taping is 7/25 (thanks to Bill Behrens)   

    –Premier Championship Wrestling from last night in Winnipeg:  Jackie Lee b Zack Mercury, Chad Tatum over Jacob Creed and Alexander Prime, Antonio Scorpio b Shao Ming, Kenny Omega d Mentallo, Jackie Lee b Chad Tatum, London Dynasty b Kenny Omega & Chris Stevens & Mike McSugar & Michael Clarke, Antonio Scorpio b Jackie Lee in match one of a best of three.  Next show is 8/29 with Omega vs. Mentallo in a rematch (thanks to Andrew Shallcross)

    –Pure Wrestling Association on 8/16 in Bradford, ONT at the Old Bradford Arena with a tag team tournament including teams like Tommy Dreamer & Rhino, Tyson Dux & Tornado, Steve Corino & Reggie Marley, Johnny Devine & Ruffy Silverstein and several others.  There will be an 11:30 a.m. show which is free and a 6:30 p.m. show with $5 tickets.

    –Tessa Blanchard and Jessicka Havoc wrestle for Lucky Pro Wrestling on 11/15 in Hudson, MA.

    –Lucha Xtreme TV from last night in Fresno:  Kikyo b Luscious Lynn & Lisa Lace, Jesse Poole b Aki Sol, CB 3 b  Kevin El Divino, Brandon Groom b Johnny Dynamo (thanks to Jon Southerland)

    –GOUGE from last night in Raleigh, NC:  No Direction b Waylon Maze & Johnny Fulls, Jennifer Blaze b Bill LaBeux, Otto Schwanz b Priest, Seymout Snott b Jakob Hammermeier-COR, Juan Jeremi b Jimmy Jack funk Jr. in a bullrope match.  Next show is 7/18 in Fuquay Varina, NC at Draft Line Brewery.

    –The seven new matches released on the NWA Classics 24/7 web site of old Houston Wrestling are Kerry Von Erich vs. Kamala, Gino Hernandez vs. Nick Kozak, Rocky Johnson vs Bruiser Brody, Hector Guerrero vs. Jose Lothario, Buddy Landel vs. Al Madril, The Fantastics vs. Dutch Mantell & Bill Dundee and Dusty Rhodes & Bad Leroy Brown vs. Gary Hart & Killer Karl Krupp.

    –Showcase Pro Wrestling from Friday night in Woonsocket, RI before a sellout 140 fans:  Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt of Woonsocket gave promoter Chris Blackheart a citation.  Nichols Night b GA West, Steve Lust & Steve Broad b Chris Matrix & Scott Le’deur, Benny Blanco & DJ AC b Albanian Assassins, Buck Nasty b Blackwolf, Rich Bass b Sgt. Muldoon, Shawn Candito b Cargill Vinton, Chris Matrix won Woonsocket Rumble (thanks to John Callahan)

    –AIW Absolution X from Friday night in Cleveland:  Gregory Iron & Iron Curtain b Joshua Singh & Kaplan & Frankie Flynn & Brian Carson, Athena b Veda Scott to keep women’s title, Davey Vega b BJ Whitmer to keep Intense title, Ethan Page b Eddie Kingston in an I Quit match, Colin Delaney & Cheech b Tyson Dux & Tracy Williams to keep tag titles, Louis Lyndon won six-way over Candice LaRae, ACH, Flip Kendrick, Cedric Alexander and Tyler Thomas, Tim Donst b Nick Gage, Josh Alexander b Ricky Shane Page to keep AIW title, Ricky Shane Page b Josh Alexander to win title, Young Bucks & Johnny Gargano & Alex Daniels & Josh Prohibition b Ethan Carter III & Matt Cross & DJ Zema Ion & Samoa Joe & Raymond Rowe (thanks to Chris GST)

    –The Kickstarter and teaser trailer for “Nightwing: The Darkest Knight” has launched online here- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattboxmedia/nightwing-the-darkest-knight

    Nightwing stars Brady Roberts (star of World of Hurt Season 2 with Rowdy Roddy Piper as Brady Malibu, Lance Storm student). Tyson Kidd and Kofi Kingston have tweeted out the trailer already.

    —Post match after Friday’s Timothy Thatcher win over Drew Galloway

    —Shad Gaspard on the red carpet for Terminatortalking about my next films, WWE and more.

    —Trailer for JTG’s first movie 

    —Conor McGregor’s elite level movement tested out in a lab

    Fascinating.. this is the kind of force that sucked the wind out of Chad Mendes with those spinning kicks.

  • UFC TUF 21 Finale: Ellenberger vs. Thompson live results and coverage

    Welcome to WrestlingObserver.com’s live coverage of The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale: Ellenberger vs. Thompson from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event, headlined by a five-round welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger and Stephen Thompson, plus the finals of this season of The Ultimate Fighter, airs on FOX Sports 1 at 9 PM eastern time. Preliminary card action kicks off at 6:30 PM eastern time on UFC Fight Pass before moving over to FOX Sports 1 at 7 PM eastern time.

    Good luck to everyone today trying to follow last night.

    Coverage by Ryan Frederick

    PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC FIGHT PASS- 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT):

    FLYWEIGHTS: DARRELL MONTAGUE VS. WILLIE GATES

    ROUND 1- They trade punches to begin. Gates with a series of kicks and Montague lands a body kick. Neither man able to connect on some strikes. Gates lands a right hand. Montague with a leg kick and Gates counters with one of his own. Gates lands a right hand that stuns Montague. Gates sends Montague down and Montague grabs a leg. Gates with a body punch and then knees to the body on the ground. Some more ground and pound from Gates and it is stopped. Gates with the TKO win in the opening round.

    Official Result: Willie Gates def. Darrell Montague by TKO (strikes) at 1:36 of Round 1

    PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX SPORTS 1- 7 PM ET/4 PM PT):

    WELTERWEIGHTS: GEORGE SULLIVAN VS. DOMINIC WATERS

    ROUND 1- Sullivan with a series of leg kicks. They trade an exchange. Waters with a combo. Waters lands another combo. Sullivan counters with his own combo. They trade left hands. Waters lands a left hook. Sullivan with a leg kick. Waters with a body kick. Sullivan lands a solid right hand. Waters rocks Sullivan with a combo against the fence and then transitions with a takedown and goes to the back. They get to their feet. Sullivan with some knees to the body before they break and trade punches. They trade again. Sullivan lands an uppercut and Waters was in trouble and lands a takedown. Sullivan with body punches as they get to their feet and he lands a knee. Sullivan with more knees to the body and lands a big right hand. Waters grabs the back. Waters is cut and Sullivan scores a takedown. Sullivan with elbows from the top. Sullivan ends the round big with ground and pound. 10-9 Sullivan.

    ROUND 2- Waters comes out with a spin kick. Sullivan with a leg kick and Waters catches the leg and pushes the fight to the mat and Waters goes into the guard. Sullivan gets to the fence and works to his feet. Sullivan with some knees to the body as they battle for underhooks. Waters pulls guard and Sullivan has him pinned against the cage. Sullivan grabs the arm and is looking for the kimura. Waters escapes. Sullivan moves to mount and lands some big punches. Sullivan goes for the arm again but nothing. Waters is able to escape from being mounted and they get to their feet. Sullivan gets a takedown. Sullivan with a series of punches from the top. Sullivan goes for the arm again. Waters escapes the kimura. Sullivan with more body punches as the round ends. 10-9 Sullivan, 20-18 Sullivan.

    ROUND 3- Waters’ corner told him it is 1-1. Yeah, right. Waters gets the takedown and takes the back and is looking for the choke. Sullivan escapes. Waters goes for it again as he gets the hooks in. Waters with some body punches as he has the back mount. Waters still is looking for the choke as Sullivan is cut open. Sullivan with backwards punches. Sullivan looks to reverse and has the arm and is looking for an armbar. Waters loses position and Sullivan is now in the guard of Waters. Sullivan with some elbows and punches from the top. Sullivan with more punches to the body from the top as this fight is going to the judges. 10-9 Sullivan, 30-27 Sullivan.

    Official Result: George Sullivan def. Dominic Waters by unanimous decision (29-27, 30-25, 29-28)

    MIDDLEWEIGHTS: DAN MILLER VS. TREVOR SMITH

    ROUND 1- Dan Miller is back for the first time since UFC 158 in March 2013. They trade punches to start. Miller lands a solid combination. They trade punches. Miller lands a combo and they clinch and each land uppercuts. Miller with a knee to the body against the fence. They trade knees to the body. They battle for position against the fence. They break. Miller lands a left hand. Smith lands a flush right hand. Miller with a huge leg kick. Miller lands an uppercut and grabs the neck. Miller drops for the guillotine but Smith scrambles out. Smith with punches on the ground. Smith with an elbow. Smith with some hammerfists from the top. Smith lands an elbow to close out the round. 10-9 Smith.

    ROUND 2- Miller lands a leg kick. Smith lands a right hand. Smith lands another. They clinch and Smith lands a knee to the body. They trade knees to the body. Miller drops to his back and Smith is on top. Miller looking to throw his legs up. Smith postures up and is landing from the top. Smith with more punches from the top. Miller looks for a leg lock but Smith gets back into half-guard. He is controlling Miller on the ground well. Miller tries to create a scramble but fails at it. Smith lands a big right hand but ate an upkick from Miller. Miller still working for a submission but Smith is able to block and ride the round out on top. 10-9 Smith, 20-18 Smith.

    ROUND 3- They trade punches. Smith lands a right hand and a knee to the body. Miller grabs the neck and goes for a choke but Smith easily escapes. Smith with some punches from the top as he tries to transition to side control. Smith gets back into the full guard of Miller. Smith with body punches from the top. More punches from the top. Smith with more punches from the top as he is unable to pass the guard of Miller, but still dominant. Smith with more control from the top as Miller is exhausted. Elbows from the top by Smith. Smith gets to his feet but goes back to half-guard. Smith with elbows from the top and the fight is going to go to the judges. Boring fight. 10-9 Smith, 30-27 Smith.

    Official Result: Trevor Smith def. Dan Miller by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-26)

    BANTAMWEIGHTS: RUSSELL DOANE VS. JERROD SANDERS

    ROUND 1- Sanders with a high kick that was checked. Roane misses a right hand as Sanders drops for a takedown. They scramble down on the mat. Sanders gets the back of Doane. Sanders looking for the choke. Sanders still has the back and the body locked. They get to their feet and clinch against the fence. Doane drags the fight to the mat and they still battle for position. Doane looks to transition to the back. Doane looks to grab the arm. Doane with some punches from the back. Doane transitions to back control and looks for a choke. Doane triangles the body from the back. They are going to end the round on the mat. 10-9 Doane.

    ROUND 2- Doane with a body kick and quick combo. Sanders tries for a takedown but it is defended. Doane looks for the neck but Sanders moves to the back as they fall to the mat. Sanders looking for a choke as he has Doane’s back. Doane reverses and has top position. Doane with punches from the back. Doane lets go and then lands a big knee and big combination. Sanders goes for a takedown but Doane stuffs it and is teeing off on Sanders. Sanders goes for a single leg but Doane defends and lands some punches. Doane grabs the neck but can’t get a choke as Sanders escapes. Sanders takes the back of Doane. Sanders looks for a choke as he has the back. Sanders still has the back as the round ends. 10-9 Sanders, 19-19 after two.

    ROUND 3- Sanders comes out with a series of punches. Then, Doane lands a series of punches as Sanders went for a takedown. Doane ends up on top. Doane with more punches from the top. Doane switches to the back and looks to get his arm under the neck. Sanders escapes and spins into the guard of Doane. Sanders transitions to the mount. Doane spins out and scrambles out and they get to their feet and break. Sanders with some kicks. Doane misses a flying knee and Sanders is able to counter with a takedown. Doane grabs the neck and reverses out and they are on the feet. Sanders grabs the neck as they go to the mat and spins to the back. Sanders looks for the choke. Sanders with the back and some under the arm back punches. Sanders still has back control and dominant position. Doane with a back elbow but Sanders lands punches to end the fight. 10-9 Sanders, 29-28 Sanders.

    Official Result: Jerrod Sanders def. Russell Doane by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

    MIDDLEWEIGHTS: JOSH SAMMAN VS. CAIO MAGALAHES

    ROUND 1- Samman with some kicks to start. Samman with two more leg kicks. Samman with a front kick. Magalhaes lands a big left hook. Samman comes back with a heavy leg kick. Magalhaes lands a right hand. Samman opens up with a body kick and some punches. Samman drops Magalahes to the mat with a leg kick and Samman goes to half-guard. Samman in the full guard. Samman with body punches. Samman pushes Magalhaes to the fence. Magalhaes is bleeding heavily. Samman moves to the back and has the hooks in and the choke. It is in deep and Magalhaes taps out! Samman with the big submission win with the rear-naked choke. Samman tried to shake hands after the fight but Magalhaes spit blood on him and had to be restrained by referee John McCarthy.

    Official Result: Josh Samman def. Caio Magalhaes by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:52 of Round 1

    MAIN CARD (FOX SPORTS 1- 9 PM ET/6 PM PT):

    FEATHERWEIGHTS: MAXIMO BLANCO VS. MIKE DE LA TORRE

    ROUND 1- Blanco missed weight for this bout. Blanco with a big head kick and then drops De La Torre with a big right hand. Yves Lavigne quickly steps in to stop the fight as De La Torre was grabbing the leg of Blanco. This fight is over and the crowd is booing and De La Torre is not happy about the apparent quick stoppage. It was an early stoppage but will go down as a win for Blanco.

    Official Result: Maximo Blanco def. Mike De La Torre by TKO (punches) at :16 of Round 1

    WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHTS: ANGELA MAGANA VS. MICHELLE WATERSON

    ROUND 1- This is the much-anticipated UFC debut of Waterson. They quickly trade. They clinch against the fence. Waterson with a knee to the body. They trade short knees. Waterson with a judo throw to the ground and into the half-guard of Magana. Waterson into the full guard. Magana works for an armbar. Waterson defends. Magana has the armbar locked in as Waterson is trying to escape. Magana is not letting go. Waterson escapes and continues with punches to the body. They get to the feet and Waterson lands a big knee. Waterson with another judo toss. Waterson easily moves to the mount. Waterson with a big right hand from the top. Waterson moves for an armbar but can’t get it in as the round ends with a big punch from Waterson. 10-9 Waterson.

    ROUND 2- Waterson with a leg kick and then a right hand. Waterson lands a body kick. Waterson throws Magana down and lets her back up. Waterson lands a right hand. Magana lands a left hand but Waterson lands a right hand back. Waterson with a head kick then some knees to the body. Waterson with a leg kick and Magana catches the leg and they go to the mat with Magana on top. Waterson goes for the armbar and has it stretched out. Magana gets out but Waterson ends up in the mount. Waterson with a big punch from the top. Magana is unable to escape from the bottom. Waterson with a big elbow. Waterson tried to move to side control but gave up her leg to Magana. Waterson scrambles to her feet and then moves to side control and then to mount. Waterson goes for the arm but the round will end. 10-9 Waterson, 20-18 Waterson.

    ROUND 3- Waterson with a front kick to the body. Waterson lands a short left and then a head kick. Waterson with a leg kick and then lands a combo. Waterson with a front kick to the face. Waterson with a right hand and then grabs the back and suplexes Magana to the ground. Waterson has the back mount and has Magana flattened out. Waterson with punches from the back. Waterson looks to grab the neck and is looking for the choke. She has it locked in and Magana taps out. Waterson with a win in her debut with the rear-naked choke.

    Official Result: Michelle Waterson def. Angela Magana by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:38 of Round 3

    WELTERWEIGHTS: JORGE MASVIDAL VS. CEZAR FERREIRA

    ROUND 1- Masvidal originally missed weight but later made it. Ferreira with a body kick. Ferreira lands a straight left and then another body kick. Masvidal with a right hand. Ferreira drops down and scores a takedown. Ferreira moves to the half-guard. Masvidal scrambles out and they’re back on the feet. Ferreria with a body kick and they trade punches. Masvidal lands a right hand. Ferreira with a combo and then goes for a takedown. Ferreira with an elbow on the break. They trade strikes and Ferreira pushes Masvidal against the fence looking for a takedown. Masvidal drops Ferreira with a big elbow and then finishes it off with some punches on the ground! Masvidal with the knockout win over Ferreira.

    Official Result: Jorge Masvidal def. Cezar Ferreira by TKO (strikes) at 4:22 of Round 1

    WELTERWEIGHTS: MICHAEL GRAVES VS. VICENTE LUQUE

    ROUND 1- Graves represents ATT and Luque represents the Blackzilians but this isn’t the finals. Graves lands a quick combo and gets a takedown into side control. Luque gets to his feet against the fence and Graves has the neck. Graves lands a big elbow on the break. They battle against the fence but break. Luque lands a nice combo and a leg kick. Graves drops down and gets a takedown. Graves gets Luque next to the fence and looks to posture up. Graves grabs the neck and lands body punches. Graves lands a knee and then a right hand and a leg kick. Luque lands a combo and then a knee to the body. Graves gets another big takedown as he powers Luque up against the cage. Graves rides the round out on top. 10-9 Graves.

    ROUND 2- They quickly go to the mat and Graves scrambles to the top. They get to their feet and Graves lands an illegal knee to the head as Luque had his fingers down on the mat. Graves lands a spin kick. Luque lands a nice combo and stuffs a takedown but they clinch against the fence. Graves lands a knee on the break. Graves grabs the single leg and powers the fight to the mat. They get to their feet but Graves gets another takedown. Graves with big punches from the half-guard. They scramble to the feet and Graves has the front headlock. Graves with more knees and they trade as the round ends. 10-9 Graves, 20-18 Graves.

    ROUND 3- They clinch quickly and push against the fence but break. Luque lands a left hand and defends a takedown. Luque has a front headlock and lands some punches. Luque looks to set up a D’arce choke. Graves defends it. Luque lands some knees to the body. Graves trying to escape. Graves tries to scramble but Luque keeps position. They scramble and Graves ends up on top against the fence. They battle against the fence as the fight ends. Nothing round. 10-9 Luque, 29-28 Graves.

    Official Result: Michael Graves def. Vicente Luque by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

    WELTERWEIGHTS: KAMARU USMAN VS. HAYDER HASSAN

    ROUND 1- This determines which team wins TUF. Usman represents the Blackzilians and Hassan represents ATT. They clinch up quickly. They scramble around and break the clinch. They clinch and Usman lands some knees to the body of Hassan. Usman gets a takedown and into the half-guard. Hassan gives up his back. Usman looks for the hooks. Usman with punches from the back. Usman gets the fight back to the mat. Usman with punches from the top. Usman gets the hooks on the back. Hassan gets out but Usman still has his back. Usman gets the fight back down. Usman looks to set up an arm-triangle. Round ends with Usman landing some elbows. 10-9 Usman.

    ROUND 2- They come out swinging and Hassan hurts Usman with an uppercut. Usman recovers and lands a big slam takedown and gets into the mount. Usman looks to set up an arm-triangle choke. He is in a bad position as he can’t get perpendicular due to the cage. Usman gets it in tighter and Hassan taps! Usman with the submission win and the Blackzilians take the $300,000 top prize for the season.

    Official Result: Kamaru Usman def. Hayder Hassan by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 1:19 of Round 2

    WELTERWEIGHTS: JAKE ELLENBERGER VS. STEPHEN THOMPSON 

    ROUND 1- Thompson with a head kick. Thompson with a leg kick. Thompson then lands a straight left hand. Ellenberger drops Thompson with a right hand but Thompson gets back up and they clinch. Thompson pushes the fight against the fence. They trade elbows. They break after trading punches. Thompson with a front side kick right to the face. Ellenberger trips Thompson down but Thompson takes the back and is landing punches from the back. They get up but Thompson slams Ellenberger down. Ellenberger tried to grab the fence. They scramble to the feet. Thompson lands a nice combo that hurts Ellenberger. Thompson drops Ellenberger with a spinning back kick to the face. Thompson then takes side control and Ellenberger scrambles to his feet but is on dazed legs. Thompson then drops Ellenberger with another spin kick to the face and this is over! Ellenberger is out. Thompson with the big knockout win over Ellenberger.

    Official Result: Stephen Thompson def. Jake Ellenberger by knockout (strikes) at 4:29 of Round 1

  • Lucha Futures arena results: wrestling returns to London’s Royal Albert Hall

    Submitted By David Francisco

    The show opens with the MC talking about the history of Mexico and of the Royal Albert Hall. He introduced a masked wrestler that I didn’t get the name that rang the first bell of the show from his stall. MC explains the rules. He used the term “rudos” and “tecnicos” during his announcements. The MC screwed up who were the “rudos” and “tecnicos” in the minis match and the intergender match. For example, he announced Sexy Star as a rudo, practically describing her a bad person, but she worked the match as a babyface. The same thing happened with the refs: Steve Lynskey was announced as a heel ref but worked as a babyface and Pierro was announced as “as straight as the stripes on his shirt” but worked as a heel from the get-go.

    Octagonzito & Blue Demonzito Jr. beat Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria (11:29)

    Mini Abismo Negro spent a lot of time messing up with the man dressed as nuns. The tecnicos seemed lost at first, but they got into it at the end. Lots of great spots and pleasing the crowd. Blue Demonzito Jr. won with a tilt-a-whirl Black Widow like submission over Mini Abismo Negro.

    Fenix beat Pentagon Jr. (13:48)

    Looks like Fenix is healed, he worked a normal match with dives and all the great stuff he can do. Pierro, the ref, was announced as a face here but immediately started pushing the crowd, especially the two men dressed like nuns.

    They tried to call for “Fenix” and “Zero Miedo” chants in the beginning, but this crowd wasn’t buying it. Started with submissions traded, then traded kicks and clotheslines. Fenix did a great flip dive. Pentagon work the leg with amazing kicks outside the ring that had the crowd gasping. The ref (Pierro, that was announced as a good guy) stomped Fenix at one point and held him for a kick by Pentagon. Fenix cameback and did a twisting dive to the outside from the corner. Pentagon Piledriver Drop is even better live. Fenix won with a Reverse Hurricanrana and a fast count by the ref, that thought that Pentagon was on top.

    This was a great, well paced, well worked match. The storytelling was great, and the technical aspect of it was top notch. Didn’t expect different. In the end, there was some coins in the ring, planted so that they could get the crowd to throw some more. They saw it wasn’t working and waited. Pentagon threw the coins up in the air to try again. The crowd was just way too confused by these coins. No chants whatsoever in the matches, it really is a casual fan crowd. Lots of Mexicans, though, that will start a “culejo” chant from time to time. The rest of the crowd won’t join, as they don’t understand what that chant is. In the minis tag, they tried a “tecnicos” chant and the response was a “Mexico” chant. Weird.

    20 min intermission. Band playing.

    Drago & Sexy Star beat Bengala & Faby Apache (14:58)

    Bengala and Drago started with some chain. So did the ladies. Drago dominated Bengala and Apache at the same time and did a flip to the outside over Bengala. Drago is great. The rudos (that were announced as tecnicos) did double teams on Sexy and Drago. Bengala did a Rolling Surfboard on Sexy, and also a Superplex. Sick.

    Sexy botched a double team on Bengala but followed with an amazing Crossbody to the outside, so it’s OK. Drago followed with his Twisting Dive on Bengala and Apache. The crowd did the wave at a certain point. I wasn’t sure if it was boredom or just a joke by a small group that got out of hand. Still, for a minute, they totally lost the crowd, but had them back after the crowd stopped joking around. Lots of near falls in the end. Sexy locked Apache on a Bow and Arrow-like hold and Drago did his rolling cover for the win.

    Psycho Clown & La Parka vs. Blue Demon Jr. Beat Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr. & Villano IV  (24:31)

    MC asked the crowd to stand up for Blue Demon Jr.. They said it was his 30th year career anniversary (why don’t I believe this?). Blue Demon Jr. got a different entrance than everyone else. Different music and lights, different entrance place and a traditional Mexican peacock-like head gear.

    Tecnicos started all right but didn’t do much. Rudos did all kinds of cheating and got the advantage. Texano rope was used a lot. There were two refs in this match and both were distracted. The crowd did the wave again when all the rudos were attacking all the tecnicos at the same time.

    The faces did a comeback. There was a weird spanking spot: Texano was laying down with his cheeks out. Fantasma covered him and the tecnicos get his ckeeks out and spank him once with the rope and that Psycho Clown gimmick. At a certain point, Psycho was hitting everybody with his gimmick, even Blue Demon Jr. and the refs. La Parka just went in the middle of the crowd when this happened, he just didn’t care. Psycho did all the dives in this match, with a plancha and a crossbody from the corner to the outside. La Parka worked with the heels a long time and did a lot of comedy, dominating all three.

    The crowd became tired in the last few minutes, and maybe they felt it because they went home when this happened. Blue Demon Jr. won with his Leg and Arm submission over Villano IV. Dana Brooke has been studying her lucha libre, it seems.

    All six were in the ring greeting each other as soon as the match ended. All the luchadores were called to the ring. They took a picture and greeted the fans. Pentagon Jr. played some tuba, to the delight of the crowd. In the end, Pentagon Jr, Fenix, Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown, Sexy Star and Octagonzito stood around the ring taking pictures, signing autographs and greeting fans.

    It was a really fun show for a great crowd. Even though sometimes they didn’t act like a Mexican or a Lucha Underground crowd due to the difference in the demographics and in the experience they have with live wrestling, this crowd was alive, noisy and fun. The show was fun and worth it, especially that Pentagon Jr. vs. Fenix match that was the best of the night, in my opinion.

  • On this day in pro wrestling history (July 12): Gagne, Bruiser & Crusher, Ladd wins Americas title, 1992 Bash with Sting vs. Vader

    By Brian Hoops, WrestlingObserver.com

    1933 – Thor Jenson defeated Harold Heibert for the Pacific Coast Middleweight Title in Eugene, Oregon.

    1946 – Tex Riley won a tournament in Nashville, Tennessee to win the vacant Tennessee World Junior Heavyweight Title; Joe Savoldi defeated Everett Marshall for the Rocky Mountain Heavyweight Title in Colorado Springs, Colorado

    1951 – Eduardo Perez and Red Roberts defeated Ray Piret and Herb Welch to win the Mid-America NWA Southern Tag Team Title in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

    1957 – Herb Freeman defeated Bill Savage to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title.

    1962 – In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; In a Non title Cage match; Verne Gagne beat AWA Champion Mr. M who was unmasked as Bill Miller, Ilio DiPaolo drew Bob Geigel, Doug Gilbert beat Jack Daniels, Joe Scarpello beat Bill Wright and Jackie Nichols drew Thor Hagen. Attendance was 5,500.

    1963 – Johnny Valentine defeated Moose Cholak to win the International Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title in Chicago, Illinois.

    1966 – Louie Tillet won the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Title in Dallas, Texas; Don Carson defeated Bobby Fields for the NWA Louisiana Heavyweight Title in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    1967 – The Beast and Bob Sweetan defeated Bobby and Jerry Christy to win the Stampede International Tag Team Title in Calgary, Alberta.

    1968 – In Milwaukee; Dick the Bruiser won a 9 man battle royal, Dr X no contest Wilbur Snyder, Bill Watts beat Harley Race, Dick the Bruiser beat Big K and Man Mountain Mike beat Blackjack Daniels. Attendance was 4,480.

    1969 – Bob Ellis and Stan Pulaski defeated Bob Geigel and The Viking for the AWA Midwest Tag Team Title; In Milwaukee, Wisconsin; AWA Tag Team Champions Dick the Bruiser & the Crusher beat Mad Dog Vachon & Butcher Vachon, Bill Watts beat Lars Anderson, Blackjack Lanza beat Pampero Firpo and Wilbur Snyder beat Big K. Attendance was 9,512

    1972 – Bob Kelly defeated Gorgeous George, Jr. in Mobile, Alabama to win the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title.

    1973 – At Memorial Hall in Kansas City; Jim Brunzell defeated Percy Pringle, Lord Alfred Hayes & Roger Kirby defeated Steve Bolus & Mike George, Jack Brisco defeated Jim Dalton, Bobo Brazil & Rufus R. Jones defeated Togo the Great & Tokyo Joe in three falls and Bob Brown defeated Danny Little Bear in three falls.

    1974 – Ernie Ladd defeated Porkchop Cash to win the NWA Americas Heavyweight Title in Los Angeles, California; In Denver; Ivan Putski beat Billy Graham via dq, The Crusher beat Ray Stevens dq, Billy Robinson beat Baron Von Raschke dq and Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Larry Hennig & Paul Perschmann in 2 out of 3 falls; Carlos Colón and José Miguel Pérez defeated Jim Dalton and Bruce Swayze for the WWC North American Tag Team Title in Ponce, Puerto Rico

    1976 – John Tolos defeated Kinji Shibuya for the Vancouver NWA Pacific Coast Heavyweight Title in Vancouver, British Columbia.

    1978 – Whipper Watson, Jr. defeated Dutch Mantel to win the NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Title in Nashville, Tennessee

    1979 – Central States Wrestling held an eight-team tournament for the vacant NWA Central States Tag Team Title in Kansas City, Kansas. Jerry Brown and The Turk defeated Bob Brown and Gama Singh to win the vacant NWA Central States Tag Team Title.

    1981 – Mr. Fuji defeated Angelo Mosca to win the Toronto NWA Canadian Heavyweight Title in Toronto, Ontario

    1982 – In Hobbema, Alberta, Canada; AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Keith Hart, Duke Myers beat Jim Neidhart, Bruce Hart & Davey Boy Smith beat Danny Davis & Ken Wayne and Bad News Allen beat Duke Kono; Bobby Eaton defeated NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion Dutch Mantel to win the title in Memphis, Tennessee.

    1983 – In Las Vegas, Nevada in a Death Match; Mad Dog Vachon beat Jerry Blackwell, Jim Brunzell beat Mr. Saito dq, Rick Martel & Wahoo McDaniel beat Bobby Heenan & Blackjack Lanza, Greg Gagne beat David Shults and Bobby Heenan beat Buck Zumhofe

    1986 – The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane) defeated The Sheepherders (Butch Miller and Luke Williams) in a fictitious tournament final in Portland, Oregon for the vacant Florida NWA United States Tag Team Title; In Milwaukee; Midnight Rockers beat AWA Tag Team Champions Buddy Rose & Doug Somers on a reverse decision, Jimmy Snuka (sub Greg Gagne) beat Larry Zbyszko dq, In a Non Title match; Nord the Barbarian beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel, Jimmy Snuka beat Colonel DeBeers by countout, Jerry Blackwell beat Ali Khan, Sherri Martel beat Joyce Grable (sub Princess Jasmine) and Curt Hennig drew Boris Zhukov (sub Earthquake Ferris).

    1989 – Riki Choshu defeated Salman Hashimikov for the IWGP Heavyweight Title in Osaka, Japan.

    1992 – At the Great American Bash PPV in Albany, Georgia; Big Van Vader (with Harley Race) pinned WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting to win the title. Also, WCW World Tag Team Champions Terry Gordy and Steve Williams defeated Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham to win the NWA World Tag Team Title.

    1994 – Dan Kroffat defeated Masanobu Fuchi for the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title in Kagoshima, Japan.

    1997 – Spellbinder defeated Billy Travis for the USWA Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee.

    1999 –  In Jacksonville, Florida; Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage to win the title.

    2002 – Chris Hero defeated Colt Cabana to win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title in Clarksville, Indiana.