Category: Post Type article

Thumbs Up

Best Match: Styles vs Okada

Worst Match: Naito and Honman vs. Fale and Takahashi

This may have been a better show than the Tokyo Dome show. Amazing show even being over 4 hours long

Young Bucks vs. RPG Vice vs. reDRagon:
It was every triple threat/fatal 4 way match with any combination of these teams which means it was great. *** 3/4 stars

Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma vs. Bullet Club
Pretty much the beginning of a storyline with the Naito turning heel. I guess it was an effective start to the storyline cause I completely forgot Takahashi and Fale were ever in the match. ** stars

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata:
This was a technical wrestling masterpiece. Good idea putting Shibata over since he’s the one going to G1. **** 1/4 stars

Kenny Omega vs. KUSHIDA:
Fantastic match with fantastic psychology and selling. Aside from his corny heel antics Omega is such an underrated talent. **** 1/2 stars

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii:
This is the feud of the year and i’m disappointed they’re in seperate blocks in the G1. These two beat the hell out of each other. Makabe’s chest and neck halfway through the match were beet red. Sick chops, suplexes and lariats a true slobberknocker if you will. **** stars

Matt Taven and Brian Caraway Jr vs. Gallows and Anderson
A pretty good Americanized match. Taven is another underrated talent while Mike Bennett is Mike Bennett. Anderson and Gallows looked good and like the Shibata/Sakuraba match good idea to put the belts on the Bullet Club since both are in the G1. ** 3/4 stars

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano
A typical Yano match in that you’re always ready for the surprise finish and there were a ton of them. Tanahashi got the best match out of Yano and you would think this would end the feud but they’re facing each other in G1. THIS. FEUD. MUST. CONTINUE. ** 3/4 stars

Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura:
Nakamura, charisma wise, is so far ahead of everybody else it’s scary. Great physcial match with a great ending sequence with Goto blocking all of Nakamura’s signature moves and winning. Judging by the video package before and after the match I’m thinking Goto wants to win G1 and unify both the Intercontinental title and Heavyweight title. Good luck with that. **** 1/4 stars

AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada:
No pun intended but this match was phenomenal. Great back and forth match. Red Shoes needs to win Best Non Wrestler just for him telling AJ and the Bullet Club to suck it and the BC selling his crotch chops. Ending of the match with all the reversals was great and the finish left no doubt that Okada was the better man. **** 3/4 stars

Josh Hayes

WWE Beast in the East @ Tokyo Sumo Hall

Thumbs Up. Nice show overall. Just a spot show but a good one. The commentary here was better than in any other WWE programming, although that’s not much of a compliment, probably because it was just two people reacting to each other instead of randomly waiting for someone’s turn and also because there was no need to wait for Vince’s input to say something. Still, Cole blew some names and implied that Sumo Hall was bigger than Budokan.
Best Match: Balor vs Owens

Worst Match: None

1. Jericho vs Neville. Excellent opener. Great storytelling and execution. Jericho’s work was great, he started like a total babyface but was able to “turn” just by doing little things in the ring. Sad that Neville has no role on the roster. ****1/4

2. Nikki vs Paige vs Tamina. Just an above average Divas match. **1/2

3. Lesnar vs Kingston. The return of the old fashioned Squash. Nothing wrong with it but Kofi, as a tag titles challenger in the mid card, was the wrong choice for that.  (N/R)

4. Balor vs Owens. Great match all the way. So far Owens has been on fire with great matches in every ppv/special. Balor needs to change the name of his finisher; also, nobody should be kicking out of the Bloody Sunday. ****1/2

5. Cena & Ziggler vs Barrett & Kane. Why this was on last? Didn’t make any sense. It was good but it went forever for no good reason. ***

Leonardo Mendez
San Sebastian, PR

Thumbs way up
Best match: Shibata/Sakuraba and Okada/AJ (tie)
Worst match: Bucks/reDRagon/RPG Vice

I’ve been harsh when it comes to New Japan this year, but this show was pretty damn good save for one particular match.

The preshow tag match was good, way better than usual. The Jr. Tag Title match was horrendous. I swear I’ve seen every single thing they did a million times and this style of wrestling where everything looks clearly choreographed and doesn’t come off as an actual contest does absolutely nothing for me. 

The Naito tag was fine for what it needed to be, nothing really noteworthy there outside of Honma winning. Shibata/Sakuraba was a masterpiece and a perfect example of what strong style wrestling is. KUSHIDA/Omega had a really hot finishing stretch but kind of plodded early. Still a very good match. 

Ishii/Makabe was the usual slugfest which while I enjoy it, I’ve seen them do this three times this year. I’ve had enough. Wasn’t into the Kingdom/BC match but it wasn’t offensive at all. Tanahashi/Yano was fun if not actively good. 

Goto/Nakamura had an incredible finishing run, even better than Omega/KUSHIDA earlier in the show. It was slow early but got really great the deeper into the match they got. Very much a fitting IC Title match given the venue and the importance of the show.

AJ/Okada was excellent, the perfect main event for the show. The Bullet Club interference is beyond played out but once they got past that phase in the match, this got pretty damn great. Not sure I’d rank this above the G1 match from last year but it ain’t too far off. As I said, the perfect ending to a damn good show.

Ricky Schmidt

Thumbs In The Middle

Best Match: Sakuraba v. Shibata

Worst Match: The Kingdom v. The Bullet Club 

Opener was flat and sort of set the tone for much of the show. Without Sak and Shibata showing up and having a hell of a match, the last few minutes of the I-C title match, and AJ being AJ (i.e. the best wrestler on Earth) in the main event, this show would have been bad. It’s seriously hard to understate how much of an unmitigated disaster the middle portion of the show was, including Makabe throwing some of the worst strikes in wrestling history in a match that was a total waste of Ishii, a terrible tag title match that accomplished nothing, and the tiresome Yano v. Tanahashi blow off.  I was happy to see Kushida win the junior title match in an excellently paced match, but building the match around legwork when Kushida apparently only knows how to execute kick based offense was a poor choice. I did enjoy the Naito quasi-heel act even if that match was just sort of there. 

The big takeaways I have coming out of the show is that I don’t care about the Never title at all as long as Makabe is holding it, having a jr. tag title is pointless when the real tag division is a joke and it would be just as easy to plug the good junior teams into that spot, and there is no point in watching the first two thirds of any Goto match.

Dylan Hales
Charleston, SC

Hi Dave,

As a UK fan it was great to get a PPV or event or whatever we are calling them these days at time when we are actually awake!

Beast in the East Special

Thumbs Up

Best Match – Owens vs. Balor
Worst Match – Divas 3 way

Great show. Lots of subtle differences from normal WWE television. Commentary was much better than normal but that isn’t saying much. Jericho/Neville was a great opener and really fun to watch but I thought that Neville should have won. I’m sure Jericho would have no issues putting him over. The Diva match was awful. Paige needs to be taken to one side and told to shut up. Her spot calling is becoming ridiculous. Tamina was just a mess.Anything with Bella’s is just change the channel heat. The sooner this division is rebuilt the better. Lesnar was better than I expected. He is a star in a sea of mediocrity. Everything he does just looks brilliant and he needs to be protected. NXT title match was fantastic. Owens was such a great heel from his little ad libs to chucking the flowers. Finn Bálor IS A STAR. He needs to be brought up soon. This show made him look like a million dollars. As someone said on r/squaredcircle the image of Finn being showered in streamers will close out his DVD in a few years time. Clean finish as well. They have done everything right here. Then we went into full house show mode. Bit of nonsense really. Crowd were into Cena and on a normal house show of course this would be the main event but maybe they should have made allowances for it being broadcast and put NXT as the main event.

—
Paul Cargill
paulcargill.com

Dave,

Thumbs up for the WWE Beast from the East. It was an entertaining show, and the fact of the matter is that guys step it up more when it is a PPV or super-show. That is the problem with people like TNA right now giving away their best matches on TV. With the post-production, commercials, etc, it just doesn’t allow room for memorable matches to be as memorable. They just never have the same feel.

Balor vs Owens was great as was Lesnar taking us all on a trip to Suplex City. Also great to see Jericho back, with even more midlife crisis tattoos than before. Seriously, who starts covering themselves with tattoos in their forties? Now all he needs is an earring and new Corvette and he’ll be a walking cliche.

I kind of skipped over the main event since it was meaningless,
and instead watched the Prince Devitt special which was quite good. I am glad to see them talking about Dragon Gate and New Japan.

Best Match: Balor vs. Owens
Worst Match: Divas

Matt Wright

Hi guys,

Thumbs way up!

This was a great show. Not only the wrestling was good, but I also liked the venue and the backgrounds (and such) that they did in a vintage Japan style. Those shots with the castle were beautiful. Ow, I almost forgot the crowd: no quiet wrestling fans here in Osaka!

YOHEI KOMATSU & TIGER MASK & JUSHIN LIGER & SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA & SHO TANAKA

I liked the Komatsu/Dorada sequence, rest of the match was just a decent watch for this kind of matches.

YOUNG BUCKS DEFEND IWGP JR. TAG TITLES AGAINST ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA AND BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY

Enjoyable, Baretta and Romero surprised me. Didn’t know that they were this good.

BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI VS. TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA

Naito and Honma were acting great, they (and the crowd) really made this match work.

KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. KATSUYORI SHIBATA

Expected nothing, but they delivered big time. Great mix of strikes, holds and grappling. Didn’t know that Sakuraba could dive like that…

KENNY OMEGA VS. KUSHIDA

Another good match. Omega was a great heel, but this was KUSHIDA’s party. His selling was sublime, you really had to be a die hard Omega fan if you still rooted for the heel.

TOGI MAKABE VS. TOMOHIRO ISHII

Quality match, didn’t expect Ishii to lose. Don’t know if Ishii was legit hurt or that his selling is that good.

MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN VS. KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS

Took my time to eat breakfast so i missed a bit of this match. I think my timing wasn’t bad, because from what i saw, this clearly was the least enjoyable match of the day.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. TORU YANO

Not good, but i was fun for what it was. Yano was on fire with all his shenanigans and Tanahashi reacted aptly.

HIROOKI GOTO VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA

I was getting a bit tired (lack of sleep), but when they shifted gears I was wide awake again. Good result to get Nakamura in the heavyweight title again. Nakamura and Goto are in the same G1 block so Shinsuke could get his revenge without Goto losing his belt.

A.J. STYLES VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA

This picked up after Red Shoes cleared the house. It was a great back and forward match after that with some smart reversals. The ending was a perfect way to finish this fantastic event.

BEST: I want to give this one to Sakurabe/Shibata, although I think there were better matches tonight. So why do I choose this match? They exceeded my expectations and made me love this kind of match that I usually don’t appreciate as much as I should.
WORST: Kingdom/BCTag, it wasn’t as bad as the last time they faced each other, but it was the least enjoyable match for me.

Greetings from The Netherlands,

Bob Walrave

WWE Beast In The East
Thumbs Up
Best Match – Balor vs Owens
Worst Match – Divas 3 Way

A good show highlighted by a great Owens/Balor match with the right ending. Brock squash was fun and Neville/Jericho was good but at this stage Neville should have gone over but Jericho does have a more pronounced history in Japan but still. And while the main event was fine but really it either should have just been for the live crowd or have been put on before the Lesnar match and the Balor match as felt completely pointless.

NJPW Dominion
Thumbs Up
Best Match – Okada vs AJ
Worst Match – Kingdom vs Bullet Club

Fantastic show as just about every big New Japan show is and as an Australian having 2 good shows in 2 nights back to back in prime time is a refreshing change for us down here. So many choices for best match as Shibata/Saku , Kushida/Omega , Makabe/Ishii , Goto/Nakamura and AJ/Okada were all great matches and all in different ways which you never see in WWE.

As much as I love watching Makabe and Ishii beat the shit out of each other can they please move on to different feuds as 7 months feuding has felt like 7 years (well maybe not that long) but please no more for awhile. Ditto the Kingdom/Bullet Club stuff as the crowd isn’t into it and the matches just haven’t clicked either with the Americanized style and also thankfully this should be the end (past a G-1 match) of Tanahashi and Yano. Time for Tanahashi to move back with the main eventers and Yano to do his comedy schtick in the midcard.

And G-1 looks like it’ll be Tanahashi or AJ taking on Shinsuke in the final which I’m predicting leads to Okada vs Nakamura for the IWGP title at the Tokyo Dome next January.

David Pender

beast in the east – thumbs in the middle. good show but main event sucked and bit of a filler.
best match – balor – owens was fantastic.
worst match – cena tag

dominion – WHAT A SHOW – thumbs up, at least three +4* matches on the show. thumbs right up.
best match – styles vs okada
worst match – karl anderson + doc gallows vs bennet + taven

gotta say the shibata match was so good. so different than anything i’ve ever seen, yet captivating. if okada/styles hadn’t blown up the show with the main event that was getting hte top match.

thanks dave.

steve maginnis

By dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>Dave Meltzer

We’re looking for your thoughts on today’s New Japan Dominion show and yesterday’s WWE Best from the East shot, 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 show in Rockford, IL.

Raw will be Monday in Chicago.  Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Randy Orton, HHH & Stephanie McMahon are all scheduled to return on Monday.  Guess which two were pushed on USA network ads last night?

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.  No John Cena advertised, so the top stars advertised are Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

The story behind UFC losing perhaps its biggest fight of the year with Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, update on WrestleMania and the match that isn’t in the plans right now, the TNA-GFW situation and how it happened, and how many expect big changes in UFC very soon, multiple WWE related lawsuits, Tough Enough and the WWE & TNA monthly business rundowns are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The new issue is up on the site at July 6, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jose Aldo injury fallout, TNA/GFW mystery

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

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

Rates are:

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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.

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 looks at the injury to Conor McGregor, what UFC attempted to do to save the fight, why the fight didn’t happen, McGregor building up a later fight, how much does this change hurt, the positives of Mendes in the spot and the mentality of the PPV buyer.  We look at the key issues involved in the fight not happening.

We also look at why the TNA/GFW alliance took place, why TNA made the call to Jeff Jarrett, plans or non-plans going on, why this is beneficial to both, departures from TNA, where that talent would go next and more.

We look at why Saturday’s UFC show in Hollywood, FL was the end of an era on several accounts, both from the uniform standpoint, as well as drug detection and weight cutting standpoints.  We also make a suggestion of something that is already done in other sports that UFC should implement, although it will never happen, as well as an example of why weight-cutting is done the way it is.

We also look at a lawsuit against WWE for making allegedly misleading claims that led to the stock price going way up, and then falling.  We look at a unique thing that came up regarding the key witness, stories changing, and if stories were legit to begin with.

We also look at the death of the bill to legalize MMA in New York, and how it went down.

We also have early notes on next year’s WrestleMania, an update on Sting, how the main event planned is unique because it’s out of WWE’s control if it happens, more on Reign vs. Wyatt, the Japanese tour, ideas for the network in 2016, Japanese pro wrestler tryouts, Dolph Ziggler on his contractual situation, The Rock at the house show in Boston, Rock movie news, update on Tyson Kidd, update on WWE network, update on lawsuits against WWE, and notes on the new season of Total Divas.

We also look at awards WWE is nominated for, Randy Orton, WWE announcing, and notes on the weekend NXT and WWE house shows and business notes and highlights from all of the shows.

We’ve got coverage of the UFC show in Hollywood, FL, how the card fell apart beforehand, business notes on the show, and what should happen next for Yoel Romero.  We also look at TNA Slammiversary.

We’ve got a story on the new season of Tough Enough, what has and hasn’t worked so far, notes on the ratings, notes on the competitors, who are said to be the favorites, what on the show is misleading and more on what is involved.

We also have our monthly business review for WWE & TNA, looking at monthly business in a number of categories.  We look at what categories are up, how far down are the ones down, and what one category with WWE that is significantly up and one that is collapsing.

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:

–New promotion that has had success dumps its two biggest stars

–A look at the All Elite show in Mexico City with several American stars brought in and others scheduled who had to pull out

–CMLL announces its next major big show main event

–Updates on reaction to the Busca de un Idolo tournament

–Notes on the last shows at Arena Mexico

–Notes on this year’s TripleMania and why it is taking place so late in the year

–Some major injuries to Lucha Underground stars

–AAA signs a longtime CMLL star

–Rey Mysterio Jr. headlines for AAA’s last TV tapings

–Why the Great Muta U.S. tour fell through

–An international promotion having money problems and having to cut back and losing wrestles in the process

–Notes on Dragon Gate’s next major show including some U.S. tours appearing

–Notes on the NOAH upcoming junior heavyweight tournament

–Updates on New Japan business

–New Japan World G-1 notes

–Notes on New Japan’s biggest main event of the week

–Notes on the New Japan U.S. television show

–Update on the original tiger Mask

–Genichiro Tenryu’s final match

–Hiroshi Tanahashi appears on DDT major show

–Update on Bruno Sammartino

–Dave Bautista likely to land another major movie role

–Notes on this past week’s PWG show including celebrities and four-star matches

–Notes on the next two PWG shows

–Young Bucks face Mysterio for the first time and notes no the show

–More talent appearing for Jarrett on shows

–Lots of news regarding the new NWA streaming service and Houston wrestling tape collection

–Another major streaming service announced

–Former WWE star set for a new E! reality show

–Another former WWE performer gets  into legal trouble

–Notes on pro wrestling books

–Update on former WWE star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore

–Update on the WWC’s last major show

–Former pro wrestler competing in high level bodybuilding contest

–One of the most reviled men of the last 50 years in wrestling is coming out of retirement once again

–Latest on Lucha Underground

–Notes on the ROH stadium show in Brooklyn

–Complete lineup for ROH’s next iPPV show

–Notes on the next ROH show in Las Vegas

–Updates on TNA titles after this set of tapings

–Everything on TNA television through mid-August

–Update on problems with production people

–Update on health of Kurt Angle

–Update on Jeff hardy

–Former WWE star working for TNA behind the scenes

–Controversy over Anderson Silva drug test result

–Ronda Rousey ESPY award nominations

–Crazy UFC schedule over an eight day period

–Official UFC 187 numbers

–Update on C.M. Punk training

–UFC’s return to Ireland announced

–Update Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson

–Lots of new UFC fights

–Aftermath of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice

–Ken Shamrock talks about a fight with Frank shamrock

–More on Alexander Shlemenko suspension

–Foamer Pride star sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison

–An August battle of MMA legends falls through.

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.

SUNDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

• Mike Sempervive and I just did a new Wrestling Observer Sin Limite show with more than an hour of questions answered, plus a review of the New Japan Dominion show and more on McGregor vs. Mendes.
• Countdown to McGregor vs. Mendes is on FS 1 tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.
• Nothing today among top 50 searches on Google.  Well, there are 50 things, just nothing related to wrestling, boxing or MMA.
• On Twitter, the biggest stuff as of this writing was:

New Japan Dominion 25,800

Beast in the East 10,100

UFC Embedded 685

• I watched the last 20 minutes of Ultimate Fighter.  It was amazing on many different levels.  If I say more it’ll spoil it for those who haven’t seen it.  But I’ll talk about it with Bryan tomorrow night.
• WWE Network and New Japan World were amazing values for your dollar this week.  Especially with the yen so weak.
• A week from Wednesday there’s not only the usual assortment of pro wrestling, but five hours of UFC from San Diego.
• Ric Flair is coming to Raw tomorrow, although that could be just appearing on the live Dusty Rhodes special that takes place on the network after the show.
• Seth Rollins will be a special guest on Tough Enough on Tuesday.
• How about that TNA Alumni main event last night.
• C.M. Punk will be running the 5K this week in Las Vegas in conjunction with International Fight Week.  Dana White and a lot of other UFC people are as well.  
• The Miz wrote that at 3:30 a.m. last night, he and his wife (Maryse) were driving to the airport and a car almost clipped them going 100 miles per hour, and then swerved all over the road and hit another car.    
• M-1 results from Astana, Kazakhstan: 

Sergey Morozov b Andy Young with a spinning back fist 3:50 second round

Shavkat Rakhonov b Mchal Wieneck via guillotine in :49

Luigi Fiorvanti b Sergey Kovalev via choke 1:56 second round

Zaur Hajibabayev b David Trallero via punches at 4:30 of the second round

Sergei Kharitonopv b Kenny Garner 4:11 via punches

• The Crash Promotions from Friday night in Tijuana:  Star Dragon won Torneo Cibernetico over Black Boy, Destroyer, Enigma, Mirage and Mosco Negro, Daga & Flamita b Australian Suicide & Rey Hours, Aero Star & Fenix b B-Boy & Famous B, Proximo won tournament of death over Zarco (who lost his hair), Tony Casanova, Bufalo Ayala, Mr. Maldito, Genio del Aire, Angel Metalico and Jonathan, Pentagon Jr. won over Bestia 666, ACH and Extreme Tiger (TNA’s Tiger Uno) in a four-way, La Parka & Psycho Clown b Parka Negra & Zorro (thanks to Kris Zellner)
• Magic Mike XXL with Kevin Nash grossed an estimated $11.6 million this weekend , putting it in fourth place in its opening weekend.  San Andreas grossed $3.03 million in week six, putting it in eighth place.
• GOUGE from yesterday in Raleigh:  Waylon Maze b Chance LeBeaux, Roni Nicole b Jennifer Blaze, Chief Crazy Horse b Johnny Fulls, Otto Schwanz b Priest, No Direection b Krazy Killer Klowns, Juan Jeremi b Micky Gambino, Seymour Snott b Alex Kai, Timmy Lou Retton b Jimmy Jack funk Jr.  Next show is 7/;11 at  The Maywood in Raleigh.
• Lucha Xtreme from TV last night in Fresno:  Kevin el Devino b Mike Dalite, Mike Rayne b Aki Sol, JR Kratos b Clutch.  Next TV taping is 7/18 in Hanford, CA at the Hanford Longfield Center. (thanks to Jon Southerland)
• Ron Simmons talks Dusty Rhodes, winning the WCW World title, the roots of the Damn phrase and his days in the CFL.
• Simmons, Road Warrior Animal and 2 Cold Scorpio were at the Montreal Comic Con this weekend.  Scorpio now lives in Montreal with his girlfriend.
• Ronda Rousey on TSN’s Off the Record
• A look at the movie The Princess Bride
• An article on Natalya

TODAY’S PRO WRESTLING VIDEOS (thanks to Thomas Rude)

INDY TV SHOWS

Powerbomb Championship Wrestling TV (Episode 32)

6/12/15 Future Stars Of Wrestling “High Octane” TV

6/19/15 Future Stars Of Wrestling “High Octane” TV

7/4/15 Southern States Wrestling TV

MISC. STUFF

Top 35 Moves Of Mike Awesome

7/3/15 CHIKARA Event Center

America’s Most Like Wrestling “Insider” With Chris Lea (Episode 5)

West Virginia Championship Wrestling “Spotlight” (Episode 122)

WWE

7/2/15 Top 10 Smackdown Moments

TNA

Introducing Your Chance To #AskRobbie-Check It Out!

By Brian Hoops

> 1915 – Joe Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler for the World Heavyweight
> Title in Omaha, Nebraska.
>
> 1940 – In Des Moines, Iowa; World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown beat Karol Zbyszko
>
> 1956 – Kay Bell defeated Buddy Rogers to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight
> Title in Houston, Texas
>
> 1962 – Buddy Rogers and Johnny Barend defeated Johnny Valentine and Bob
> Ellis for the Northeast version of the NWA United States Tag Team Title
> (which would soon become the WWWF United States Tag Team Title) in
> Washington, DC.
>
> 1962 – Hans Schmidt defeated Pat O’Connor in Greensboro, North Carolina
> to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Title.
>
> 1968 – Ramon and Alberto Torres defeated El Mongol and Tarzan Tyler in a
> one-night tournament final in Atlanta, Georgia to become the first NWA
> Georgia Tag Team Champions.
>
> 1969 – In Chicago; AWA Tag Team Champions Dick the Bruiser & the Crusher no contest Chain Gang Frank Dillinger & Jack Dillinger,
> Bill Watts beat Larry Hennig and Wilbur Snyder beat Angelo Poffo
>
> 1969 – Johnny Walker and Bearcat Brown defeated The Great Mephisto and
> Dante to become NWA World Tag Team Champions (Mid-America version) in
> Chattanooga, Tennessee
>
> 1971 – Steven Little Bear and Dean Higuchi defeated The Skull Brothers
> in Vancouver, British Columbia, to win the Vancouver version of the NWA
> Canadian Tag Team Title
>
> 1971 – At John O’Donnell Stadium in Davenport, Iowa; AWA Tag Team Champions Red Bastien & Hercules Cortez beat Larry Hennig & Lars Anderson, Bull Bullinski beat Joe Turco and Billy Robinson beat Big K
>
> 1972 – Hiro Matsuda and Tim Woods defeated The Zodiac (Bob Orton) and
> Taurus (Dennis Hall) for the NWA Florida Tag Team Title in Miami, Florida.
>
> 1973 – In Kansas City, Kansas; In an Elimination Match: Togo the Great & Tokyo Joe & Jim Dalton & Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) vs. Jim Brunzell & Steve Bolus & Rufus R. Jones & Mike George, Roger Kirby & Lord Alfred Hayes vs. Danny Little Bear & Hillbilly Vic
> and Bob Brown vs. Bob Geigel.
>
> 1973 – In Winnipeg before 4,832 fans; The Crusher & Wahoo McDaniel beat AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens for the belts (decision later overturned), Superstar Billy Graham beat Billy Robinson dq and Larry Heiniemi beat Ken Patera
>
> 1974 – Buddy Colt defeated Mr. Wrestling II to win the NWA Georgia
> Heavyweight Title in Atlanta, Georgia,
>
> 1975 – The Sheik defeated Bobo Brazil in Detroit, Michigan for the
> Detroit version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title
>
> 1982 – Kevin and Kerry Von Erich defeated King Kong Bundy and Bugsy
> McGraw to win the World Class American Tag Team Title in Fort Worth, Texas.
>
> 1982 – Stan Lane and Ron Bass defeated The Midnight Express (Dennis
> Condrey and Norvell Austin) for the AWA Southern Tag Team Title in
> Memphis, Tennessee
>
> 1985 – Iceman Parsons defeated Chris Adams for the World Class American
> Heavyweight Title in Dallas, Texas
>
> 1985 – Scott Armstrong defeated Bill Ash to win the Southeast version of
> the NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Title in Montgomery, Alabama
>
> 1985 – Al Madril and Chavo Guerrero defeated American Force (Paul
> Diamond and Nick Kiniski) for the Texas All-Star Wrestling Texas Tag
> Team Title in San Antonio, Texas.
>
> 1992 – At the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia; Brad Armstrong pinned Scotty
> Flamingo  (Raven) to win the WCW Light Heavyweight Title. Also, Terry
> Gordy and Steve Williams defeated The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott)
> to win the WCW World Tag Team Title
>
> 1992 – Canek defeated Dos Caras for the UWA World Heavyweight Title in
> Naucalpan, Mexico
>
> 1993 – Jerry Lawler defeated Owen Hart to win the USWA Unified World
> Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee. Also, CW Bergstrom & Melvin
> Penrod Jr. defeated USWA Tag Team Champions New Jack & Home Boy to win
> the titles.
>
> 1994 – Chris Candido defeated Scott Studd to win the vacant SMW
> Television Title in Warrensville, North Carolina.
>
> 1996 – Mexico National Middleweight Champion El Hijo del Santo defeated
> The Great Sasuke to win CMLL’s annual Gran Prix Tournament in Mexico
> City, Mexico.
>
> 1998 – Magnum Tokyo defeated El Hijo del Gladiador in Naucalpan, Mexico,
> to win the IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Title.
>
> 2000 – Val Venis defeated Rikishi at a SmackDown! taping in Fort
> Lauderdale, Florida to win the WWF Intercontinental Title