Following on the heels of the announcement that Progress Wrestling in the U.K. would host qualifying matches for the WWE’s summer Global cruiserweight tournament, it was confirmed the same deal is in place with Revolution Pro Wrestling.
Revolution Pro, based out of Portsmouth, England and headed by Andy Quildan, announced the deal today on its web site and said that the dates and matches would be announced shortly.
“What we can say right now is that it’s an honour to have been selected as one of the global partners for this tournament and we are very excited for the opportunity to share our product with fans across the globe.”
It is believed Revolution Pro will host one qualifying match.
Progress and Revolution Pro join Evolve in promotions that WWE is working with when it comes to a tournament that will start on the WWE Network on 7/13 and last for ten weeks, airing on Wednesday nights, and taped in Orlando at Full Sail University.
The promotion in the past had provided footage to WWE for a video feature on the network on the career of Finn Balor.
At a conference call several months ago, Paul Levesque specifically brought up Evolve, Revolution Pro and Progress as companies that they could be working with.
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – World Heavyweight Champion Gus Sonnenberg beat Charles Hanson
1952
Kansas City, Kansas: – World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz beat Enrique Torres in 2 out of 3 falls – World Junior Heavyweight Champion Danny McShain beat Al Massey in 2 out of 3 falls – Jim Henry beat Frank Taylor – Ed “Gardenia” Faieta beat Babe Zaharias
1953
St. Louis, Missouri:
– NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz beat Verne Gagne – Baron Michele Leone beat Ovila Asselin (Mr. Quebec) – Bill Longson beat Barney “The Chest” Bernard – Fuzzy Cupid and Sky Low Low beat “Gentleman” Jim Corbett and Farmer Pete – Joe Dusek and Karol Krauser drew – Pete Peterson beat Al Warshawski
Columbus, Ohio: – Ed Francis defeated Lou Klein for the Midwest Wrestling Association World Junior Heavyweight Title
1959
Calgary, Alberta, Canada: – Mighty Ursus and Shag Thomas defeated Maurice and Paul Vachon for the Stampede International Tag Team Title
1961
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: – Guy and Joe Brunetti defeated Mitsu Arakawa and Mr. Moto to win the Vancouver NWA Pacific Coast Tag Team Titles
1967
Fort Worth, Texas: – Fritz Von Erich won the NWA American Heavyweight Title by defeating Brute Bernard
1970
Portland, Oregon: – Frankie Laine and Moondog Mayne defeated Karl and Kurt Von Steiger to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles
1971
Portland, Oregon: – Stan Stasiak defeated Dutch Savage to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title
Chattanooga, Tennessee: – The Avengers (Jimmy Golden and Dennis Hall) defeated Bobby Hart and Lorenzo Parente for the Mid-America NWA World Tag Team Titles
1973
Mobile, Alabama: – The Mongol and The Rugged Russian (Pedro Godoy) defeated Bob Kelly and Ken Lucas to win the Gulf Coast NWA United States Tag Team Titles
1974
Parade of Champions: San Antonio, Texas: – NWA Champion Jack Brisco drew Dory Funk Jr – AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Jose Lothario & Bob Orton Jr – Blackjack Lanza & The Texan beat Black Angus & Ivan Putski – Roger Kirby beat Texas Champion Great Mephisto dq – Bob Roop drew Bull Ramos
Honolulu, Hawaii: – Non Title: Billy Robinson beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne – Crusher & Ken Patera beat Larry Heiniemi & Billy Graham – Ripper Collins drew Ed Francis – Sam Steamboat beat Len Shelly dq – Neff Maiava beat Tony Borne – Oddjob Tosh Togo Sakata beat Peace Brother I
1982
Bayamón, Puerto Rico: – Invader I won the WWC North American Heavyweight Title from Bobby Jaggers
1983
Asheville, North Carolina: – Roddy Piper defeated Dick Slater to win the NWA Television Title
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: – Private Nelson defeated Terry Kay for the NWA Canadian Television Title
1985
Montreal, Quebec, Canada: – AWA Tag Team Champions Road Warriors no contest Dino Bravo & AWA Champion Rick Martel – The Samoans beat Tony Parisi & Jacques Rougeau Jr – Sailor White & Mad Dog Lefebvre beat Gino Brito Jr & Denis Goulet – Jacques Rougeau Jr & Armand Rougeau beat Scott Duran & Rick Steiner
1988
WWF Wrestlemania IV: Atlantic City, New Jersey: – Demolition won the WWF World Tag Team Titles from Strike Force – Randy Savage pinned Ted DiBiase to win the WWF World Title in the finals of a one night tournament
1988
WCW Clash of the Champions: Greenboro, North Carolina: – Lex Luger and Barry Windham defeated NWA World Tag Team Champions Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson to win the titles – Ric Flair and Sting wrestled to a 45 minute time limit draw – NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) defeated The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) by reverse decision to retain the title – The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk with Paul Ellering) and Dusty Rhodes defeated Ivan Koloff and The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord with Paul Jones) in a Barbed Wire match
1988
Tokyo, Japan: – Bruiser Brody pinned NWA International Champion Jumbo Tsuruta to win the title – The Great Kabuki and Tiger Mask (Mistuharu Misawa) defeated Austin Idol and Tommy Rich – Big Bubba Rogers pinned Shunji Takano – Giant Baba and Hiroshi Wajima defeated Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi – Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh defeated John Tenta and Yoshiaki Yatsu – NWA United National and PWF World Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu defeated Stan Hansen by disqualification to retain the titles
1992
Dallas, Texas – Eddie Gilbert defeated The Dark Patriot (Doug Gilbert) for the Global Wrestling Federation North American Heavyweight Title
1994
All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling Queendom: Yokohama, Japan: – AJW Junior Champion Candy Okutsu pinned Rie Tamada to retain the title – Little Great Muta defeated Little Abdullah the Butcher – AJW Tag Team Champions Miki Handa and Yasha Kurenai defeated Kaoru Ito and Tomoko Watanabe to retain the title – Hikari Fukuoka pinned Chaparita Asari – Megumi Kido and Nurse Nakamura defeated Suzuka Minami and Chikako Shiratori – IWA World Women’s Champion Manami Toyota pinned Plum Mariko to retain the title – Reggie Bennett and Eagle Sawai defeated Takako Inoue and UWA World Women’s Tag Team Champion Yumiko Hotta – Etsuko Mita and AJW Singles Champion Mima Shimoda defeated JWP Tag Team Champions Mayumi Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki to win the title – Dynamite Kansai pinned Sakie Hasegawa – UWA World Women’s Tag Team Champion Kyoko Inoue defeated All Pacific Champion Toshiyo Yamada by submission to win the title – Akira Hokuto and Shinobu Kandori defeated WWWA World Singles Champion Aja Kong and Bull Nakano
1995
Memphis, Tennessee: – Miss Texas (Jacqueline Moore) defeated Sweet Georgia Brown to win the USWA Women’s Titles
1998
Mount Holly, New Jersey: – Doug Gilbert won the vacant NWA National Heavyweight Title in a three-way match against Rocco Rock and Barry Windham
2004
Bolivar, Missouri: – Takeshi Morishima regained the World League Wrestling Heavyweight Title by defeating Rick Steiner
2005
Tokyo, Japan: – Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka defeated Alex Shelley and Spanky (Brian Kendrick) to win the vacant NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Titles – C.W. Anderson defeated Kohei Sato to win the vacant NWA United National Heavyweight Title – AWA World Heavyweight Champion Takao ÅŒmori defeated Steve Corino and Shinjiro Otani in a three-way elimination match to retain the title
2015
ROH Supercard of Honor: Redwood City, California: – Mark Briscoe defeated ACH – Michael Elgin defeated Frankie Kazarian – Matt Sydal def Tommaso Ciampa, Moose (w/ Stokley Hathaway & Veda Scott), Cedric Alexander, Caprice Coleman & Andrew Everett – BJ Whitmer beat Jimmy Jacobs – Roderick Strong beat Christopher Daniels – reDRagon beat The Kingdom to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles – Jay Lethal beat Jushin Liger – Jay Briscoe beat Samoa Joe to retain the ROH World Title
San Jose, California: – Hideo Itami pinned Tyler Breeze – Jason Jordan pinned Bull Dempsey – Bayley & Alexa Bliss defeated Dana Brooke & Becky Lynch – Solomon Crowe defeated Kalisto – Baron Corbin pinned Rhyno – WWE NXT Tag Team champs Murphy and Blake defeated The Vaudevillains and Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady – WWE NXT Women’s champion Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte – Finn Balor pinned Adrian Neville
Michael Hutter aka Ethan Carter III did a Facebook post earlier today regarding his missing scheduled shows on April 2 for Southside Wrestling and April 3 for Preston City Wrestling in England.
“Unfortunately, due to a previously unforeseen opportunity to continue building a rapport between TNA Wrestling and one our of television network partners, I was forced to cancel my appearances with both Southside and Preston City Wrestling April 2-3. Canceling is not something I take lightly.”
Hutter confirmed what Preston City promoter Steven Fludder had informed us of, that despite how TNA framed the story, Hutter never asked Fludderfor a deposit. He did say that the plane tickets hadn’t been purchased and that he felt he was out more than anyone financially, because he had printed up U.K.-specific T-shirts and EC3 foam fingers to sell at the shows.
Hutter said that neither TNA nor the promotions are to blame for this, and if there was any heat, he would take it. “A set of circumstances arose and I had to make a decision, so blame me.”
He said he promised to make it up to the promotions.
Progress founder Jim Smallman made the announcement of the partnership on Sunday afternoon at the company’s show at the Electric Ballroom in north London. His announcement confirmed a report on the Gorilla Position podcast and talkSPORT that Progress was the leading contender to have matches in the tournament.
While no names were mentioned as participating, a story on the show listed Kent-born regular Zack Sabre Jr., Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll who are three of the top stars with the group, although noted Ospreay, who debuts in two weeks for New Japan Pro Wrestling, may not be politically able to participate while keeping his New Japan commitments.
– AJ Styles defeated Tyler Breeze with the Phenomenal Forearm
Good match, crowd was into AJ.
– Hype Bros defeated The Ascension with the Hype Ryder.
Mojo Rawley is from Virginia so he had lots of support, including what appeared to be a pretty large friends and family section. Nice that he was able to work this show.
– The Miz defeated Jack Swagger after an eyepoke and the Skull Crushing Finale
Fun match, much better received as a house show match than it likely would have been at a TV taping. Miz called us all sweathogs and then did the Rick Rude gyrations to disrobe. Swagger responded with JYD mannerisms. Fun stuff. Saw rumors of a Miz injury but he didn’t appear hurt.
– Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks defeated Team B.A.D. with a stereo Banks Statement/Dis-Armer tapout
All four women were pretty well over, I’d say Becky probably the most so. Becky and Sasha spent a good amount of time with the fans at ringside afterward.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kington & Xavier Woods) defeated the Dudley Boyz and The Usos in a Triple Threat Match to retain
Usos were the most over of the group, but New Day was pretty popular as well. New Day pretty much played heel here, with a running gag of Xavier getting slapped in the back repeatedly for the first part of the match. Finish came when Kofi stole the pin after an Uso hit the top rope splash on a Dudley (I believe D-Von).
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte defeated Natalya in a non-title match via rollup
Finish was a little sloppy, Natalya slapped Ric Flair on the apron and Charlotte rolled her up for the win. The crowd really liked Natalya and gave her a really nice response after the match.
– Sami Zayn defeated I-C Champion Kevin Owens by DQ
Best match of the night (surprise), even if it started a bit slow. Owens had Sami in the Tree of Woe and was DQed for not breaking on the five count while attacking him. Post-match Owens got on the mic and reminded everyone that he made his main roster debut in Richmond, and wanted to ruin Sami’s first Richmond appearance. He went for the pop-up powerbomb but Sami hit a dropkick and the Helluva Kick.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus & King Barrett when Reigns speared Barrett
Reigns was VERY over here, I’d say the crowd was 90-10 in favor of him, if that bad. Standard house show main event tag, but everyone got to hit their spots, and the crowd was happy to see Reigns & Ambrose win. Both men spent plenty of time with fans and ringside on the way out, with Reigns being the last guy through the curtain.
Very fun house show overall, good atmosphere. I feel like our show got a significantly better deal on star power than the show in Trenton.
The crowd was into this match more than you would think, considering how poorly these two are treated on TV week in and week out. Maybe the crowd was just excited for the show to finally get going? Either way, the crowd chanted “Cody” and “Lucha Lucha” a couple times throughout. Sin Cara pinned Stardust after a pretty basic back and forth match.
Mark Henry vs. Braun Strowman
Strowman was originally advertised for a tag team match with Luke Harper against Kane and Ryback. The match was just two big guys shoving into each other, headlock, bearhug, and shoving into each other some more. Strowman eventually won when Henry passed out to Strowman’s standing triangle choke. That move never looked all that great to begin with, but it’s even worse when Strowman does it on someone as big as Henry who he can’t lift high into the air.
Bo Dallas vs. Goldust
All four Social Outcasts came out and did their basic spiel about how they’re not rejects or losers, but Trenton and the people in the audience were. Ouch. Goldust came out and the match was mostly Bo running from Goldust, and Bo and the other Outcasts would distract the referee and attack Goldust then. Goldust eventually pinned Bo, but the other Outcasts ganged up on Goldust and attacked him immediately.
R-Truth came out to make the save and he and Goldust cleaned house. Then R-Truth got the mic and asked the audience if the audience thought the two of them should be a tag team, which got a surprisingly loud and positive response considering how dead this angle seems on TV. R-Truth even asked what the team should be called, and again, a majority of the people yelled “Golden Truth.” R-Truth did his rap and he and Goldust danced for what seemed like forever. Maybe they had to kill some time.
U.S. Champion Kalisto vs Rusev
Alberto Del Rio was originally advertised to face Kalisto. Instead, Rusev and Lana came out waving the Bulgarian Flag with Rusev’s face on it. Lana told the audience to “shu-tup” as she always does and said Rusev was going to be the United States Champion once again. She also said she wanted to sing a song for her fiancee. It was “You are my Sunshine” except she replaced the word “sunshine” with the word “monster.” That’s not exactly complimentary, but Lana looked great as usual, so I doubt Rusev cared.
Kalisto came out to what might have been the biggest pop of the night. (Either him or Big Show) Rusev started off by stealing the title, but Kalisto stole it back. The match itself was basically Kalisto getting in a few of his spots, and then Rusev overpowering Kalisto because of the size difference. Kalisto tried to body slam Rusev once, but Rusev stopped him. Kalisto eventually did slam Rusev later in the match, and it got a great pop. The match ended when Rusev ran at Kalisto in the corner but Kalisto jumped and Rusev hit an exposed turnbuckle, which Kalisto then turned into the Solida del Sol.
There were many “Lucha Lucha” and “USA USA” (even though they’re both foreigners) chants throughout the match. This was probably the match the crowd was hottest for from start to finish during the whole night.
Summer Rae vs. Alicia Fox
Once Summer and Alica were both out, Summer starts getting in Alicia’s face, then yelling at the audience a bit, getting in Alica’s face again, and then yelling at the audience some more. During that time Alica gets the win with a surprise roll up. I’m being completely honesty when I say I think it took longer for their entrances than it did for this “match.” It was a comedy segment, the crowd laughed, and I didn’t have to watch these two attempt an actual match, so I think we were all winners here.
Ryback vs. Fandango
Like I said above, Ryback was originally advertised for a tag team match with Kane against Luke Harper and Braun Strowman, so this was another change due to Luke Harper’s knee. Ryback came out and cut a promo, but the mic and sound system weren’t that great, and he doesn’t have the best enunciation to begin with, so I have no idea what he said.
I do know that the crowd didn’t really cheer for it, so either I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand him, or what he said was close to what he’s been saying on TV lately – which means it was some confusing promo that wasn’t really face or heel. Once the match got going it seemed like Ryback couldn’t decide whether he wanted to work as a face or heel. He worked over Fandango, dominating and tossing him around a bunch, and the crowd would cheer if Fandango managed to pull off a flip or kick.
However, Ryback kept doing all his babyface taunts to get his “Feed me More” chants, which the crowd chanted loudly. Then Ryback won with the Shellshock (minus the stomping around before hitting the move) and the crowd cheered the win, so I don’t know what was going on. After the win Ryback walked to the back, and then as Fandango walked to the back there was a CM Punk chant starting, and Fandango’s music came back on briefly which stopped the chant. He was the only person all night to lose their match but have their music play again as they walked to the back.
Big Show and Kane vs. Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan
Bray came out with Rowan and Strowman, Big Show and Kane came out separately. Like I said before, Big Show got what might have been the biggest pop of the night. The match itself was average. Bray and Rowan got the heat on Kane, and Bray would pretty much only tag in when Kane was already hurt or on the ground. What a heel. The crowd was silent during most of the match, except they would really come alive the few times when Big Show would clap or stomp the steps to give Kane encouragement.
The match ended when Big Show choke-slammed Rowan and got the pin. Crowd popped. Strowman then got in the ring to attack Kane and Big Show, but Kane and Big Show worked together to give Strowman a double chokeslam. Crowd popped again. (It was a bit jarring to see Strowman flat on his back, as they’ve been very careful for the most part to keep him on his feet on TV.)
After that the action was done the crowd was quick to scurry out of the building. The crowd seemed happy afterward, and all in all I enjoyed it more than I thought I would considering what the card was.
Tonight’s Road to Show is a themed show! That’s great as these shows are usually a bunch of tag matches with or two singles. We are still getting a bunch of tags (well, three) but we’re also getting a best of five series tonight between New Japan and Bullet Club.
Toru Yano, Rocky Romero, Beretta and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kushida, Jushin Thunder Liger, David Finlay and Tiger Mask
It was your standard NJPW eight man tag opener. Good, solid action that set the tone for the night. It was cool in that you saw some people interact with each other where it couldn’t happen under normal circumstances. For example, Liger and Ishii worked together and it was actually pretty interesting. Kushida worked with him briefly as well. That would be a very interesting match if it were ever to happen. Yano was only in there briefly, doing his usual deal with the Finlay made his comeback but RPG Vice countered. Romero took out Kushida with a dive, then they followed with the dropkick/dudebuster combo for the win.
Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Captain New Japan, Juice Robinson and Katsuyori Shibata
Why did Shibata agree to tag with Captain New Japan? Eh, I always bring this up but someone should go to management and mention CNJ’s never, like, won a match. If this were real he’d be canned a long time ago, old or not. The Old Lion Squad beat up Shibata and isolated him early. Kojima managed to thwart Taguchi’s hip attacks. It was Nagata who worked with CNJ towards the end. All of Shibata’s team mates tried to help take down Nagata but it was no use as he got the backdrop driver on CNJ and pinned him. It wasn’t that good or even interesting. Wrong team dynamics here.
Tenzan and Shibata got into a big brawl after the match, with Tenzan pelting Shibata with chairs as his team mates tried to stop him. They’re competing for the NEVER title at Invasion Attack.
Cody Hall vs. Michael Elgin
This is Hall’s first singles match in New Japan if I recall correctly. If not it’s been a very long time. He’s still green in spots but has tons of potential, has good facials and has improved dramatically in the last year. They had a short, but pretty solid back and forth match with Elgin getting the win, pinning Hall with a powerbomb pinning combination.
Jay White vs. Kenny Omega
This was pretty good. White is really good technically at this point. Crowd was kind of quiet early, but got into it towards the end, especially when White was making his comeback and was getting all the close submissions/near falls. Omega cut him off with a snap German suplex then a knee strike, pinning White to even things up.
Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Yujiro seems to not even have Mao or his cool theme song anymore at this point. He just came out to the usual Bullet Club theme. Tanahashi came out but Yujiro jumped him immediately. This was fine – short, but was probably the right amount of length. Yujiro low blowed him at one point and got a near fall with a cradle. Yujiro bumped into the referee towards the end of the match, and Tanahashi returned the favor. He gave him the sling blade, high fly flow, boom, there’s your winner.
Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale
I liked this match in the sense it told a nice story. People were into Honma’s comebacks and were totally behind him. Honma fought hard early but Fale took him to town and dominated, as he’s the big giant of the promotion. Fale beat him up forever and ever until he escaped the Bad Luck Fall and scored a roll up for a nearfall. Fale gave him a GIGANTIC lariat in retaliation, then pinned him with the Bad Luck Fall.
Tama Tonga vs. Togi Makabe
This is the deciding match in the best of five series as they’re tied with two wins each. This wasn’t really anything interesting. Not terrible, but I couldn’t get into it. Just a lot of back and forth brawling with no real significant heat. Tonga did do a ref spot and a gun stun at one point. Makabe fought him off, hit the spider German suplex and was going for the King Kong knee drop when Tonga Roa came in and shoved him off the top rope, then continued beating him for the DQ. So technically, the New Japan guys win the best of five battle.
Roa and Tonga beat up on Makabe (Honma was destroyed in the previous match) as young lions try to intervene, but Roa throws them around easily. They laid out Makabe one more time with a modified double team version of Tonga’s finish (waistlock DDT). Tonga cut a promo saying they are GOD – Guerillas of Destruction. Cool name. Don’t know if this team will work, but we’ll see. It’s something new at the very least.
Ingobernables were mean early with Bushi choking out Yoshi-Hashi and Naito beating up Gedo all the way back to the backstage area. What’s funny here is that now Crowd were into Goto as opposed to booing him, I guess because he finally joined Chaos. He and Evil worked pretty good together. Okada and Naito had some good back and forth before he tagged in Yoshi-Hashi. He made a good comeback and battled out of the Destino and walloped Naito with a lariat. There was another ref spot. That’s like three matches tonight where there’s been some sort of ref bump, pretty excessive and unnecessary. This allowed the heels to lay everyone out and pin Yoshi-Hashi for the win.
This story was updated Saturday evening with new details:
Preston City Wrestling owner Steven Fludder announced Saturday that he was told that Ethan Carter III was being pulled by TNA from his show on WrestleMania Sunday. The original booking was made by EC 3 and not by TNA, so this was a completely independent booking of which TNA was possibly unaware.
From Fludder:
“It saddens me to announce that TNA have issued the withdrawal of EC3/Ethan Carter from our April 3rd PCW show. The other international talent booked being Ken Anderson, Jade, Eddie Kingston and Cedric Alexander are all still confirmed to appear. WrestleMania weekend is the hardest time of the year to secure a replacement talent, but I have worked hard to secure somebody and subject to him finding his passport we may have another guest from the USA.
“I did reach out to TNA management, but was told, `Unfortunately nothing can be done. This is a network commitment and something he had no control over Considering TNA was publicly vocal about not being happy when AJ Styles pulled out of an agreement with them, it does seem double standards to me that the company would ask talent to back out of a deal that has been in place for many weeks.
“I have lost out financially, having paid for an extensive promotional campaign with EC3 clearly front and centre promoting his appearance, but most of all I feel for fans who have used their hard earned money and booked travel to see/meet EC3.
We have gone above and beyond to try to secure a replacement in tough times for those fans but it is a shame that when asked for assistance, TNA told us, `nothing can be done.’
I will in the future be thinking twice about using TNA talent to avoid repeat scenarios, as even WWE respects that when a date is agreed it is agreed to do not try to pull talent from it. I try to give my fans more than value for money and will continue to do so but even though I do take full responsibility for the change in the lineup, you know I will always be honest with you all.”
The TNA side of the story is that this was a booking made directly through Michael Hutter (Ethan Carter III) and it wasn’t theirs. They said that Hutter’s flight had not been purchased and as of Wednesday, he had not been paid a deposit. They also said Hutter had made an offer to make things up for being pulled late.
TNA had something come up for Hutter, but it was not said what it was other than it involved ECIII and James Storm, which will cause Storm to miss an appearance at WrestleCon. In the case with Storm, the booking was through TNA, the promoter had paid everything in full that was required and booked the flights, but TNA and Wrestlecon reportedly reached an agreeable solution to the product.
Under normal circumstances, if the booking was done through TNA, the company should try and send an adequate replacement, but with much of TNA’s top talent like the Hardys and Drew Galloway booked over WrestleMania weekend, that would be difficult. Bobby Lashley is booked in Mexico but that’s on the Wednesday prior to the Sunday.
In fairness, when it comes to WWE, similar situations have happened where major talent has had to pull out of outside commitments based on last minute changes in plans or things that come up.
St. Louis, Missouri: – Danno O’Mahoney beat Rudy Dusek – Gus Sonnenberg beat Ray Steele by DQ – Orville Brown and Bronko Nagurski drew – Dick Raines beat George Tragos
1954
Waterloo, Iowa: – World Tag Team Champions Art Neilson and Reggie Lisowski beat Hans Hermann and Bill McDaniel to retain titles – Mike DiBiase beat Joe Pazandak by dq – George Scott beat Mike Blazer
1957
Nashville, Tennessee: – Fred Blassie defeated Mike Clancy for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title
1962
Vancouver, British Columbia: – Hard Boiled Haggerty and Gene Kiniski defeated Mr. Kleen and Whipper Billy Watson for the Vancouver NWA Pacific Coast Tag Team Titles
1970
Greensboro, North Carolina: – Gene and Ole Anderson defeated George Becker and Johnny Weaver to win the NWA Atlantic Coast Tag Team Titles
1971
Los Angeles, California: – Antonio Inoki defeated John Tolos for the NWA United National Heavyweight Title
1973
Memphis, Tennessee: – Jerry Lawler and Jim White defeated Jackie Fargo and Jerry Jarrett in a Hair vs. Title match to win the Mid-America NWA Southern Tag Team Titles
1977
Shreveport, Louisiana: – The Medics won the Tri-State NWA United States Tag Team Titles from Tony Rocco and Bob Sweetan
1978
Orlando, Florida: – Jack Brisco won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title by defeating Bob Roop
Greensboro, North Carolina: – Baron Von Raschke defeated Johnny Weaver to win the NWA Television Title
Chattanooga, Tennessee: – Dutch Mantel defeated Randy Savage for the NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Title
1980
Miami, Florida: – Don Muraco won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title from Manny Fernandex
1981
Shimizu, Japan: – Perro Aguayo defeated Gran Hamada in a tournament final to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion
1984
Memphis, Tennessee: – Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich defeated The Pretty Young Things (Norvell Austin and Sweet Brown Sugar) to win the vacant AWA Southern Tag Team Titles
Montreal, Quebec, Canada: – AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell beat Rick Martel & Leo Burke – Louis Laurence beat Tito Senza dq – Bob Boucher beat Antonio Ricco
Birmingham, Alabama: – Johnny Rich defeated Rip Rogers for the Southeast NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Title
1986
Honolulu, Hawaii: – Tui Selinga defeated Jerry Lawler to win the NWA Polynesian Pacific Heavyweight Title
1987
Osaka, Japan: – Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada defeated Shiro Koshinaka and Keiji Muto for the IWGP Tag Team Titles
1988
Portland, Oregon: – Avalanche (P.N. News) and Mike Golden defeated The Southern Rockers (Steve Doll and Scott Peterson) to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles
1991
Louisville, Kentucky: – The Texas Hangmen (Killer and Psycho) defeated Eddie Gilbert (subbing for Jerry Lawler) and Jeff Jarrett to win the USWA Tag Team Titles
1993
Mexico City, Mexico: – Canek and Dr. Wagner, Jr. defeated Canadian Vampire Casanova (Vampiro) and Pierrorth, Jr. in the final of a best-of-three match series to become the first CMLL World Tag Team Champions
Mexico City, Mexico: – Ultimo Dragon defeated Negro Casas to win the UWA World Middleweight Title
1994
ECW Ultimate Jeopardy: Devon, Pennsylvania: – Jimmy Snuka defeated Tommy Dreamer in a steel cage match – Shane Douglas, Mr. Hughes and The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) defeated ECW Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk, Road Warrior Hawk, Kevin Sullivan and The Tazmaniac in a War Games match – The Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don) defeated Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka)
1995
Tokyo, Japan: – Gedo defeated Lion Heart (Chris Jericho) in a tournament final to become the first WAR International Junior Heavyweight Champion
Yokohama, Japan: – Toshiyo Yamada defeated Reggie Bennett and WWWA World Tag Team Champion Takako Inoue in a three-way match to win the vacant AJW All Pacific Title – Yumiko Hotta defeated Lioness Asuka by knockout in an “Ultimate fight” match – WWF Women’s Champion Bull Nakano defeated WWWA World Tag Team Champion Kyoko Inoue to retain her title – Manami Toyota pinned WWWA World Singles Champion Aja Kong to win the title
1999
North Richland Hills, Texas: – Steven Dunn defeated Brian Adias to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight Title
2000
Carolina, Puerto Rico: – Titan defeated Rex King to win the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Title
2001
Panama City, Florida: – WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner (with Midajah) to retain the United States title and win the WCW World title – The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio, Jr.) defeated WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions Kid Romeo and Elix Skipper to win the titles – WCW World Tag Team Champions Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo defeated Team Canada (Mike Awesome and Lance Storm) to retain the title – Sting defeated Ric Flair
2004
Chariton, Iowa: – Rick Steiner defeated Takeshi Morishima to win the World League Wrestling Heavyweight Title
Calgary, Alberta, Canada: – Apocalypse and Harry Smith defeated Johnny Devine and Dave Swift in a tournament final for the Stampede International Tag Team Titles
Editor’s note: This was the show that was scheduled to be Daniel Bryan Appreciation Night, but was changed last minuted because of Bryan “asking for time off”.
Submitted by Mike Omansky
– Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz
Superkick and pin, in a fast paced back and forth opener.
– U.S. Champion Kalisto def. Rusev (w/Lana)
The finish was Rusev taking padding off the turnbuckle, throwing Kalisto into it, who then jumped up to use the Salido Del Sol finisher for the win.
After the match, Ryback came out and attacked Kalisto. Sin Cara ran in to make the save. Ryback returned to grab the microphone, and said that Kalisto and Sin Cara need to understand that a big man beats a little man every time and wanted a match with Sin Cara right now.
– Ryback def. Sin Cara
ShellShock and pin in under 3 minutes. No offense by Sin Cara.
– Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks def. Naomi and Tamina
Banks beat Naomi with a back stabber followed by the Banks Statement submission. Standard divas fare.
– Big Show & Kane def. Erick Rowan & Bray Wyatt (w/Braun Strowman)
Show uses knockout punch on Rowan. Kane, the legal man, used a chokeslam to get the pin. Fans were into the match. Wyatt looked good, and had strong offense on Show. Strowman interfered a few times along the way.
– Divas Champion Charlotte (with Ric Flair) def. Natalya in a non-title match
Charlotte rolled her up after a distraction on the apron from Ric.
– After this match, a special ring announcer for the next match was introduced: former WWE broadcaster and current ESPN on-air talent Jonathan Coachman.
Coachman said that he was asked to come back to WWE, and wanted to do it at MSG. He then wanted to introduce his friends, the Dudleyz. Dudleyz came to the ring, and Coachman said a number of fans had a question for them: “Where are the tables?” Bubba Ray became incensed, threatened Coachman; and out came the Usos.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E) w/Kofi def. The Dudley Boyz and The Usos in a triple threat to retain the titles.
After all six were involved at the end, Xavier came off the top rope onto Devon for the pin. Long match, but pretty good. Fans were into New Day who got a face pop coming in and leaving. After the match, Coachman jumped back into the ring with New Day, took off his shirt to reveal a New Day shirt underneath, and danced with them.
– I-C Champion Kevin Owens def. AJ Styles to retain.
Finish was a pop-up power bomb and pin after an excellent wrestling clinic. Styles was well received, as was Owens. Match was full of good moves and counter moves. Crowd was getting tired, but still clearly into the match. Loads of classic Styles moves. Best match of the night. After the match, Owens wanted to attack Styles again, who of course tossed him around, Styles then took the mic to thank the fans and say that the Madison Square Garden atmosphere is everything that he has always heard about it.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose def. WWE Champion HHH & Sheamus
Reigns pinned Sheamus with a sphere for the win. He got a mixed reaction coming in, although a little more cheers than boos. During the match, he was cheered once at a hot tag, but booed heavily hitting Sheamus, and another sequence against HHH. Ambrose got a huge reaction coming in. HHH also got a face reaction coming in. HHH at first didn’t want to face Reigns, but did come in when tagged to attack him. Good match overall.
Notes:
– The show lasted 3:30 including intermission. The crowd began tiring out by last two matches. However, they were still into them both.
– Return date: Saturday, July 16th – Tickets on sale after show at box office, and via Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster presale code: WWE GARDEN
