Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back today with tons of news! TNA’s potential sale to Aroluxe, the Bullet Club being mentioned repeatedly on WWE and the big angle shot for Raw tonight, Kimbo fighting again, calls, emails, text messages and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
1939
Albany, New York:
– Ed Don George defeated Steve Casey for the Boston AWA World Heavyweight Title
1958
Atlanta, Georgia:
– Karl Heinkler and Kurt Von Brauner defeated Don Lee and The Mighty Yankee to win the Georgia NWA International Tag Team Titles
1962
Mobile, Alabama:
– Tex Riley and Gus Taylor won the Gulf Coast NWA Southern Tag Team Titles from The Mysterious Medics
1966
Los Angeles, California:
– Buddy Austin and El Mongol defeated Thunderbolt Patterson and Alberto Torres to win the World Wrestling Association World Tag Team
Titles
1969
Atlanta, Georgia:
– El Mongol defeated Assassin #1 for the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Title
Calgary, Alberta, Canada:
– Bud and Ray Osborne defeated Bob and Fred Sweetan to win the Stampede International Tag Team Titles
1972
Tampa, Florida:
– Paul Jones defeated Johnny Walker to win the vacant NWA Florida Television Title in a one night, 8 man tournament
Costa Mesa, California:
– Dory Dixon and Raúl Mata defeated Goliath and Kinji Shibuya for the NWA Americas Tag Team Titles
1973
Yaizu, Japan:
– Killer Karl Krupp and Fritz Von Erich defeated Kintaro Ohki and Umanosuke Ueda to win the NWA International Tag Team Titles
Nashville, Tennessee:
– Jackie Fargo and Jerry Jarrett won the Mid-America NWA Southern Tag Team Titles defeating Jerry Lawler and Jim White
Honolulu, Hawaii:
– Wahoo McDaniel beat Superstar Billy Graham COR
– Ken Patera beat Dusty Rhodes COR
– Ed Francis drew Sam Steamboat
– Ray Stevens drew Don Muraco
– Tony Borne beat Jimmy Snuka dq
– Neff Maiava beat Wild Bill Howard
1974
Dallas, Texas:
– Fritz Von Erich defeated The Texan (Blackjack Mulligan) for the NWA American Heavyweight Title
1977
Memphis, Tennessee:
– Bill Dundee and Tommy Rich defeated Karl and Kurt Von Steiger to win the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Titles
1978
Portland, Oregon:
– The Iron Sheik and Bull Ramos defeated Jerry Oates and Jesse Ventura for the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles
Warner Robbins, Georgia:
– Mr Wrestling II beat Georgia Champion Stan Hansen dq
– AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Tommy Rich
– Rocky Johnson beat Helmut Schmidt (sub Lars Anderson)
– Wolfgang Schmidt & Helmut Schmidt beat Adrian Adonis & Pierre Lefebvre
– Paul Ellering beat John Ruggers
1981
Mid-South Wrestling: New Orleans, Louisiana:
– The Grappler and Super Destoyer defeated Junkyard Dog and Dick Murdoch to win the vacant Mid-South Tag Team Titles in a one night, 9
team tournament
Portland, Oregon:
– Brett and Buzz Sawyer defeated The Destoyer and Rip Oliver to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Titles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
– No dq match: The Crusher & Baron Von Raschke beat Jerry Blackwell & John Studd
– Jim Brunzell beat Jesse Ventura
– Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens (sub Bobby Heenan) beat Greg Gagne & Buck Zumhofe
– Tito Santana drew Adrian Adonis
– Brad Rheingans beat Steve Regal
1982
St. Paul, Minnesota:
– Hulk Hogan beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel dq
– Cage match: AWA Tag Team Champions Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Jerry Blackwell & Sheik Adnan
– Ken Patera beat Baron Von Raschke COR
– Bobby Heenan beat Tito Santana dq
– Bobby Duncum drew Brad Rheingans
– Buck Zumhofe beat Sonny Rogers
– Sgt. Goulet beat Tony Leone
1984
Akita, Japan:
– Genichiro Tenryu & Shohei Giant Baba & Dory Funk Jr beat Jos Leduc & Bulldog Bob Brown & Goro Tsurumi
– Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody drew Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell
– AWA Champion Jumbo Tsuruta beat David Sammartino
– Kerry Von Erich beat Magic Dragon
– Takahashi Ishikawa & Ashura Hara drew Akio Sato & Masa Fuchi
– Mighty Inoue beat Rocky Hata dq
1987
Portland, Oregon:
– Rip Oliver won the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title defeating Ricky Santana
San Juan, Puerto Rico:
– Invader I defeated Jason the Terrible for the WWC Television Title
– Frankie Lancaster defeated Super Medic to win the held up WWC World Junior Heavyweight Title
1989
Tokyo, Japan:
– NWA International Heavyweight Champion Jumbo Tsuruta defeated NWA United National Heavyweight and PWF Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen to unify all the titles and become the first AJPW Triple Crown Champion
1991
Tokyo, Japan:
– Stan Hansen and Dan Spivey defeated Terry Gordy and Steve Williams for the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Titles
1992
Tokyo, Japan:
– Chris Walker pinned Tetsuya Yamanaka
– Shinji Takano pinned Kendo Nagasaki
– Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Ishinriki defeated Tatsumi Kitahara and Shinichi Nakano
– Satánico defeated The Dragon by countout
– Samson Fuyuki and Takashi Ishikawa defeated The Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake)
– SWS Light Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano pinned Chavo Guerrero to retain the title
– Haku and Yoshiaki Yatsu defeated SWS Tag Team Champions The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) to win the title
– Genichiro Tenryu defeated Ric Flair in a best-of-three falls match
Cloverdale, British Columbia, Canada:
– Moondog Moretti defeated Ole Olsen for the West Coast Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Title
1997
Mexico City, Mexico:
– Steel (Val Venis) defeated Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Title
1998
Tokyo, Japan:
– Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Jun Akiyama to win AJPW’s annual Champion’s Carnival tournament
1999
Mexico City, Mexico:
– Los Juniors (Perro Aguayo, Jr., Blue Demon, Jr., La Parka, Jr. and Mascara Sagrada, Jr.) defeated Los Vatos Locos (May Flowers, Charly Manson, Nygma and Picudo) in Zapopan to win the Mexican National Atómicos Title
2001
Oldcastle, Ontario, Canada:
– Scott D’Amore defeated Tommy Dreamer to win the Border City Wrestling Can-Am Heavyweight Title
– Scott D’Amore lost the title to Mikey Whipwreck
2004
WWE Backlash: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada:
– Shelton Benjamin pinned World Tag Team Champion Ric Flair
– Jonathan Coachman pinned Tajiri
– Chris Jericho defeated Christian and Trish Stratus in a handicap match
– WWE Women’s Champion Victoria pinned Lita to retain the title
– WWE Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton pinned Cactus Jack in a hardcore match to retain the title
– The Hurricane and Rosey defeated La Résistance (Robért Conway and Sylvain Grenier)
– Edge pinned Kane
– World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit defeated Shawn Michaels and Triple H in a triple threat match to retain the title
2005
New York City:
– MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro (with Melina)) defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio to win the titles
2010
St. Charles, Missouri: TNA Lockdown:
– Rob Van Dam defeated James Storm
– Homicide defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Brian Kendrick in an escape match to join the TNA X Division Championship match
– Kevin Nash defeated Eric Young
– The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) (with Lacey Von Erich) defeated Angelina Love and Tara in a Steel Cage match for the TNA Women’s Knockout Championship and TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship
– Kazarian defeated Shannon Moore and Homicide to win the vacant TNA X Division Championship
– Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) defeated The Band (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) in a St. Louis Street Fight Steel Cage match
– Kurt Angle defeated Mr. Anderson
– A.J. Styles defeated D’Angelo Dinero to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship
– Team Hogan (Abyss, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Jarrett and Jeff Hardy) defeated Team Flair (Sting, James Storm, Robert Roode and Desmand Wolfe) Lethal Lockdown match
Dave Meltzer revealed today in a breaking news audio update that the company that Impact Wrestling/TNA has been negotiating with is Aroluxe, a company that former wrestlers Ron and Don Harris are involved with. The Harris brothers were mid-level stars in both the WWF and WCW in the late 90s and were brought in to TNA by former owner Jeff Jarrett when the company started.
Negotiations are still ongoing. TNA president Dixie Carter was hopeful of securing a deal whereby an investor would purchase 49% interest in the company, allowing her to maintain a majority interest. Whether she finds a company willing to do that or not, the company is in a crunch position as they are essentially out of money and will require a cash influx to get them through their next set of TV tapings scheduled for later this week.
If Carter is not able to find an investor willing to let her maintain control of the company there will obviously be a shakeup in the company and details of that are likely to come out in the next week or so.
Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling started in late 2002 as a weekly pay per view product owned and operated by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett. Father Jerry pulled out of the partnership early and Jeff went to Panda Energy for financing to keep the company afloat. They remained as a weekly PPV property until late 2004, when they secured a broadcast contract with Fox Sports Network and used that platform to move to the more traditional monthly PPV model.
They were at times in their history profitable but ever since spending big money to acquire free agents Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam and others in 2010 the promotion has been a money loser. They started on SPIKE TV in 2005 and at times garnered audiences upwards of 1.5 million. By late 2014, they were down under a million and on top of the declining ratings, the promotion was secretly employing Vince Russo as a consultant despite the fact that SPIKE executives had made it clear they did not want the company to have any dealings with Russo.
They moved to Destination America in 2015 and it quickly became clear that it would not be a good fit. Destination America announced midway through the first year that they would not be renewing them for a second season, despite announcing a “multi-year” contract at the start of the relationship. In late 2015 the company announced that they would start the following year on POP TV, the former TV Guide channel. While no terms were announced at the time, it was believed to be an ad revenue sharing deal.
POP TV president Brad Schwartz announced that they hoped that the promotion would return to the 1.3 million audience level with the move to POP. This despite the fact that the show averaged less than half of that number during it’s year on Destination America. With the move to POP, ratings declined even further, settling in around 300,000 despite being available in 80 million homes in the United States.
Also discussed in the breaking news update was the cancelation of the New Japan PPV scheduled for later this month in Kumamoto, Japan. The earthquake was devastating as there are already 41 deaths and 968 injuries attributed to it and over 91,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with the latest news on TNA’s potential sale, who the main investors are, and more, plus New Japan’s response to the recent massive earthquakes and more!
There is talk that the feud between HHH and Stephanie McMahon vs. Shane McMahon will kick off on tonight’s Raw show from London’s O2 Arena.
Even though Shane McMahon lost the match, he is now official as in charge for the third straight week. HHH and Stephanie were scheduled to return to Raw this week as well and a feud between the two sides was on the books.
There has been talk the past few days that Finn Balor will debut, which given the location, makes sense for a debut. This has not been officially confirmed.
What is confirmed for today’s show are the semifinals of the tag team tournament for a title shot at the Payback show, with the Usos vs. Vaudevillains and Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Dudleys, as well as a singles match with Emma vs. Becky Lynch.
As it turns out, a lot was changed beacuse the singles match ended up as an eight-person match.
Thanks to Chris Fox:
Superstars results
Big Show beat Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
The live crowd booed Show even though he was the face. Show won after choke slamming both at the same time.
Kalisto beat Tyler Breeze. Breeze got good heat. Salida del Sol for the finish,
Raw opened with Dean Ambrose out with them trying to put over the fans as the Ambrose Asylum. He made a joke about Braun Strowman, points out James Corden’s parents in the front row and then introduced Shane McMahon. Shane put over that the WWE fans deserve better than what they’ve been getting. Kevin Owens came out and said this new Shane McMahon era is hte same old crap and how Shane has been punishing him for being an honest man in saying Sami Zayn never deserved to be put in the world title picture. Sami Zayn came out and said he was signed by WWE before Owens and if it wasn’t for him, Owens would have never made it to WWE. Chris Jericho came out and said that Shane was drunk with power for taking the Highlight Reel segment away from him.
Shane announced Jericho vs. Zayn for Raw.
Chris Jericho beat Sami Zayn clean with the codebreaker.
A.J. Styles hugged with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. They acknowledged their past.
Enzo & Cass beat The Dudleys to advance in the tournament clean with the rocket launcher.
Roman Reigns came out and was heavily booed. He put over A.J. Styles who came out. Styles said he’ll need to have the match of his life to beat Reigns. Gallows and Anderson came out to attack Reigns and left without Styles.
Backstage, Styles told Reigns that he had no idea Gallows & Andeson were going to attack him. Reigns told Styles that it won’t matter how many friends Styles brings, he’s not winning the title.
Baron Corbin beat Fandango with the End of Days.
Dolph Ziggler was on commentary. Fandango was really over in London. Corbin threw Fandago onto Ziggler which led to a brawl between the two. Corbin then hit the End of Days on Ziggler outside the ring.
Next was Miz TV with Maryse. Miz made fun of Prince George, calling him plain and generic, and said his baby, referring to his IC title belt, is pristine. Cesaro came out and called Miz a royal pain in the ass. This segment drew “boring” chants and Miz said that the crowd was jealous because they could never get a woman who looked like Maryse, and he also couldn’t understand what they were chanting. He tried to do a scene from “Taken” and Cesaro cut a line from “They Live.” This led to an eight-man tag.’
New Day & Cesaro beat Alberto Del Rio & Rusev & Sheamus & Miz. Cesaro pinned Sheamus using the Neutralizer.
Charlotte and Natalya were talking. It was annnounced that Bret Hart would be in Nataya’s corner in the match at Payback, to counter Ric Flair, so they are doing the same scenario as their NXT match.
Paige & Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch & Natalya beat Naomi & Tamina & Summer Rae & Charlotte when Natalya made Charlotte tap to the sharpshooter.
Vaudevillains beat Usos. Vaudevillains didn’t get much of a reaction. They won with the whirling dervish.
The Social Outcasts, or at least the three left, tried to add Apollo Crews to their stable. He said he would join if one of them could beat him.
Apollo Crews beat Heath Slater with the spinning power bomb.
Kevin Owens pushed that he’d be back tomorrow for Smackdown tapings to big cheers.
Dean Ambrose pinned Kevin Owens with Dirty Deeds. After the match, Jericho laid out Ambrose with the codebreaker. Styles then made the save.
They did a dark match where Styles & Ambrose beat Jericho & Owens.
So no Authority and no Finn Balor this week, no big feud, no big anything.
On Monday, Ring of Honor and The Fight Network announced a new deal that would give ROH weekly exposure throughout Canada.
The Canadian based combat sports network will begin airing ROH starting on Tuesday, April 26 at 11 PM EST with repeat showings throughout the week. ROH will be part of a Tuesday night wrestling block with TNA Impact at 9 PM EST, ROH at 11 PM EST, and AAA at midnight EST.
The Fight Network is carried nationally on all major cable, satellite and telecom systems in Canada.
The shows will air before they go up on the ROH website on Thursdays, but after they debut during the weekend on U.S.-based Sinclair affiliates, some of which
are picked up in Canada, most notably the Buffalo station that is carried in Ontario.
The deal gives ROH television penetration in other key Canadian markets that they previously didn’t have broadcast access in.
“Ring of Honor has long been touted as a worldwide leader in professional wrestling and we’re thrilled with the opportunity to finally bring a weekly series to Canadian fans,” said Chad Midgley, VP of The Fight Network. “Over the past decade, ROH has staged plenty of five-star matches that will go down in history as some of the best. Its focus on in-ring quality, attention to detail and talent development is outstanding, making it the perfect fit for our stacked professional wrestling block on Tuesday nights.”
Due to the series of earthquakes in Kumamoto, New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the cancellation of its 4/29 Wrestling Hinokuni PPV.
The show, scheduled at Grand Messe Kumamoto, was one of the two big shows on the current tour and featured three title matches. Whether this will result in changes to the 5/3 show in Fukuoka to get at least those matches on the card has not yet been released.
The city was hit by a series of earthquakes over the last few days: a 6.2 on Thursday night, a 6.0 earthquake three hours later just after midnight, a 7.0 earthquake on Saturday at 1:25 a.m, and another aftershock last night. The earthquakes have left at least 41 dead and 968 injured, destroyed 90 homes and have led to the evacuation of more than 91,700 people in the city.
However, the other shows that weekend on the island of Kyushu are still on the schedule.
New Japan is expected to run a major show in the city when things have calmed down, and several Japanese promotions are likely to do benefit shows.
The show’s original lineup was:
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back today with a very exciting show! Besides the usual fun and games, including our full reviews of ROH on Sinclair and NWA World Championship Wrestling from 30 years ago this week, a show that nearly broke Vinny, we have also got a look at WHAT WRESTLER HAILS FROM YOUR STATE~! A fun show as always so check it out~!
The Monday Night Wars can officially be declared over. The World Wrestling Federation lost a few battles over the nearly four years, but has now won the war.
Photo: MMA Junkie
Kimbo Slice’s championship aspirations have never been at the top of the list for Bellator MMA, but interesting fights certainly are. Sunday night, the MMA world found out what his next foray into the cage will be.
In a rematch of one of the most watched MMA fights of all time, the 42-year-old Slice (6-2) will rematch James “Colossus” Thompson (20-16-1) on Saturday, July 16th at the O2 Arena in London, England. Bellator president Scott Coker made the announcement during a quick segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter on ESPNews.
Slice will ride into the fight on a two fight win streak, having dispatched Ken Shamrock and Dhafir “DADA 5000” Harris in February, the last fight notable mainly because Harris nearly died during the fight due to a terribly planned weight cut, and that Slice tested positive for banned substances. He was suspended for all of 90 days by the Texas Athletic Commission.
While the quality of his fights haven’t been great, viewers continue to turn out in droves, making him the promotion’s biggest star.
After winning four straight, the 37-year-old Thompson has lost his last two fights by TKO. He and Slice fought back in May 2008 for EliteXC, a fight Slice won by 3rd round TKO when Thompson’s cauliflower ear exploded after Slice punched it. The show aired on CBS and did huge ratings.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Bellator is looking at England native Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck II in the co-main event — a rematch of their infamous May 2010 UFC fight where Daley punched Koscheck after the fight ended, causing his immediate firing by UFC brass. Ever since Bellator signed both guys, the fight has been inevitable.
The fight announcement wasn’t lost on UFC VP of Public Relations Dave Sholler who had a simple tweet after the announcement. Even with a busy July, UFC has no shows planned for that date. They have run the O2 Arena six times, always drawing well there.