The Bryan & Vinny Show is back today with tons to talk about! Granny has a WrestleMania POETRY CONTEST plus her thoughts on the biggest show of the year, then we’ve got full reviews of Lucha Underground from the past two weeks and the post-WrestleMania Raw from Monday night! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm is back to talk WrestleMania weekend! The big shows, the small shows and everything in between, from WrestleMania to WrestleCon to Raw to what might have been Lance’s final match, at least for awhile. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Robert Windham, better known as Blackjack Mulligan, the patriarch of the Windham wrestling family that includes three performers on the current WWE roster, passed away.
Windham had been in poor health for some time after suffering a heart attack and other assorted ailments.
Windham, 73, was a major star in pro wrestling during the 70s and 80s. He was only in the business for two years, working under his real name, before he got his big break in the WWWF in 1971, taking the Blackjack Mulligan name, copying the gimmick with the black cowboy hat and black glove of Blackjack Lanza (Jack Lanza), who had become one of the top heels in the business a few years earlier.
Mulligan was the first contender for Pedro Morales after he won the WWWF title from Ivan Koloff in 1971, and used the name until his full-time career ended in 1989. During that period he was a top of the card star, usually as a heel, although he was a very successful babyface in the Carolinas and Florida.
Mulligan’s strength as a performer was his size and his interview ability. As 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, he was often billed at 6-foot-9, and frequently opposed Andre the Giant. There was also a famous story of Mulligan sucker punching Andre at a beach front party, but Andre came back and dragged Mulligan into the Atlantic Ocean.
During the 70s, Mulligan & Lanza became a tag team, the Blackjacks, who had successful runs in Indiana, where they were managed by Bobby Heenan, as well as in Texas and the WWWF.
But his biggest success came after the team broke up, when working in the Carolinas, often teaming with Ric Flair, who he was best friends with and shared a van, and also feuded with him. During that period, he won the U.S. title, the main championship in the promotion, four times.
Mulligan also had unsuccessful runs as a promoter, after he and Dick Murdoch purchased the dying West Texas territory from the Funk Brothers, and later as a co-owner of a Knoxville based promotion.
Mulligan’s career largely ended in 1989 when he served time in prison, with son Kendall, for counterfeiting.
Mulligan’s son Barry and Kendall Windham, were both wrestlers and Barry was one of the best wrestlers in the world in the late 80s. His son-in-law, Mike Rotunda, was also a star wrestler and Mike’s three children, Windham (Bray Wyatt), Taylor (Bo Dallas) and daughter Mika work for WWE.
Windham had been sued by WWE in July, which was strange since his serious health issues were well known and his sons were stars with the group. The lawsuit was a preemptive move as the company believed Windham was going to sue them on the concussion issue. The lawsuit was thrown out of court two weeks ago when all the concussion related suits and WWE’s counter suits except two were thrown out.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with so much to talk about! New WWE records for WrestleMania, why you should stop bothering with storyline progression, Dave Meltzer talks about Blackjack Mulligan, and so much more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
1927
St. Louis, Missouri:
– Ed “Strangler” Lewis b. John Pesek in 2 out of 3 falls
1933
Des Moines, Iowa:
– Bronko Nagurski beat Earl Wampler
1945
Wichita, Kansas:
– Orville Brown beat Ray Eckert
– Vic Holbrook beat Earl Wampler
– Chief Little Wolf beat Jim Parker
– Jack Kennedy beat Al Szasz
1949
Kansas City, Kansas:
– NWA World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown beat Lucky Simunovich
– Dean Detton beat Jimmy Coffield
– Abe Kashey and Harold “Sonny” Myers drew (30:00)
1962
St. Paul, Minnesota:
– Doug Gilbert & Joe Scarpello beat Mr. M & Stan Kowalski 2 out of 3 falls
– Dale Lewis beat Tiny Mills dq
– Ricky Lopez beat Blackjack Daniels
– Roy Collins beat Eddie Sharkey
1964
Des Moines, Iowa:
– AWA Champion Verne Gagne drew Pat O’Connor when the 60 minute time limit expired in the 3rd fall
– Sonny Myers ddq Mongolian Stomper
– Kathy Starr beat Jean Antone
– Steve Bolus (sub Don Jardine) beat Lee Henning
1973
Chicago, Illinois:
– AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Don Muraco & Wilbur Snyder
– Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel beat Superstar Billy Graham
– Reggie Parks beat Ivan Koloff dq
– Sailor Art Thomas beat Higo Hamaguchi
– Rene Goulet beat Vic Rossitani
– Khosrow Vaziri beat Ken Dillinger
1979
Chicago, Illinois:
– King Kong Brody beat Dick The Bruiser
– AWA Tag Team Champions Pat Patterson & Ray Stevens beat Jim Brunzell & Steve Olsonoski
– The Crusher beat Lord Alfred Hayes
– Bobo Brazil beat Cecil Dubois
– Billy Robinson beat Bobby Duncum
– Super Destroyer Mark II beat Paul Ellering
– Igor Volkoff drew Spike Huber
1983
Lexington, Kentucky:
– Stagger Lee won a 24 man battle royal
– Jerry Lawler beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel dq
– Bill Dundee beat Terry Taylor
– Fabulous Ones beat Moondogs dq
– Stagger Lee beat Bobby Eaton
– The Galaxians drew Steve O & Bobby Fulton
– Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson beat Pork Chop Cash & Duke Myers
– Duke Myers beat Carl Fergie
– Dutch Mantel beat The Angel
– Sonny King beat Jim Dalton
1986
Wrestlemania II:
New York, New York:
– Don Muraco fought Paul Orndorff to a double countout
– WWF Intercontinental champion Randy Savage pinned George Steele
– Jake Roberts pinned George Wells with a DDT
– Mr. T defeated Roddy Piper via DQ in a boxing match
Chicago, Illinois:
– The British Bulldogs defeated Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake to win the WWF Tag Team championship
– WWF Women’s champion The Fabulous Moolah pinned Velvet McIntyre a
– Cpl. Kirchner pinned Nikolai Volkoff
– Andre the Giant eliminated Bret Hart to win a 20 man Battle Royal
Los Angeles, California:
– Hulk Hogan defeated King Kong Bundy in a steel cage match to retain the WWF World Title
– Ricky Steamboat pinned Hercules Hernandez
– Adrian Adonis pinned Uncle Elmer
– Terry and Hoss (Dory Jr.) Funk defeated the team of Tito Santana and The Junkyard Dog
2013
Wrestlemania 29: East Rutherford, New Jersey:
– John Cena defeated The Rock to capture the WWE World Title
– The Miz defeated Wade Barrett to win the WWE IC Title
– The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) defeated Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus
– Mark Henry defeated Ryback
– Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship
– Fandango defeated Chris Jericho
– Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez) defeated Jack Swagger (with Zeb Colter) to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
– The Undertaker defeated CM Punk (with Paul Heyman)
– Triple H (with Shawn Michaels) defeated Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) in a No Holds Barred match
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back tonight with all the news! WWE ratings, WWE Network numbers, Lucha Undergound review, Smackdown, Invasion Attack and UFC previews, Miesha Tate fights at UFC 200 and tons more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
There has never been anything in the history of pro wrestling quite like this past weekend.
Never have more fans attended more events, nor has more talent been in the same place then in Dallas.
The difference in one year was amazing. Last year, in the San Jose area, WrestleMania came to town, people came from all over the world, and events were held throughout the city in conjunction with the weekend. There was an awareness that WrestleMania was in town, but it was more a tourist event and in the city itself, the interest was nothing compared to a major sports event. There were only about 15,000 tickets sold within a 100 mile radius of Santa Clara for last year’s show, but it still broke the company’s gate and merchandise records and most of the events put on by other companies did well.
After little to no movement for the better part of a year, WWE got the class action stockholder lawsuit dismissed this past week. We covered this in detail back in issue #1044 (June 26, 2015) after discovering the back and forth that was going on involving the statements of Brian Maddox, who was formerly WWE’s Vice President, Global Sales. The firm handling the case for the plaintiffs had filed an amended complaint a year ago with a lot of new, specific allegations from Confidential Witness 1 (or “CW1”), who turned out to be Maddox. This included everything from things we knew (WWE’s social media numbers count a number of fans multiple times when they follow multiple WWE accounts, the issues with ad rates stemming from the number of low income viewers, etc.) to new information (not allowing anyone to sponsor the ring canvas has hurt ad rates and sponsor variety, WWE would drop sponsors for no apparent reason) to somewhat specious claims about WWE’s total audience.
– Air Date: April 7, 2016 (Apr 6 in Canada)
– Location: Toyota Center in Houston, TX
– The Big News:
AJ Styles confronted Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose returned, The Vaudevillains debuted, and The Miz defended his Intercontinental Title against Zack Ryder.
– Show Recap:
The show opened with the same WrestleMania recap video from Raw. Roman Reigns came out to a strong mixed reaction, and Mauro Ranallo reminded us that he’s a 3-time WWE champion. Reigns said he fought the Authority and won and took back his WWE championship. He repeated the same line from Raw about being “the guy,” except he delivered it a lot better this time, and said he’s going to beat AJ Styles.
Styles interrupted and got a big reaction. He congratulated Reigns on having “a heck of a WrestleMania” and becoming champion. They shook hands. Styles said he himself had a heck of a Monday Night Raw and was coming after the title. He’s beaten the best all over the world, has held a title of his own, and if he has to beat “the guy” to be WWE champion then so be it.
Reigns said Styles hasn’t been here long, and insinuated that WWE title is the only one that counts, not whatever title Styles held before. Reigns said Styles would have to beat “the guy” to get the belt. Yes, Styles just said that. Reigns said Styles would never beat him, patted him on the shoulder, and left. Styles smirked. This was fine. Crowd was into it, and the two guys did their best with the dialogue.
The Vaudevillains beat Lucha Dragons via pinfall
The Vaudevillains got their usual NXT entrance. Jerry Lawler thought they were in a silent movie and wondered if they could speak. Byron Saxton let us know that these two teams were familiar with each other from NXT. Sin Cara went for a suicide dive but Simon Gotch cut him off with a knee and the Vaudevillains took control.
Kalisto made a hot tag and ran wild on Gotch, while Sin Cara hit Aiden English with a suicide dive. English somehow recovered before Sin Cara and made a blind tag to set up the Vaudevillians hitting the Whirling Dervish for the win. Basic match, about 4-5 minutes long. Kalisto taking the pinfall is confusing to say the least.
They recapped Miz winning the Intercontinental title from Zack Ryder on Raw and plugged the rematch for tonight.
Natalya beat Summer Rae via submission
Charlotte joined commentary and her dad (Ric Flair) was there too. Natalya won in about 3 minutes with a sharpshooter as she stared at Charlotte. Natalya went out to confront Charlotte afterwards but the referee stopped her.
Intercontinental Title: The Miz beat Zack Ryder via pinfall
Maryse came out on the stage to introduce The Miz. She said she was proof that behind every great man, there’s a great woman, “and there is no greater man than my husband.” That’s funny.
During his comeback, Ryder went for a diving dropkick but Miz countered into a sitout powerbomb for two. They traded moves leading to Ryder hitting a broski boot outside the ring, followed by a diving elbow drop for a near fall. Maryse started pulling off the turnbuckle cover and Saxton asked, “What is Maryse doing?” to which Lawler responded, “I’m paying attention to the match over here.”
This distracted the referee and Ryder, which allowed Miz to punch Ryder in the face and hit the skull crushing finale for the win. Perfectly fine match, which went about 13 minutes. Oddly, they didn’t show any replays afterwards, and they moved on from this pretty quickly considering it was a title match.
Apollo Crews beat Curtis Axel (w/Social Outcasts) via pinfall
Axel got this match over his fellow Outcasts because he “won” rock-paper-scissors by claiming the axe beats all. Crews fended off the other Outcasts and won after hitting a dropkick, jumping clothesline, standing moonsault, enzuigiri and spin-out powerbomb. Lawler admitted that Crews might have a future here.
They recapped Baron Corbin’s win at Mania and his match with Ziggler on Raw. Backstage, Rich Brennan tried to interview Corbin, but Corbin told Brennan to save his questions. Corbin said he won a trophy at WrestleMania and dented the floor with Dolph Ziggler. He said the end of days weren’t coming, they’re here.
Elsewhere, Renee Young interviewed Becky Lynch. Lynch said that nobody else seems to think she’s funny, and made a pun about her busted eye, saying “I have myself in stitches.” She then got serious, saying that Mania was the most brutal match of her life. Lynch said the new Women’s title was about heart and passion, and she walked out on Charlotte on Raw because she was making it about herself.
Lynch said she would get back to the title picture and pay back Charlotte for what she did to her eye. Emma interrupted and said she liked what Charlotte did to Lynch’s eye. She’s pissed that she got pushed to the back of the line in favour of Lynch. Lynch told her to back off or she’d mess up Emma’s eye.
Dean Ambrose beat Tyler Breeze via pinfall
Ambrose won in one minute after a rebound clothesline and Dirty Deeds. Ranallo said Breeze went down faster than Batman v. Superman at the box office.
As Ambrose’s music played, Chris Jericho’s entrance interrupted, and Ambrose looked annoyed. Ambrose stared at Jericho on his way up the ramp, but Jericho just ignored him.
Before the main event, there was another segment with Goldust and R-Truth. Basically, Truth promised Goldust an audition with a Hollywood producer next week in LA.
AJ Styles & Cesaro beat Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho via pinfall
Jericho and Owens had an intense conversation in the ring as the entrances were happening, perhaps over who is the biggest Twitter troll.
Cesaro and Styles used a double-team move early on, and Owens yelled, “You’re a cheater!” Jericho was frustrated by getting double teamed again, so he left the ring and started tossing stuff around. Owens, unsure of how to react, decided to join in by gently lifting the steel steps out of position. These two are already my favourite tag team.
After a break, the good guys were still all over Jericho as the crowd chanted for Styles. Jericho finally managed to tag out, but Cesaro got them both with the uppercut train. However, Jericho shoved Cesaro out of the ring and Owens tossed him into the announce table for the heat.
Cesaro avoided a cannonball and made the hot tag to Styles, who hit forearms to Owens and a sitout facebuster for a near fall. Owens avoided a springboard move and hit a superkick for two. Styles came back with a Pele kick. He went for the springboard forearm but Jericho pushed him off the ropes. Owens rolled him up but Styles kicked out and Cesaro uppercut Jericho over the barricade.
Owens was about to go for the pop-up powerbomb, but he stopped after seeing Sami Zayn making his way down the ramp as officials tried to stop him. The distraction allowed Styles to school boy Owens for the win. Good match.
Immediately after the match, Owens and Zayn went after each other. The brawl ended when Owens tossed Zayn’s injured shoulder into the steel steps. The referees dragged Owens away as he yelled, “I hate you!” and the show ended. There were no replays again, but it made sense here with Zayn coming out unannounced.
– Final Thoughts:
Pretty good show top-to-bottom. Simple booking with all the featured acts winning their matches. Fresh faces definitely help.
On Wednesday night, UFC announced that women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will defend against Amanda Nunes as part of UFC 200.
Tate vs. Nunes will be one of the three top fights on the show, along with featherweight champion Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz II (welterweight fight), and Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight title.
The fight is perplexing on almost every level. UFC is sitting on a goldmine right now in the women’s bantamweight division with big money fights on the horizon (Tate vs. Ronda Rousey III, Tate vs. Holly Holm II). A Nunes win would hurt that dynamic since she wouldn’t have near the buzz or interest level against any of those other fighters on the level Tate would have. If Tate was a lock to fight on this show, the only logical contenders would have been Rousey or Holm.
Nunes (12-4) has won three straight and five of her six UFC fights. She was last seen downing Valentina Shevchenko by unanimous decision at March’s UFC 196 — the same show on which Tate beat Holm for the gold.
Earlier this week, the fight was said to be under serious consideration for either UFC 200 or UFC 201. Tate signed a new deal with the promotion earlier this week as well.
UFC 200 is scheduled for Saturday, July 9th, in Las Vegas at the new T-Mobile Arena. It is expected to be one of the biggest UFC events of all-time, if not the biggest, in terms of PPV buys, media attention, and overall buzz.
Bryan Alvarez and I will talk more about the fight and the news from pro wrestling and MMA on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio.