Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Filthy Tom Lawlor returns after a long hiatus with a ton to talk about — his fight with Corey Anderson at UFC 196, two episodes of TNA Impact Wrestling, Shane McMahon on Raw, plus his speech on why he should become the new PRESIDENT OF THE F4W EMPIRE. A fun show as always so check it out~!
In an appearance on the Max & Marcellus ESPN radio show on 3/11, Dana White said that UFC 196, which took place six days earlier in Las Vegas, broke all kinds of records and ended up doing 1.5 million buys on PPV.
The number, if accurate, would be significantly up from both the November (Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm) and December (Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo and Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold) shows that are believed to have done in the 1.05 to 1.2 million buy range. It would beat every UFC event to date with the exception of UFC 100, which is estimated at 1.6 million buys. The difference is that UFC 100 was supposed to blow away all numbers, with title matches featuring the company’s two biggest drawing cards at the time, Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back today with tons to discuss: Is Vince McMahon right, does everyone hate their job, their boss and their life? FIND OUT! Also, TJ Perkins shows up to talk TNA and EVOLVE, and we’ve also got tons of news, calls and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show is back today to talk RETRO RAW AND RETRO NITRO~! What a night it was with the famous Bret vs. Sid match that results in a profanity-laden Bret promo, a great main event on Nitro following an otherwise lackluster show, Uncensored fallout and tons more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including tons of thoughts from Raw, Neville’s injury, Roman Reigns, WrestleMania and more, plus Chris Daniels appears to talk ROH and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Adrian Neville (aka Benjamin Satterly) will miss this year’s WrestleMania after suffering a broken ankle and a broken shinbone in a match with Chris Jericho on Raw Monday night.
Following the first commercial break, Neville went for a baseball slide and caught his foot and ankle on the canvas. It was clear he was hurt, but it also appeared that he was going to try to continue the match. They did one quick highspot, but as Neville was trying to hop to the ropes, he collapsed.
Jericho told referee Charles Robinson that they were going to improvise a finish and go home early. He rolled up Neville but Robinson, who like all WWE referees is instructed to call it like a shoot, apparently saw one of Neville’s shoulders up and stopped counting.
Jericho, incensed, jumped to his feet and screamed, “HE’S HURT!” and shoved Robinson, who then called for the DQ. Robinson and Jericho had a big argument on national TV, part of which included Jericho telling him that Neville broke his ankle and he told him that, and Robinson claiming he didn’t hear him. Both were screaming at the other not to put their hands on them. We are told it was an awkward situation live in the ring, but that “things seemed better backstage”.
Jericho then improvised another promo, leading to AJ Styles coming out and hitting him with his springboard forearm.
The timing of something like this is never good, but this injury will keep Neville out of the ring for WrestleMania, the worst possible scenario.
Other wrestlers have severely injured their ankles over the years on baseball slide spots, including Rob Van Dam during an ECW match in the 90s.
WWE has a brief story on the injury on their website, including a photo of Neville being checked out.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer also have details on the injury, plus a full Raw review for subscribers on last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including a full review of Monday’s Raw, all the matches and segments heading into WrestleMania, Neville’s leg injury, New Japan lineups, Matt Mitrione to Bellator, tons of mailbag questions and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
I have no problem copping to being someone who still played the first EA Sports UFC game long after its release. It was the only current generation MMA game as well as being the only MMA game that still had a working online component. But it was also terribly flawed, even after EA made numerous improvements with patches. It was a first effort, yes, but it was also clearly rushed to meet the release date, as “Spring 204” ended up meaning the last Tuesday of Spring and there were numerous problems. Some were quickly addressed with patches, some weren’t, and eventually it improved quite a bit. But not quite enough.
The death of any major pro wrestling figure makes one reflect upon the past. But the death of Shohei Baba will likely have repercussions far more telling about the future, and in ways that nobody at this point can predict.
More than the death of a wrestling superstar or a legendary promoter, of which he was both and a lot more, his death spells the end of the major chapter in Japanese wrestling history, of which he was one of the two main participants. And his death leaves in question the future of the old style of wrestling, with lengthy main events, clean winners and losers, finishing moves that work against the top stars, of which his company was the lone holdover, and the beginning of a new chapter in the Japanese wrestling world. What it will turn into and how it will get there is far more difficult to examine than what it was and will probably never be again.
Fan….driver….ring jacket carrier….ring crew….referee….manager….general manager….legend.
All of these things (and more) can sum up the professional wrestling career of Teddy Long, and we are given a look into all of the above and more in a near 30-minute interview that I conducted with him recently.
From his beginnings in the business thanks to Abdullah the Butcher through to the CM Punk/Undertaker storyline in WWE, he has seen and done it all.
We talk at length about why he was always happy to be working in the business, how much he loved Owen Hart and what it was like on he night that he died, dealing with racism from fans in his early days, whether he will veer be in the WWE Hall Of Fame and why he is the first to show respect in any locker room he is in. We look at the inner workings of being a referee, why certain people should have had more respect and common sense in the business (especially Abraham Washington in WWE) and the reasons why as he watched Vince McMahon allow himself to be humiliated as a character on TV each week that he was never worried about any storyline they threw his way.
We could have literally talked for hours about his stories in the business, but enjoy just a 30-minute glimpse into his 30+ year career.
#HollaHollaHolla
#Playa