Fedor Emelianenko clocked in at 236 pounds. Gabi Garcia and Lei’d Tapa in the women’s super heavyweight fight were more than 200 pounds. This will be the second Rizin show of the week, which takes place on New Year’s Eve at the Saitama Super Arena.
The show will air on Thursday morning at both 10 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time on Spike. Not all of the matches will air on Spike, and some matches from the Tuesday event will be on Spike.
The show is a mix of celebrity fights and names from the past with the attempt to draw mainstream viewers in Japan into MMA with unique personalities. While Emelianenko is who the show is built around in the U.S., in Japan the most interest revolves around the debut of former sumo star Baruto, the woman’s fight that includes former TNA wrestler Lei’d Tapa, the Bob Sapp vs Akebono fight and the Yamamoto wrestling family vs. Gracie Jiu Jitsu next generation battle with Asen Yamamoto, a teenage champion wrestler whose grandfather was an Olympic wrestler, whose mother was a world champion wrestler and whose uncle is Kid Yamamoto, facing Kron Gracie, the grandson of Helio Gracie and son of Rickson Gracie.
The show features five pro wrestlers in Akebono, Sapp, Tapa, Yuichiro Nagashima (the famed cross-dressing kickboxer) and Lawal.
Rena Kubota (112) vs. Jlena Valentino (112) King Mo Lawal (214) vs. Teodoras Aukstuolis (216) in the semifinals of the heavyweight tournament Jiro Prochazka (211.5) vs. Vadim Nemkov (219.5) in the semifinals of the heavyweight tournament Brennan Ward of Bellator (178) vs. Ken Hasegawa (178.5) Takeru (125.5) vs. Yang Ming (125.5) in a K-1 rules match Soo Chu Kim (134.5) vs. Maike Linhares (134.5) Gabi Garcia (216) vs. Lei’d Tapa (201) in a women’s fight Kron Gracie (144.5) vs. Asen Yamamoto (144.5) Akebono (419) vs. Bob Sapp (330.5) in a shoot boxing rules match Andy Souwer (159) vs. Yuichiro Nagashima (158) Peter Aerts (didn’t weigh in) vs. Baruto (403.5) Fedor Emelianenko (236) vs. Jaideep Singh (233) Finals of heavyweight tournament
Even going against the highest rated Monday night game of the season, Raw did well above its fall season average with the Vince McMahon show-long arrest angle.
Raw did 3.53 million viewers, placing it third for the night on cable behind the Broncos-Bengals game that did 15.81 million viewers and an episode of SportsCenter.
The angle, as expected, helped maintain the audience as there was less of an audience drop as the show went on as is typical of Raw. The return of John Cena also played a part in that.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.70 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.49 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
Monday was the final episode of Monday Night Football. With the exception of the 1/11 show, which goes against the college football championship game, Raw will now be free of its top competition, and ratings should rise about 10 percent from the level they have been if history is an indication.
Smackdown New Year’s Eve edition spoilers – 12/31 (taped Tuesday 12/29)
By John Athridge
The crowd is pretty full for a Smackdown. The hard camera side is basically full at least. I missed the first two matches, but I was told that Darren Young beat Curtis Axel in the dark match.
Main Event
R-Truth beat Heath Slater.
Titus O’Neil beat Adam Rose.
Jack Swagger submitted Stardust with the ankle lock in about 10 minutes. They worked awfully hard for a Main Event match.
Smackdown
Show opened by replaying the Vince arrest angle from last night. They announced the main event of Reigns and Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Owens.
New Day came out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They said their New Year’s resolution was nothing because they are perfect. They said the people needed to change because they didn’t vote for the New Day for the Slammies. They read a list of resolutions for the people so they’d finally appreciate the New Day. Mildly funny. The Lucha Dragons came out. They argued and challenged the New Day for a match even though Sin Cara is injured. The Dragons then brought out the Dudleys for a 6 man match.
The Dudleys and Kalisto beat the New Day when Kalisto pinned Kofi. The Dudleys then put Xavier Woods through a table with “Happy New Year” spray painted on it.
During the commercials, they played New Year’s wishes from various wrestlers.
Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) beat Goldust in a short match. Summer then said they had a huge New Year’s announcement. Tyler said that starting in the New Year, the two of them would be going their separate ways. But they left the crowd with one last “Gorgeous Selfie”.
Backstage, Bo Dallas was giving out New Year’s Re-Bo-lutions (including telling Curtis Axel to start wearing deodorant). He ran into Dolph Ziggler. After a few insults back and forth, they announced a match between them later.
Braun Strowman and Luke Harper (w/Erick Rowan) beat the Usos. Strowman got the submission after some quick interference from Rowan.
They announced John Cena’s return to Smackdown for next week.
Alicia Fox and Brie Bella beat Tamina and Naomi when Brie pinned Naomi after a couple of minutes.
They announced that there will be a house show in DC on Sunday March, 27th. Thought we were getting the go home Raw before Wrestlemania here, but apparently not.
Dolph Ziggler beat Bo Dallas with a superkick after selling for a few minutes. Not much else to it.
Reigns came out to a decent reaction, but nothing spectacular. Ambrose seemed to get louder cheers.
Reigns and Ambrose beat Sheamus and Kevin Owens by DQ when Owens pulled Reigns out of the ring and crotched him on the ring post after about 10 minutes. Owens and Sheamus beat down Reigns and then Ambrose. Owens was about to powerbomb Ambrose through the announce table when Reigns recovered to give them both Superman punches. Reigns and Ambrose then posed on the announce table. Got a decent reaction, but not much of a main event.
WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).
Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).
RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match
Heavyweight tournament semifinals
Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa
Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules
Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares
Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match
Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)
Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
Peter Aerts vs. Baruto (sumo star)
Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)
A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.
We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.
We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week. We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.
We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why. We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.
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 Meltzer
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For the record, according to WWE this morning the Big Show is NOT going to be the number-one entrant in the Royal Rumble. Last night on Raw he made a confusing statement about being the first entrant which led to great confusion among fans and the announcers. I would laugh if all of this all led to him actually being put in the Rumble in the number one spot. Apparently Big Show will be shooting some segments clarifying what he apparently meant (he’s the first man to throw his hat into the ring for the Rumble).
Sakuraba looked all 46 of his years in a one sided loss against Shinya Aoki in the main event of Rizin’s debut show. Here are the full results from the first day of Rizin Fighting Federation.
Ronda Rousey’s sister, Maria Burns Ortiz (who coauthored Rousey’s autobiography My Fight/Your Fight), wrote a retrospective on the rise to superstardom of her sister as part of a VICE Sports year in review series. The article includes candid family photos from the past year featuring Ronda.
Lemmy Kilmister, frontman of the band Motörhead, passed away Monday at age 70. In terms of pro wrestling, Motörhead provided entrance music for Triple H with such songs as “The Game” and “King of Kings” while also forming an apparent bond with Paul Levesque. In a story from this past summer, the band covered a Rolling Stones song on their last album at the request of Triple H. An English rock band that emerged in the 1970s, Motörhead became legendary in heavy metal and rock music. With Lemmy on lead vocals and bass guitar, they performed live at WrestleMania in both 2001 and 2005.
Based on the overnights (actual ratings not available until tomorrow), last nights game was the highest rated of the season with a 10.5 rating, although it peaked after Raw ended.
Heard the WWE Breaking Ground that aired on the WWE Network was very good. The series wraps up with the final episode of the season next Monday after Raw.
Titus O’Neil is Coachman’s guest on Sportscenter tonight.
M-1 Challenge lightweight champion Mansour “Tarzan” Barnaoui will make his first title defense, February 19 at Olympic Stadium, against Artiom Damkovsky at M-1 Challenge 64 in Moscow, Russia. M-1 Challenge 64 will be streamed live from Moscow in high definition on M1Global.TV. Viewers will be able to watch the preliminary fights and main card by logging on to register at www.M1Global.TV. Fans may watch all of the action on their computers, as well as on Android and Apple smart phones and tablets.
We will have Sean Wheelock, head of the ABC rules committee as a guest on Thursday and we’re looking for any questions, thoughts or suggestions regarding rules and regulations of MMA in North America, rules you think should be changed, etc. to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
MISC
A new promotion in India calling itself the Pro Wrestling League reportedly ran a stadium show in New Delhi. Basically the inaugural event featured what most would consider amateur wrestling matches except presented with the pageantry of contemporary pro wrestling or MMA. One article from The Times of India focuses on, of all things, trying to enter the stadium, while other coverage looks at the matches themselves.
An article from Bloomberg related to the Concussion movie details new equipment designed to prevent concussions in contact sports. The creation of an anti-compression collar drew inspiration from woodpeckers. The article includes a quote from Chris Nowinski.
Newsday digs into wire service image archives to showcase some great classic black and white wrestling photos.
On this week’s Between the Sheets podcast, Kris Zellner and David Bixenspan are joined by Dylan Hales to go over the week that was December 22-28, 1989 including the famous of Blackjack Mulligan and Kendall Windham for passing counterfeit money, Paul Heyman’s plan to unite the major indies and remaining territories, a crazy week for the USWA, one of the worst weeks of Hulk Hogan’s life, and much more.
EVOLVE announced that WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising 2016 on April 2nd at the WWNLive Experience in Dallas, TX will be a Night Of Appreciation For Terry Funk. “We always strive to move the art of pro wrestling forward in the WWN Family. Sometimes the best way to do that is to pay homage to those that blazed the trail in the past. Mercury Rising 2016 will feature a ceremony honoring Mr. Funk. The legend will also be available for photos and autographs. Go to MoreThanMania.com for tickets and info.”
PWP runs tomorrow night, 12/30, at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha, NE with Michael Elgin headlining.
Kevin Doane talks to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. On the Spirit Squad gimmick and trying to make the main roster: “Eventually The Spirit Squad started coming about and they started liking it. They flew us into one of the Carolinas and they weren’t sure about it then. So we all came up with this idea that we are going to wait in Vince’s office and when he comes in we are going to blow the air horn in his face and do a cheer. We thought you either going to get fired or it will work. We don’t want to be in developmental so he was stuck in the production meeting for quite a while so we said let’s find him and break in. So we bust into the production meeting and blow the air horn, we did a big cheer and we just kind of stopped in our position and Vince looked up and he said ‘great, you will be on RAW next week.’”
The UFC has canceled its March 5th PPV show from Rio de Janeiro.
At a UFC media conference call to promote the Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping fight in London, Silva said that the entire show that he was expected to headline at first, is off. No fights had been announced for the date.
“(It) was to have me fighting in Brazil against I don’t know who,” said Silva. “But with this situation going on in Brazil, economically and everything, the UFC decided to abort this event for now.”
Guilhemre Cruz in a story at MMAFighting stated that Silva’s remarks were confirmed by sources close to the promotion.
The Bisping vs. Silva fight will main event on Fight Pass, the highest-profile match to ever do so. UFC officials are working to boost Fight Pass sales in 2016.
Results from the Rizin show held earlier today at the Saitama Super Arena:
Tsuyoshi Kosaka beat James Thomspon via strikes in the second round
Kiril Sidelnikov beat Carlos Toyota via strokes in the first round
Felipe Efrain beat Yuki Motoya via knockout from strikes in the first round -The official result of the fight was a no contest due to Efrain missing weight.
Hiroyo Kawabe beat Akiyo Nishiura in a K-1 rules mach via third round knockout
Hinata Watanabe beat Kazuyuki Miyata in a mixed match. The first round was K-1 rules and Hinata, the kickboxer, destroyed him so there was no second round under MMA rules
Anatoly Tokov beat A.J. Matthews via knockout in the first round
Hideo Tokoro beat Kizaemon Saiga via armbar in the first round
Hiroyuki Takaya beat DJ Taiki via decision
Heavyweight tournament:
Reserve fight: Valentin Moldavsky beat Yuta Uchida with essentially a camel clutch submission
King Mo Lawal beat Brian McDermott via knockout in 9:10
Toedoras Aukstuolis beat Bruno Cappelozza via knockout in 3:32
Vadim Nemkov beat Goran Reljic via knockout in 2:58
Jiri Prochazka beat Satoshi Ishii via knockout in 1:36
Shinya Aoki beat Kazushi Sakuraba in a one round slaughter via strikes
Jerome LeBanner never came to Japan, so Peter Aerts will come out of retirement to face Baruto on Thursday’s show. Aerts has been Baruto’s trainer to get him ready for his debut making it even more weird.
The show was said to be entertaining except the main event was sad. The heavyweight tournament was good although from a Japanese perspective, Ishii going down so quickly wasn’t good news.
Brock Lesnar’s next opponent in WWE will be Sheamus as things are advertised.
A Lesnar vs. Sheamus match has been announced for a 1/8 house show at the Toyota Center in Houston. It is one of two Lesnar house show appearances thus far announced for this year, with the second one being on 2/16.
Lesnar is advertised for a Raw return on 1/11 in New Orleans, which will likely be the night that his role in the Royal Rumble show will also be announced.
Lesnar’s contract signed in April called for more dates, including an occasional house show, than his prior two contracts. Lesnar did two house shows, one in Tokyo and one at Madison Square Garden, that ended up as live network specials. But his third, held on 12/19 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, was strictly a house show match with Alberto Del Rio.
Jorge Arias, who works as Sin Cara in WWE, suffered a dislocated left shoulder last night in his match with Big E on Raw in Brooklyn.
The spot, replayed multiple times saw Arias on the ring apron when E scooped his leg and pulled him off the apron and he took a bump off the apron to the floor, landing badly on the shoulder.
The match was halted temporarily as The New Day backed off and played to the crowd while the trainer came out. Even though it seemed clear he was hurt, even more so as the match continued, the match did in fact continue to its planned conclusion of E winning with the Big Ending, although he very much was protecting the left shoulder when he did the move.
Arias did spots while the left arm was pretty well hanging there.
Sin Cara on Twitter acknowledged the injury saying “Not even a dislocated shoulder could stop from performing in this great city.”
There is no word on how long he may be out of action. WWE officials stated that a full report is not in but the injury is not believed to be anything serious.
As the company has done so often since 1999 in an attempt to build a new babyface, Roman Reigns is now being booked like Steve Austin. Vince McMahon got arrested. Reigns was the last man standing in the end. Then Vince came out at the end of the show to announce that Reigns would defend the championship against Sheamus next week with a special referee: Vince McMahon. It was a two segment show and the rest was boring.
Show Recap:
Vince McMahon started the show with Tony Chimmel doing the ring announcing. McMahon claimed he had to undergo dental surgery after the Superman’s punch that Roman Reigns delivered two weeks ago. He ordered Reigns to come out.
McMahon told Reigns that he practically incapitated HHH and disrespected Stephanie McMahon. Vince said HHH would get revenge on Reigns when he least expected it. And he said Reigns literally kicked him out of his own ring. McMahon said he owns his ring, he owns the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and sooner or later Reigns will understand he owns Reigns. Reigns responded that the fans own the WWE World Championship. Crowd started a “Daniel Bryan” chant which McMahon ordered them to shut up. Then they started a “CM Punk” chant as the two talked over them.
McMahon brought up Reigns’ predecessors the Wild Samoans. Hardly anyone knew that in the crowd. McMahon reminded Reigns he was one generation away from having a bone through his nose. McMahon said he made Reigns’ uncle Afa wrestle every night of the week and there was nothing left of him once it was over. Then there was Reigns’ father Sika, which McMahon claimed to have used him up. McMahon said paid Sika with Reigns dead peanuts. No one really reacted because they didn’t remember Sika. Plus, when did the Samoans become the Road Warriors at the gate?
Reigns shoved McMahon down. McMahon started claiming he had a neck injury in the most phony tone possible. Stephanie came out to check on him with police officers in tow. Stephanie ordered Reigns arrested. One of the detectives refused saying they were there to provide security, not be Stephanie’s personal police department. Damn, I wish somebody had told that to the police in the late 90s. Depending on the city, the show and the superstar, police were more involved in wrestling angles than actual police work some weeks.
Stephanie started to get in the detectives’ face until he ordered her to step back or else she would be arrested. Vince tried to smooth things over, but next things you know Vince started to get in the detectives’ face. Stephanie reminded her father to sell his neck again. Finally, three officers came in the ring and put the handcuffs on McMahon.
The detective then read Vince his rights, complete with the line “If you can’t afford an attorney…wait, that doesn’t apply to you.” Vince was led through the crowd with Stephanie protesting the whole way as Reigns smiled and help up his belt.
Vince was shoved into a police cruiser with Stephanie screaming about how she was going to sue the police damage. Michael Cole speculated Vince could be charged with assaulting an officer.
Neville defeated Kevin Owens (:21)
Neville escaped a Pop-Up Power Bomb and pinned Kevin Owens with a victory roll. Wrong crowd to pull this upset because the fans chanted for Owens before the match. The pin was booed. Owens attacked Neville afterwards.
As Neville was being helped to the back, Owens ran back out to clothesline Neville into oblivion. He was about to power bomb Neville onto the apron when Dean Ambrose ran down for a pull-apart brawl.
The official announcement that the Rock was coming to WrestleMania was made. Byron Sexton started to do the “Can you smell” line, to which Cole ordered him never to do again.
Jojo interviewed Becky Lynch, who was jumped by Team BAD while Charlotte wrestled on Smackdown. Charlotte tweeted earlier that she wouldn’t appear tonight on Raw, but Lynch said she wasn’t worried or angry about it. She spoke about coming to Brooklyn when she was penniless and now she was on Raw.
Sasha Banks did prematch mic work putting over Boston to get heat. Naomi said Brooklyn was a garbage-filled, overrated, overpopulated, polluted stank dump.
Sasha Banks defeated Becky Lynch (15:40)
Banks won with a cradle following a series of reversals after Banks hit the Bank Statement. Lynch attempted to clamp on Disarm-her, but Banks escaped. They tried to have a match with rest holds to build heat, but this crowd wasn’t playing along. It got “boring” chants, which seemed to throw them off their game because they weren’t on the same page in certain spots. An average match.
Renee Young was outside the police station where Vince’s mugshot was posted. She confirmed that Jerry McDevitt was at the jail and Stephanie had shown up with high-profile attorneys.
The New Day pranced down with Xavier Woods talking about winning the World Tag Team Champions in Brooklyn in August. It was the very building where the trombone made its debut. Kofi Kingston teased singing a new song, but Woods heard the trombone (named Franchecha) that the fans didn’t vote for them to win a Slammy. Kingston said everytime the New Day comes out, it’s an OMG moment. For instance, for all the parents at home has their children misbehave, they should call the New Day because the New Day will fight their kids. Woods said “Oh my God, Kofi, aren’t you a father?” Kingston said “Exactly! OMG!”
Kalisto defeated Kofi Kingston (2:45)
Kalisto pinned Kingston with a huracanrana. Before the finish, Kalisto dropkicked Woods off the apron, but Big E. Caught him. Sin Cara ran off the steps and gave both men a crossbody.
This led to Woods challenging Cara to face Big E. Immediately.
Big E.defeated Sin Cara (4:36)
Cara legitimately injured his shoulder after taking a bump to the floor off the apron, and the doctor had to stop the match. While this was going on, the fans started a dual chant of “We Want Cena” “No We Don’t.” After the stoppage, Woods screamed the Rocky IV line “It was supposed to be an exhibition!” From the Ill-fated Apollo Creed-Ivan Drago fight. It was a gutsy performance from Cara, especially when he gave Big E. A rolling senton off the top rope. After Kingston and Woods got involved, Big E. Won with the Big Ending.
Cena is on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Magazine.
MizTv started to do a year-in review which was quickly interrupted by Ryback, who said 2016 would be the year of the big guy. Golddust came out and wondered if this was the year the Miz would win a SAG Award, an Oscar, or some Golden Globes. Then Zack Ryder came out to a big pop. Ryder claimed that Brooklyn was “New Zack City” and said 2016 would be the year of Ryder. Miz started to talk about how he tried yoga in January when R-Truth came out. R-Truth said when fans cast their ballots for Superstar of the Year, cast their vote for the Truth. Miz reminded Truth that the Slammys were last week. Then Heath Slater showed up and said he had a lot to say. Before he could start, the Big Show walked down. Slater said nobody cared what Show had to say. Slater managed to block the subsequent right hand with his chin.
Ryder and Golddust were also knocked down. Truth punched himself in an attempt to knock himself out. Show gave him a choke slam. Ryback and Big Show squared off, with Show tossing Ryback over the top rope.
Crowd chanted “Please Retire” at Show. Instead, he said he was going to enter himself into the Royal Rumble and would accept position number one.
Ryback defeated The Big Show by countout (2:53)
As Ryback was about to deliver a meathook clothesline, Show rolled out of the ring and walked out. A totally meaningless segment, and the same can be said of the last 45 minutes of this show.
Sheamus came out and debated the crowd for cheering Vince’s arrest and vowed to carry out a beat down on Ambrose and the Usos tonight.
The League of Nations defeated the Usos and Dean Ambrose (16:50)
Sheamus pinned Jey Uso with the Brogue Kick. Jey was about to give Sheamus a splash when Rusev held his leg, giving Sheamus time to get his knees up. A double hot tag match that lost the crowd early . Fans chanted “This is Boring” with Sheamus in there. Jimmy Uso did a tope spot onto Rusev. Crowd chanted for Lana, who again was missing with no explanation. She’s really someone who would give the League of Nations the right spice.
Post match, Owens ran out of the crowd to attack Ambrose. It led to a camera shot worth it’s weight in gold where Owens power bombed Ambrose off the announcers table onto another announcers’ table. Pieces of the table flew everywhere and you’ll likely be seeing replays of that spot on opening vignettes for years to come. Ambrose sold it great acted like he was in convulsions and had to be carried out by referees. Owens feels like the most over heel on the roster in terms of getting a reaction, albeit a heel that fans want to like. But as we saw in Philadelphia two weeks ago, he knows how to turn a crowd.
Vince, Stephanie and someone trying to be McDevitt stormed out of the police station without taking questions from reporters who were standing by. It’s amazing how the company can be so meticulous in its planning for angles regarding the owner, but can’t figure out where Lana is.
Cena made his return to the usual chorus of people hating him. He pointed out a guy who wore a t-shirt with “Cena” crossed out. He ran down Alberto Del Rio for not defending the U.S. Championship once on Raw since he won it at Hell in a Cell. Del Rio came out with the rest of the League of Nations and said “The Champ is Here.” He said Brooklyn didn’t deserve to have a U.S. Championship match. Cena did a speech putting over Brooklyn. The jibber-jabbered back and forth with Cena trying to goad him into defending the championship. Del Rio refused to put the belt on the line. Cena called him a one-hit wonder who lost his manhood. Del Rio said he was going to send Cena home tonight for good, then finally agreed to put the title on the line.
Cole and JBL did a tribute to Lemmy of Motörhead, who passed away this afternoon after a brief illness. It was impressive they had a video package put together so quickly regarding his life because his death was announced just a few hours ago. If you haven’t, check out the documentary on Lemmy that aired on VH1 Classic, a great tribute to a great performer.
John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio (C) by DQ, so Del Rio retains the U.S Championship (14:04)
The only match on the show worth anything. Del Rio clamped on the armbar, but Cena made the ropes. Cena went for the AA, but there was a ref bump as Del Rio kicked the referee. Rusev and Sheamus ran down. Rusev hit Cena with a thrust kick. Del Rio covered him, but Cena kicked out. With the referee still down, Sheamus tried to give Cena a Brogue Kick, but Sheamus hit Rusev. Cena gave Sheamus the AA, but Del Rio gave Cena a back stabbed and a superkick that he used to beat Cena in October, but Cena again kicked out. Del Rio went for the arm breaker, but Cena hit the AA. Rusev )(shook off that Brouge Kick fast) and Sheamus ran in for the DQ.
Sheamus gave Cena the Brogue Kick. The Usos ran down for the save but they were quickly disposed of.
Reigns came down for the save, giving Rusev a spear on the floor and Del Rio a superman punch. Sheamus and Reigns had a staredown. Sheamus entered the ring with a chair, but Reigns gave him a Superman punch and a chair shot across the back.
Vince McMahon came out and said he was going to sue the city of New York. Vince said Reigns would face Sheamus for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship next week. The special referee would be Vince McMahon, and Vince kept repeating “Happy New Year” to end the show.
The Big Takeaway:
Part of the problem with booking Vince McMahon to appear on these shows is he’s one of the few larger than life personalities the company has left. Once he appears in the opening segment, then leaves and goes away for two-and-a-half hours, the crowd heat has nowhere to go but down. It was capitalized with some poorly booked segments, namely MizTv. Reigns was received very well.
RAW: Additional live Brooklyn notes
From Mike Omansky
The Barclay Center was sold out and WWE announced a return date of Monday, March 28th, the RAW before Wrestlemania.
Presale on Ticketmaster…code: RAWISBK
Pre-“RAW” – SUPERSTARS
DARREN YOUNG W ADAM ROSE, finisher and pin. Not much at all.
JACK SWAGGER & MARK HENRY W ASENSCION, when Henry pinned Conor after the world’s strongest slam. Decent match. Swagger worked most of it; got beaten down; made the hot tag; over shortly after that.
Post-“RAW”
A “massive” 6 man tag had been advertised on local TV spots in the past 2 weeks, but it didn’t take place. After it went off the air, we got the usual skit in lieu of a match. League of Nations members attacked Cena; Reigns helped Cena and Cena finally got the AA on Del Rio. In the process, Cena teased a turn on Reigns (had a chair in hand), but that was momentary.
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with the dark matches and Superstars matches and anything else not evident on the house shows, as well as reports on the house show tonight in Allentown (Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Tommy Dreamer & Dudleys vs. Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan & Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze, Charlotte vs. Page).
Raw tonight features both Vince McMahon appearing as well as the return of John Cena, as he faces Alberto Del Rio. Santino Marella is also booked for TV so it looks like he’ll be a more regular comedy figure going forward. With the house show tonight in Allentown, the names listed on that show are not expected to be on Raw tonight.
Bryan and I will be back with Wrestling Observer Radio tonight talking the latest wrestling and MMA news as well as taking your e-mail questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
RIZIN DEBUT SHOW ON LATE MONDAY/EARLY TUESDAY FROM SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. James Thompson
Carlos Toyota vs. Kiril Sidelnikov
Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain
Hiroyoa vs. Wicky Nishiura under K-1 rules
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Hinata with alternate rounds of MMA rules and K-1 rules
A.J. Matthews (Bellator) vs. Anatoly Tokov
Hideo Tokoro (Bellator) vs. Kizaemon Saiga
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. D.J. Taiki
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida – heavyweight tournament reserve fight
King Mo (Bellator) vs. Brett McDermott – first round of heavyweight tournament
Teodoras Aukstuolis vs. Bruno Cappelozza – first round of heavyweight tournament
Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov – first round of heavyweight tournament
Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochoazka – first round of heavyweight tournament
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki
WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).
Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).
RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match
Heavyweight tournament semifinals
Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa
Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules
Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares
Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match
Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)
Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
Jerome LeBanner vs. Baruto (sumo star)
Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)
A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.
We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.
We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week. We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.
We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why. We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.
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 Meltzer
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Dwayne Johnson officially announced he would be at WrestleMania this year. He said he was coming to set the all-time attendance record and make history. Because of his filming the “Baywatch” movie, it was unclear if he could get the time off. We had been told before it would be difficult, but not impossible, for him to wrestle on the show due to an issue related to insurance from one of the movies he’s doing but we will check if that has changed.
Want to make mention of the sad news today of the death of Harry Simon, a longtime reader and huge fan who contributed trivia column for this site years ago. Simon passed away on Friday due to suicide, a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had lost his father one year ago on the same day as well as another close family member and had battled depression along with other painful physical problems over the past year. He was 40. He used to love to tell people he thought he was the only person ever to write for both the Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Harry Simon had a wish that his friends could all get together on a date in January for a gathering. If anyone is interested in attending the Harry Simon Memorial, please e-mail Joyce Katz at joyceworley1@cox.net Simon was big into pro wrestling and comic books.
John Cena was a guest host on The Today show this morning, and will be on the show again tomorrow. His segments are HERE and HERE
Shinsuke Nakamura was announced today by ROH as appearing on its anniversary weekend shows on 2/26 and 2/27 in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town. The 2/26 show, which will feature a number of New Japan stars (Kushida and Gedo have been announced, the Observer has also listed several other names) will be on PPV.
The press conference was held earlier today for the Rizin debut show which takes place tonight/tomorrow morning at the Saitama Super Arena. We’ve got weigh-in weights at the top. Sakuraba, who is 46, hasn’t won a fight since 2009, but because of his fame, is the headliner. Another ex-pro wrestling star, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, comes out of a nearly decade in retirement. James Thompson, his opponent, weighed in at 291 pounds. All the fighters on both tonight’s show and the New Year’s Eve show were at the press conference except Bob Sapp and Jerome LeBanner. Sapp is in Japan and there are no problems indicated. The word we got is that LeBanner is not in Japan and may not be showing up at all. LeBanner is scheduled to face Baruto on the New Year’s Eve show. It’s something to follow up on.
WWE
Paul Levesque today announced a 1/16 afternoon show at 1 p.m. for NXT in Chicago at the Portage Theater. They had already sold the theater out for an evening show that night. Tickets go on sale at Noon Central time on Wednesday. They will probably go quickly.
Alberto Del Rio at yesterday’s show in Hartford was wearing a completely new outfit and had new ring music. His tights were described as looking like the old Demolition tights with fake spikes and long pants.
Ratings won’t be out until Wednesday this week due to the holidays. It should be noted that there is a strong NFL game tonight with the Broncos vs. the Bengals. But WWE is loading the show up with returns of both John Cena and Vince McMahon. It also should be the start of the build for the Royal Rumble show.
WWE stock closed down 12 cents a share to $18.65 today.
Dwayne Johnson bought his “Uncle Tonga,” the former Haku, a truck as a Christmas present this year.
UFC
FS 1 tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Eastern will have a special looking at the biggest fights of 2015.
Gegard Mousasi vs. Thales Leites will be the co-main event on the 2/27 Fight Pass card in London, underneath Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping.
MISCELLANEOUS
Cleeng, the iPPV provider that aired, or at least tried to air the Christmas night CMLL show from Arena Mexico, has sent out a $5 coupon code for everyone who bought last week’s show so they can get this coming Friday’s show for half price.
Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, Bobby Roode, Brian Myers, Karen Jarrett and Colt Cabana are announced for the GFW show on 1/22 in Poughkeepsie at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.
There will be a 1/17 show in Upland, CA at the Grizzly Den with The Young Bucks, Doc Gallows, Amber Gallows, Karl Anderson and Rocky Romero.
Lio Rush was announced for the ROH Top Prospect tournament which starts on 1/9 in Concord, NC.
CBS Sunday morning in a Hail and Farewell segments on celebrities who had passed away this year, listed former Roller Derby star Annis “Big Red” Jensen, although none of the major wrestling names. They also showed 15 seconds of black and white footage of her skating. It’s notable because while she was one of the top stars in the 50 and early 60s, the biggest Derby star ever, Charlie O’Connell, passed away a few months later and got shockingly little press, although in reality, we had a bigger story on Jensen than O’Connell, but that was because very quickly after O’Connell’s death, huge wrestling stars had passed away.
AAW from Saturday night in Merrionette Park, IL: Davey Vega b Louis Lyndon to win Heritage title, Kongo Kong b Russ Jones, Heidi Lovelace & Zero Gravity b Bucky Collins & Zack Braxton & Eddie Machete, Hooligans b Shane Hollister & Markus Crane to keep the tgag titles, Tommaso Ciampa b Michael Elgin, Chris Hero b Colt Cabana (subbing for Davey Richards), Sami Callihan b AR Fox, Eddie Kingston b Ethan Page in a cage match to retain the AAW title. Next show is 1/15 in Merrionette Park, IL with Eddie Kingston vs. Trevor Lee, plus Hero, Callihan and Abyss appearing.(thanks to Qumar Zaman)
Orlando Pro Wrestling from yesterday: Josh Parker b Chris Saint, Siniestro b Derick Jordan, Cousin Earl b Gabriel Black Santana Garrett b Tammy Lynn, Mike Reed b King Tony DaBlack, King Tony DaBlack won Battle Royal (thanks to Al Haft)
Maryland Championship Wrestling from Saturday night in Joppa, MD: Stockade b Rayo & Chief Homeboy RD in a handicap match, Paul Jordane & Bill Collier b Punk Rock All-Stars (Shaun Cannon & Drake Carter), Dixon Line (Rob Locke & Joe Keys) b Fed Up (C-Fed & G-Fed), Sean Studd (John’s legit son) b Fenix Fury, Oakley Woods & Bo Nekoda b Kai Katana & Sean Carr, Ethan Carter III b Brandon Scott, Lio Rush b Joey Janela, Renee Michelle b Kimber Lee to win the women’s title with Mickie James as referee, Billy Gunn b Ken Dixon to win the TV title,The Ecktourage (Eric Chapel & Dirty Money managed by Kevin Eck b Hell Cats (Jimmy Starz & Sexy Steve) in a cage match to retain the tag titles, King McBride b The Bruiser to retain the MCW title in a cage match. Next show in four weeks features the Hardys.
