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  • TMZ: UFC refuses to put Conor McGregor back on UFC 200

    According to TMZ, UFC is refusing to put Conor McGregor back on the UFC 200 show after his Facebook post today where he made it very clear he still wanted to be on the show and was not retiring.

    Given that UFC has not announced a new main event and thus started promoting a new fight, it makes no sense at this point not to put McGregor back on, unless the dispute was something very different than has been portrayed or if McGregor would not do the necessary promotional work such as appear on the promo commercial.

    McGregor’s earlier post was a public statement that he wanted to be on the show, but it was posturing for him to not be blamed for any issues that led to the fight falling apart. It is still unknown what the real behind-the-scenes issues are that are keeping the fight from taking place.

    But it is also still in everyone’s best economic interest for UFC 200 to be as big as possible, which can only happen if the fight ends up happening.

  • WWE NXT results: Samoa Joe vs Apollo Crews; American Alpha: No Way Jose

    The Big News: I paid my F4WOnline bills, so this NXT report is not 51% owned by Ron & Don Harris.

    The Medium News: Samoa Joe sent Apollo Crews packing to Raw with a submission loss

    The Little Beaver Sized News: No Way Jose debuted!

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    It is our second week at WrestleMania Axxess. I do think it’s funny that they acknowledge that they are at Axxess, but do commentary like it’s live.

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    NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha defeated Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady

    We kick things off with the new NXT Tag Team Champions going 2 on 2 with the men who may be the next #1 Contender’s to the WWE Tag Team Championship. This match was set up last week when both teams noted they never faced off and this was their only chance to sports entertain with Enzo and Cass on Raw.

    The fans were more excited for this than almost anything last week, chanting “This is awesome” before the bell even sounded. The champs schooled Enzo and had no problem tossing the little guy around, however they had a harder time when it came to Big Cass.

    They didn’t show Colin in the ring at first. He tagged in, they went to commercial and then Enzo tagged back in within 5 seconds of coming back. Not sure if something got messed up or if it’s just one of those things. Enzo and Colin were the heels of the match, getting the heat on Gable. Gable, in case I haven’t said it in the last 3 weeks, is an excellent baby face in peril and Jordan makes a terrific comeback, which makes this team as great as they are.

    Jordan got the hot tag and man oh man, Matty, can Jason Jordan throw Enzo Amore around. If you told me Enzo didn’t have to help out much, I would believe you. Anyhoo the champs won with Grand Amplitude.

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    Apollo Crews doesn’t like bullies and will beat up Samoa Joe tonight.

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    No Way Jose pinned Alexander Wolfe

    This is the NXT tv debut of both No Way Jose and Alexander Wolfe. Wolfe was one of the people in the Dusty Rhodes Classic whose match never aired on tv. No Way Jose is already popular with the people, even if he has a really weird name.

    This match was fun to watch. Jose used an Airplane Spin that just went on and on and on. The fans, despite not knowing the man, sang the Ole song, but sang Jose instead of Ole. Jose won with a punch to the face that he wound up like he was a pitcher throwing a fastball.

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    Austin Aries said he doesn’t believe in luck, but Baron Corbin is entitled to his opinion about why he lost. Aries doesn’t need luck, he has skill. Aries challenged him and everyone in the NXT locker room.

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    Elias Sampson was tuning his guitar when William Regal walked up and said he’s here to offer Elias an opportunity. Next week he’ll go one on one with Shinsuke Nakamura. He didn’t seem pleased.

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    Nia Jax squashed Deonna Purrazzo

    Please change Deonna Purrazzo’s name. It helps that seemingly every time she wrestles she gets killed, so I don’t have to spend too much time writing her name.

    This was all Nia and she won very quickly with a leg drop. Seriously Deonna’s only attempted offense saw her be swatted away like a fly.

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    Bayley was asked about the Eva Marie-Asuka match next week. I am shocked Eva was able to survive and make it to WrestleMania. Anyway she did analysis previewing the match and said she will be watching since she wants her belt back.

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    Samoa Joe submitted Apollo Crews

    Main event time! They keep mentioning Joe and Finn Balor, so I guess that feud is still going on. Finn is now the longest reigning NXT Champion of all time, surpassing Adrian Neville. Not putting anything past Apollo Crews, but it’s weird that he’s the one on the main roster and Samoa Joe is still in developmental.

    This was a good match, nothing great, but good. Honestly this is a match you’d expect the two of them to have at a house show, which, by the way, is still better than a lot of people. Joe kicked out of the Standing Moonsault and Crews kicked out of a power slam. Honestly the only time I ever remember Joe winning with the power slam is Slammiversary 2006 against Scott Steiner.

    Joe blocked the spinning power bomb and dropped Crews with the corner uranage before choking Crews out with the Coquina Clutch.

    So it’s a quick show this week, ending at 8:49 (as opposed to 8:55), but what is next for the NXT superstars? Only one way to find out, until next week make sure to say your vitamins and take your prayers!

  • WWE Manchester, England, live results: November tour dates announced

    Submitted by Stephen Lyon from Manchester, UK’s Manchester Arena

    – Cesaro beat Stardust

    Cesaro won, following 10 giant swings & making him submit in the sharpshooter. Fun 10 minute opener.

    – Zack Ryder & Darren Young beat Heath Slater & Bo Dallas

    Finish saw Ryder pin Dallas with the Rough Ryder. Exactly what you’d think it would be.

    – Rusev beat Jack Swagger

    Swagger came out with the Union Jack flag. Rusev won with the Accolade submission win. Average match.

    – WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day beat Usos & Dudleys

    Fun match, one of the best on the show. Dudleys came out with a Liverpool FC flag in Manchester to get heat (soccer rivals, plus Bubba is a Liverpool fan). New Day’s house show act is great. All sorts of wackiness from the trio, mostly weird dance moves.

    – Sin Cara beat Tyler Breeze

    SC won after hitting the swanton bomb. Average match.

    – Divas Champion Charlotte beat Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch

    Ric Flair was in Charlotte’s corner. Fun match. Charlotte pinned Becky with both feet on the ropes.

    – WWE Champion Roman Reigns beat Sheamus

    Sheamus came out and did a promo based on the Liverpool/Manchester soccer rivalry, and even sang the Liverpool FC club anthem (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”) to major heat. Reigns still came out to boos, I’d say 60/40 cheers in his favour. Standard match, Reigns won after a spear.

    Notes:

    It was a by the numbers house show with nothing spectacular. Obviously, there were less stars than usual due to the Smackdown tapings going on at the same time in London. But still, we got the World, Tag & Women’s champions so it wasn’t that bad. Lots of kids in attendance. Reigns got 60-40 cheers. Booing him is definitely becoming the cool thing to do, even for the kids/families that Reigns claimed he was being targeted to.

    In other news, the U.K. dates for the November 2016 tour have been announced: 

    • 4th November – London (Wembley Arena)
    • 5th November – Manchester
    • 6th November – Newcastle & Leeds
    • 7th November – Glasgow – Raw TV
    • 8th November – Glasgow – Smackdown TV
    • 9th November – Birmingham
    • 10th November – Cardiff

    Tickets are on sale starting Friday, May 6.

    The notable things here are that they are doing TV from Glasgow, Scotland for the first time ever, at the Hydro Arena. This is really interesting because they’re running the Hydro Arena building less than 2 weeks before ICW is running the biggest show in their history at the same arena, which simply can’t be a coincidence. 

  • Dana White: Conor McGregor is off UFC 200; search for new main event underway

    One of the biggest news stories in MMA history continues to evolve as UFC president Dana White announced on ESPN Tuesday night that featherweight champion Conor McGregor is off UFC 200, and that they will soon announce a new main event.

    White appeared on ESPNews after hours of silence by UFC in the wake of McGregor’s apparent retirement tweet earlier in the day, and said that McGregor was taken off the card for refusing to come to Las Vegas, NV, for a press conference to promote the show. Obviously, there is far more to that since McGregor was the key to the show.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIK1RN7ZH5g

    White claimed that the company and McGregor have a good relationship but “you can’t decide not to show up to these things.  You have to do it.”

    White described it as that McGregor was training in Iceland and didn’t want to break his preparation for the fight to come to Las Vegas, but regarding whether McGregor has really retired, White said that only McGregor knows for sure.

    White said that he would be discussing a new opponent for Diaz on Tuesday, which, given the lay of the land and the show itself, would logically have to be lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. It will be a huge drop in quality and will badly hurt the aura of UFC 200 as the biggest show in history, but it would still be a show with three title matches if that was the case.

    Dos Anjos vs. Eddie Alvarez had been announced a few days earlier for a Fight Pass headlining title fight on July 7 in Las Vegas, two days before the UFC 200 July 9 date at the new T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

    Obviously McGregor is playing it close to the vest and there is a story behind the story, which is already getting the obvious speculation about the sides playing a game of who holds the cards when it comes to a deal.

    Both sides would be out millions of dollars if the fight doesn’t happen. UFC can obviously survive the loss, but McGregor has tremendous leverage because the increases in UFC business over the past year are largely due to he and Ronda Rousey. Now, the future of both are speculative.

    It is always possible that McGregor will retire, but historically in these circumstances, that isn’t the case. McGregor was live at the show last week where Joao Calvalho passed away, but he had resumed training for the Diaz rematch in Iceland.

    Following McGregor’s tweet,  John Kavanagh, McGregor’s trainer, as well as other close to the situation, tweeted that McGregor has indeed retired from fighting, shortly before a fight that he had asked for and one that would have garnered him the biggest payday of his career.

  • WWE Smackdown London spoilers: Shane McMahon mixes it up with Miz

    Notes from today’s Smackdown tapings in London:

    – They opened with Miz TV with A.J. Styles. They showed the clips of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson attacking Roman Reigns. Maryse came out and got heat by speaking in French. Miz brought up that Styles, Gallows and Anderson were all friends from Japan and told Styles to admit to the fact he set up the attack on Reigns. Styles denied it. Miz then asked why he did nothing to stop them if he didn’t set it up. Styles said that he was upset with them and doesn’t need their help to beat Reigns. Miz continued to push the idea that Styles thought he needed help against Reigns. Miz kept pushing Styles to tell the truth. Miz and Maryse got heat again by making out. Eventually, Styles attacked Miz.

    – Ryback beat U.S. Champion Kalisto in a non-title match after hitting the Shellshock.

    – Dolph Ziggler came out for a match and was attacked by Baron Corbin. He got laid out again with the End of Days.

    – A.J. Styles beat The Miz. Miz was taking the worst of it and tried to walk out. Anderson and Gallows came out and blocked him from leaving. Styles threw Miz back in the ring and pinned him after the Phenomenal Forearm.

    – Sami Zayn and Dean Ambrose were interviewed. They said Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose were the best in the world at sneaking up from behind.  Zayn & Ambrose then tried to do a comedy bit where they’d come up with a name for their new tag team.

    – The Miz did a promo and said what happened earlier was proof Styles, Anderson, and Gallows were all working together. He demanded an investigation and refused to leave the ring until it was done. Shane McMahon then came out. Miz yelled at Shane and put his finger in his chest repeatedly until Shane laid in some punches and a flying back elbow before clotheslining Miz to the outside. This may have been just for the live crowd to give them something since Undertaker wasn’t there as advertised. 

    Here’s a video of the segment for as long as it stays up:

    – Anderson & Gallows did an interview.  They were asked if they are aligned with Styles and they said they weren’t.  They also said they would be wrestling on Raw Monday night against the Usos.

    – Paige & Natalya beat Naomi & Tamina with a double submission win.

    – R-Truth pinned Fandango with Goldust as referee.  R-Truth and Goldust danced after the match.

    – Enzo and Cass came out. The crowd was big time into them. The Vaudevillains then did a promo making fun of Enzo. Good segment building up their match on Raw next week to determine the top contenders for the tag titles.

    – Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho beat Sami Zayn & Dean Ambrose. Ambrose was on the top rope and Jericho shoved him off. Ambrose sold it like he had injured his knee and Owens pinned him, which was retribution for Ambrose pinning Owens on Raw.

  • ROH signs TV deal with Canada’s Fight Network

    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.”

  • NJPW cancels PPV due to Kumamoto earthquakes

    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:

    • Jay White vs. David Finlay
    • Juice Robinson & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Kazushi Sakuraba
    • Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger
    • Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Yoshitatsu vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga
    • Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet for the IWGP jr. tag titles
    • Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
    • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata for the Never Open weight title
    • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale
    • Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin for the IC title

  • Kimbo Slice heads to London for July return, interesting co-main planned

    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.

  • NXT Citrus Springs, FL, live results: Nakamura vs. Dillinger; Asuka, Bayley, more!

    I’m here at NXT Citrus Springs and we are expecting approximately 300 people for Shinsuke Nakamura’s NXT Florida debut.

    No Way Jose beat Noah

    Fun opener with Noah wanting to shake hands and be friends with Jose, which, of course, led to chants of “No Way Jose” for the handshake offer. Solid action before Jose hit the wind0up punch and his new finish — a full nelson slam — for the win.

    Liv Morgan beat Peyton Royce

    Peyton tried to offer her flower to Liv, who tossed it away. Royce was going for her Venus Fly Trap submission, BUT Morgan was able to roll through and win the match.

    Manny Andrade beat Elias Samson

    Major heat for The Drifter and his attempted pre match song. Manny entered to a good reaction and we’re off. Great work by Andrade, countering moves, flipping over Samson and keeping the tempo up. Drifter works the headlock of doom before Manny fired up, ran wild and hit the running knees for the win.

    Riddick Moss beat Alex Riley

    Moss has fresh new gear and a fancy gold vest. He ordered the ref to take his vest off for him, BUT ARy snuck behind and did so himself, only to put the vest on and upset Moss. Physical match with Moss scoring the win over a distraught ARy.

    NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha beat Alexander Wolfe and Sawyer Fulton

    Big reaction for Alpha showing off the titles for the first time in FL. A lot of impressive matwork by both Gable and Jordan early on before the pace was picked up. Jordan ran wild with big dropkicks before the heels took advantage of a distraction and stun-gunned Gable on the top rope. Wolfe and Fulton took turns working over Gable’s arm before he was able to escape and make the big hot tag to Jordan, ran wild again and this time, Alpha finished them off with the Assisted German Suplex.

    NXT Women’s Champion Asuka beat Adrien Reese

    A good, yet clearly toned down, reaction for Asuka, the usual crowd favorite had more of a guilty reaction here after beating Bayley for the title. Good early exchanges with Reese even putting Asuka in holds. The champion took advantage of a counter and rolled through for the Asuka Lock victory.

    Shinsuke Nakamura beat Tye Dillinger

    Huge superstar reaction for Nakamura. This match was everything you could ask for at a live event. They taunted each other, played one upsmanship, and finally, it broke down in to a fight. Dillinger did Nakamura’s taunts himself, Nakamura did Dillinger’s cartwheel; it was exactly what you could ever want in a WWE Shinsuke Nakamura match. Dillinger and Nakamura even exchanged strong style strikes before Shinsuke hit the knee to the midsection and the Kinshasa for the win.

    Bayley and Mojo Rawley beat Nia Jax and Samoa Joe

    Joe got the heat on Mojo for a long time while Bayley lead cheers. She finally caught the hot tag and fought off Nia, even ending up on her shoulders punching down at Nia. Joe even tried to break up a pin but the ref dove at him to prevent the boot to Bayley. Nia tried to gain control but Bayley To Belly for the win.

    Post-match, they celebrated and Bayley snatched Joe’s towel, Joe was kicking the stairs on the outside as Bayley waved the towel and danced with Mojo.

  • UFC announces November 12 Madison Square Garden debut date

    Famous for plenty of combat sports & pro wrestling moments, NYC’s Madison Square Garden will have another monumental event to add to its lists: the debut of the UFC.

    After NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo officially signed the bill to legalize MMA in the state Thursday, UFC announced their first show in MSG will be a PPV event on Saturday, November 12th. They also said another live event will be coming to upstate New York by the end of 2016, assumed to be Buffalo due to the proximity to Toronto which features a significant MMA fanbase.

    UFC reiterated in a press release that they will run four shows a year in New York State for the first three years post-bill passage. With MSG, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Buffalo, Albany, and even Syracuse’s Carrier Dome as a longshot, there’s no shortage of venues available. UFC mentioned those venues as well as Utica and Rochester in the release.

    Given the amount of time it took to pass the bill, expect a pretty stacked card — the likes of which people expected with UFC 200. If the cards fall right — always a big ‘if’ with MMA — a Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier rematch or a Conor McGregor/Frankie Edgar featherweight title fight paired with Ronda Rousey’s return to action would be a pretty great start, wouldn’t it? Expect Chris Weidman to also be part of the card depending on his title situation.