Even though Tommy Dreamer is booked for a number of WWE house shows and has been appearing on WWE television, he is still keeping his own promotion going.
Dreamer’s House of Hardcore organization, which has been using TNA talent, ECW talent of the past, and some name independent talent, has announced an April 16 show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show will be a combination of a wrestling show and an Icons Of Wrestling convention at the same building.
Tickets will be going on sale tomorrow for the event, but no names have been announced yet.
The 44-year-old Dreamer has been working on and off again with WWE since May when he faced Baron Corbin at an NXT event in Philadelphia. He returned to RAW just over a week ago, tagging up with The Dudley Boyz against the Wyatts. He lost to Braun Strowman on last night’s RAW.
Last Friday’s Bellator 147 event averaged 656,000 viewers on Spike TV, headlined by former Strikeforce lightweight champion and UFC fighter Josh Thomson knocking out Pablo Villaseca. This was the final show of the year for Bellator, and the average viewership for their regular Friday night shows was 655,833 viewers – virtually identical to what they did Friday.
Notes:
– Bellator ran 16 shows in 2015; 12 regular shows (down 3.1% from 2014’s average viewership of 676,571) and 4 “tentpole” shows. They ran 21 regular shows in 2014 and plan to move to a more frequent schedule again in 2016.
– The 4 tentpole shows for the year averaged 1,016,500 viewers — greatly inflated by the 1,580,000 viewers for the Kimbo Slice-Ken Shamrock show in June. In fact that number was almost twice as high as their next highest rated show, which was the 872,000 viewers for the February British Invasion show. In 2014, they ran one tentpole show, Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131, which did 1,241,000 viewers.
– For their 16 shows this year, Bellator averaged 746,000 viewers overall for 22 shows, up 6.2% from the 2014 average of 702,227 viewers.
Thoughts:
– 4 of the last 5 Friday night regular shows have done between 650,000 and 669,000 viewers, so that seems to be what their steady audience is, going up a couple hundred thousand viewers for a tentpole show. It’s only when they bring in a name that would mean something to very casual fans (like Ortiz, Shamrock or Slice) that they are able to get to the 1 million threshold and beyond.
– Bellator has three shows upcoming in January and February with the big one being Bellator 149 on February 19th. That show will feature Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Slice vs Dada 5000. It should break the company’s viewership record if those two fights take place as scheduled.
Former WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn, who has been promoted for the U.K. tour of NXT that starts on Thursday in Newcastle, is scheduled to be wrestling on the tour.
Zayn, who is returning after shoulder surgery six months ago, is advertised for these dates:
– Thursday in Newcastle – Friday in Glasgow – Saturday in Sheffield – Sunday in Blackpool – Monday in Nottingham – Tuesday in Cardiff – Wednesday in London (live NXT Takeover special)
The only match he’s advertised in is for Sheffield — a three-way match for the NXT title with champion Finn Balor and Baron Corbin. Also advertised on that show is Bayley vs. Emma for the women’s title and Samoa Joe vs. Apollo Crews.
Zayn was last seen feuding with Kevin Owens, dropping a NXT title rematch to him by ref stoppage on May 20th at TakeOver: Unstoppable. Zayn suffered his shoulder injury during a match with then-U.S. Champion John Cena on the May 4th edition of WWE RAW in Montreal, Canada.
Last night’s show, featuring the ninth week of the World title tournament, drew just 221,000 viewers for its 9-11 PM shows. The number was down from last week’s 234,000, and beat only the 11/18 episode (202,0000) for a first run show on Destination America. The midnight replay show did 73,000 viewers.
The combined two show total of 294,000 was also the second lowest in history, and only the second time the total of both airings was less than 300,000 viewers.
The show featured Drew Galloway vs. Lashley in the main event, Jessie Godderz vs. Awesome Kong, Tigre Uno vs. Gail Kim, and Bobby Roode vs. Matt Hardy.
Now fully in lame duck mode on Destination America, TNA is moving to POP TV in the first week of January, debuting on Tuesday, January 5th.
The Notorious Quote of the Week: “That takedown is there whenever you want it. Keep your chin tucked!” Yes… but WHO was he giving that advice to? Hmmm.
Last week, both Artem Lobov and Saul Rogers from Conor McGregor’s team advanced to the semi-finals. This week’s show is another two fight episode and we’re starting right away with two Team Europe guys going head to head.
Lightweight: Marcin Wrzosek (Team Europe) vs. David Teymur (Team Europe)
Both fighters are wearing gray trunks. You may recall Wrzosek earned the nickname ‘Polish Zombie’ for his ability to absorb damage and keep coming forward. He doesn’t need that early though because he drops Teymur with a right hook two minutes into round one, then wrestles him back to the mat 17 seconds later after Teymur tries to get up. Teymur finally gets up clean at 2:58 and this time he hits a takedown. He gets up with a minute left and they both swing hard. The gym is eerily silent since McGregor isn’t saying anything to show favoritism to either fighter. Wrzosek gets another right hook in right before R1 ends.
Wrzosek and Teymur mix it up 25 seconds into R2. Teymur lands an explosive takedown at 48 seconds. The ref warns Teymur to stay busy. Wrzosek briefly gets caught in a choke when trying to stand, but winds up escaping it and ending up on top and having full mount for a split second. He pounds away at the ribs as both fighters are reminded to work for the finish. Wrzosek gets swept. This is an incredibly back-and-forth fight. They’re stood up with two minutes left. Wrzosek gets another takedown quickly. Teymur is warned about the back of the head. He scrambles up with 91 seconds to go. Both men are head hunting. Wrzosek pushes him into the fence and they trade knees, and he backs away in time to avoid a high kick. Teymur throws a late leg kick and Wrzosek takes him down before R2 ends. That might have been enough.
19-19, 20-18 and 20-18 for the majority winner – Marcin Wrzosek. And now we have one last chance for Team USA to send a fighter to the semis – Julian Erosa goes against Abner Lloveras. There’s no slowing down for weigh-ins or drama at the house – we go right back to the cage.
Lightweight: Abner Lloveras (Team Europe) vs. Julian Erosa (Team USA)
Erosa is in the blue trunks and Lloveras the gray. Lloveras has the striking advantage early and Erosa is forced to circle on the outside and try to dance in and out of range. He finally lands a good overhand right at 1:53 but he’s getting hit with rights in each exchange. Lloveras seems to be a split second quicker on the trigger each time he gets into range. You can see that Erosa’s cheeks are bruising and swelling up. Lloveras puts him against the fence at 4:05 but Erosa shows great balance avoiding the single leg takedown until 3 seconds left. We’re on to round two.
Lloveras is right back to the jab to open R2. Erosa’s only answer seems to be to get into a slugfest since he’s unable to block or avoid the strikes. Lloveras gets him off his feet for a second at 1:40. Erosa suddenly catches Lloveras with a couple of good shots and opens a cut over his left eye. Lloveras is backpedaling as he bleeds, which shouldn’t necessarily influence the judges, but it just might. For his part Erosa is not letting Lloveras off the hook. Lloveras fails a a takedown attempt at 3:35. Erosa drops Lloveras with a big punch at 4:10 and tags him with several knees as he gets up. Faber is screaming at Erosa to finish him. He has completely turned this fight around and Lloveras looks gassed as we head to an overtime third round.
Lloveras is desperate for a takedown to open R3. It’s not “there all day” though the way McGregor thought it would be. Lloveras is crunched with a left hook and presses Erosa into the fence again. They couldn’t really stop the bleeding at all between rounds. Lloveras tries and tries for the leg trip but has to break at 2:02. Faber screams for kicks to the body. Erosa’s left hand looks better and more accurate the further we get into the fight. Lloveras fails on another takedown at 3:37 as McGregor screams for 3’s and 5’s in combos. Now it’s Lloveras who seems unable to stop a single strike from landing and HIS only answer is takedown attempts. He gets Erosa off his feet for just about a second as we go to the final minute and it’s a moral victory at best. Erosa continues to pressure him and land hands and knees. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get this one from the judges.
Third round: 10-9 Lloveras, 10-9 Erosa and 10-9 for EROSA. McGregor: “That’s disgraceful.” So finally one guy from Team USA is going to move on. Faber: “We got a horse in the game. Thank goodness!”
Dana White comes out to announce the semi-finals: Saul Rogers vs. Marcin Wrzosek and Artem Lobov vs. Julian Erosa. Join us next week!
Last week, Tigre Uno won a three way match to advance in the series. Drew Galloway beat Spud with the sick kick, while Bram demolished Grado in short order. Jessie Godderz beat Micah, and Davey Richards being Robbie E in a pretty good match. Kenny King beat Crazzy Steve, while Austin Aries lost to Bobby Lashley in the best match of the series to date. The show begins with a recap of last week’s events and tonight’s card, including Gail vs. Tigre Uno, Drew vs. Lashley, and Matt Hardy vs. Bobby Roode. DJZ faces EC3 up next. They say that if Ronda Rousey can be beat, then so can EC3. Wow.
DJZ vs. EC3
EC3 is hyped up by Josh as the man who has never been pinned and talks about how DJZ has no chance, despite just saying that EC3 could be beaten if Ronda Rousey could. Is it too much to ask for a character to be consistent for five minutes? Basic armwork to start while Josh talks about Bracket Brawl. EC3’s flapjack is countered by a dropkick. They fight to the floor and EC3 tosses him in, turns his back, and eats a basement dropkick. Josh points out that Tyrus should’ve warned him, and then reminds us that Tyrus wants a World Title shot against EC3 if he wins the series. They go back to the floor and EC3 tosses him into the post.
Josh runs through more of tonight’s card, including Eli Drake vs. Shera. DJZ gets a jawkbreaker into a flying neckbreaker. DJZ’s wacky popping DDT is countered for the 50th time in just the Series, before he hits a regular DDT. DJZ flips around while standing before getting a rana. He goes for it again, but eats a sitout powerbomb and the One Percenter wins. EC3 moves on to the round of eight. We see the brackets, so now we don’t need to play Bracket Brawl to actually see who could fight who in this. Gail Kim vs. Tigre Uno is up next and they hype it up as historic because it’s the first time the X Division Champion will face the Knockouts Champion. Gail puts over how TNA has always let women be themselves, and now she can take the World title. After a break, Gail gets an intro while Uno gets nothing.
Gail Kim vs. Tigre Uno
Gail gets 2 off a quick schoolboy. Love Gail being shocked that a schoolboy didn’t win a mid-card match in 2015. Tigre gets a front facelock and wrestles her down to the mat before getting a headlock. Josh points out that Tigre being a luchardor helps him here since he has likely faced female wrestlers before. Gail pops up and gets a blind crossbody, but Tigre rolls through for 2. Tigre counters Eat Defeat into a wacky lucha submission before Gail sunset flips out of it for 2. Gail gets the headscissors into the octopus stretch, leading to Tigre dumping her on the apron. Uno does a forward roll mid-ring before doing a plancha. Josh busts out his first “trending topic” mention of the night before Gail lands a top rope rana and a shotgun dropkick that sends Uno into the buckle.
Gail struggles to get the ringpost figure four on, but does so safely. Tigre counters a sunset flip counter attempt into a cradle to win. Bram vs. Davey is up next and they hype up Lashley vs. “The Captain” Drew Galloway. What is he the captain of and why is that one of his nicknames? Josh and Pope recap Gail vs. Uno and they re-recap the results of both that match and the EC3 match. We get a recap of Bram’s path of destruction in the series so far, but he gets no intro. Davey gets a partial intro before the bell rings.
Bram vs. Davey Richards
They start off with a collar and elbow tie-up that Bram wins. Bram overpowers him again before mocking Davey. Davey gets a go-behind and starts working on the arm. Bram knocks him down with a punch before Josh runs down Bram’s nicknames. Bram throws him to the floor, but Davey runs back in and gets a baseball slide dropkick to the floor before some machine gun kicks against the barricade. Davey attacks him with some corner mount punches before low-bridging him and sends Bram to the floor. Bram attacks and lands a fireman’s carry facebuster into the steps. Josh gives Bram a new nickname – Calculated Chaos. Maybe he can get a math teacher gimmick and confound the roster with Calculus Chaos. Bram shoves Davey’s back into the ropes, but Davey avoids the charge. Davey hits a double stomp off the steps, in what is easily the best part of the match so far.
Back-bumping missile dropkick leads to a nip-up and a big exploder to Bram. Josh calls this match a big upset if Davey can win despite Davey being an ROH World Champion. Double stomp off the top gets 2. Bram gets the F5 as a transition move to the impaler DDT, which Davey turns into a small package for the win. This sets up Davey vs. EC3, which has the potential to be quite good. Eli says that the future four was a group of losers and Shera is a great dancer and a strong guy, but is a moron. Drake vs. Shera is up next. Drake gets no intro, while Shera gets his and a few fans do the Shera Shake. We get a Shera hype video of his run through the series.
Mahabali Shera vs. Eli Drake
Drake punches away at him in the corner while Josh plugs the January TV tapings. Shera lands a slam and clotheslines Drake to the floor. Josh says that Shera isn’t even polished and he’s already doing very well in TNA. Drake stomps away on Shera and lands a series of elbows for 2. Drake gets a nice back suplex, but misses a big leaping elbow drop. Drake ducks down and eats a boot and clothesline. Shera backdrops him and does the Shake for a second. Drake goes up and eats a slam before losing to the Sky High. Matt Hardy cuts a promo on Roode in a very dark room while someone coughs in the background. He says his formula is “Twist of Fate, win” and how his dream is like him – it will not die. Roode vs. Hardy is up next. Josh and Pope pick the winners for the remaining match and each man gets intros for this match.
Bobby Roode vs. Matt Hardy
Roode goes to the floor to stall and establish himself as the heel in this match. Bobby backs him up into the corner and pats his chest, while Matt responds with his pose. Matt shoulderblocks him down and he lands a clothesline to take him down. Roode rolls to the floor to break Matt’s momentum. Roode pulls Matt into the post on the floor and slams the wrist into the steps a few times. Roode dominates in the corner and says that this is why he’s the It Factor – Roode just acting like a heel is so much better than whatever his babyface character is. Roode gets the crossface on, but Matt gets to the rope. Side Effect hits and he gets 2 before landing a clothesine, but the bulldog is tossed off by Roode.
Hardy finally gets the bulldog for 2. Twist of Fate is countered into a schoolboy for 2. Another crossface is locked on by Roode, but turned into a cradle for 2. Roode bomb countered into a Side Effect that is countered. Roode does the V-1ah bit in the corner, but eats a kick and a Twist of Fate for the loss. Matt Hardy advances in the series. Drew talks about the series has given him a second chance and it’s an innovative tournament, and something that benefits the fans and himself. Godderz comes out to face Awesome Kong.
Jessie Godderz vs. Awesome Kong
The crowd chants “Kong’s gonna kill you” to start things off. Jessie says that Kong doesn’t really want to wrestle, she just wants to touch his body. Jessie offers a kiss, but wants that thought to marinade for a bit. Kong kisses him with a big punch! Kong chops him and drops him with shoulder charges. Kong avalanches him in the corner and slams him down three times. Jessie tries to leave, but Kong tosses him into the post and punches away. Godderz gets a thumb to the eye, but he misses a charging lariat and hits the steps. Kong’s splash misses and he wins with a bad cradle. Finish aside, this was a really fun match. EY faces Kenny King next. After a break, they recap how Jessie cheated to beat Kong and goes on to face Matt Hardy next week.
Kenny King vs. Eric Young
Kenny gets a partial intro, while EY gets none. Josh says that EY was a headliner all year while Kenny King was held back by being in the BDC. King gets a headlock and sends EY into the ropes for his flip. EY sends King to the floor and scowls a bit .They fight on the apron before King sends EY into the ring with a headstand kick. EY regains control and stomps King’s head on the apron before kicking him to the floor. EY gets backdropped to the floor and King dives onto him. King lands a springboard crossbody and gets 2 off a schoolboy. EY counters the Royal Flush with an eye rake. Kenny gets a spinebuster for 2. EY grabs the ref to distract him and piledrives King to win. We see the brackets and a graphic for Lashley vs. Galloway, followed by a small hype video for it.
Drew Galloway vs. Lashley
Lashley is called the most dominant athlete in all of sports to start. They exchange armholds to start before we get a clean break in the corner. Lashley gets a chinlock before flipping forward over Drew and turning it into a rear naked choke, which I’ve never seen before. Lashley stomps away in the corner for an ad break. After the break, Drew kicks Lashley and punches him before being Bieled into the corner. Drew gets a flying clothesline and sends him to the floor. They fight on the floor and Lashley sends him back first onto the top of the steps. Delayed suplex gets 2 for Lashley. Drew sends his shoulder into the post and clubs the back. Lashley takes Drew to suplex city with a German and an overhead belly to belly. Lashley goes for a torture rack, but can’t lift him. Lashley gets the powerslam for 2. Drew gets 2 off a neckbreaker. Lashley misses a corner charge and Drew hits White Noise before setting up the Claymore kick. Drew charges in, but eats a spear and loses. Lashley moves on to the round of eight.
UFC 194 is shaping up to be a pretty bad-ass event and the build toward the biggest week in UFC history has officially begun.
On Wednesday, the four combatants on the show were on a media call to help promote the fight and while there weren’t any major fireworks, there were a couple great quotes.
Enjoy an hour with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor, middleweight champion Chris Weidman and #1 contender Luke Rockhold talk about their fights, their challengers, their feelings, inside jokes, training, and more.
Of note, McGregor is claiming he will beat Aldo for the 145-pound title and then will move onto face the winner of the December lightweight title bout with champion Rafael dos Anjos vs. Donald Cerrone to become a two-division champion. There was also a little bit of tension between Weidman and Rockhold, a criminally underappreciated bout between two studs in their prime.
Last week, WWE released Brad Maddox from his contract after the SmackDown tapings. This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with him for an exclusive interview to see how life is treating him now that he is out of the WWE and what he has planned for the new chapter in his career.
Some highlights from the interview that can be seen below:
– Whether using the word ‘prick’ in a dark match promo got him fired:
“It was because of that…That particular night was a bad decision on my behalf…I didn’t think anything of it, but Vince wasn’t happy about that. I don’t know if it’s a generational word that maybe used to be worse than it is now….I didn’t really think it through, but I should have been more careful in that moment because I knew Vince was watching. I tend to take chances at stupid times.”
– Being frustrated in WWE:
“It has been a long couple of years for me, working on angles and ideas trying to get (back) in. I’ve always wanted to wrestle…Absolutely, I wanted to wrestle from the get go…I could have talked to Vince more than I did, rather than sitting around in catering hoping that the writers were coming up with something for me.”
– Practicing promos with Vince and Stephanie:
“I’ve got to do some cool stuff. Going over promos with Vince in his office, or the bathroom of his office – for some reason! – with him and Daniel Bryan and Stephanie.”
– Why he choose OVW as a path into WWE:
“I researched on where to go. I didn’t want to waste my time, there are hundreds of thousands of indy promotions. I was either going to move to Atlanta – which was a good move because they shut down shortly after! – and I went to Louisville. Back then it was a lot different, you could actually train with the (WWE) contracted guys.”
– Additionally, we discussed why he watched WCW growing up, how he considers Joey Mercury a mentor, learning promos from Dusty Rhodes, being involved in angles with CM Punk, what he intends to do with his spare time and much, much more, especially in relation to his recent release and his frustrations around it.
To put the number in perspective, 3.16 million viewers tied the November 9th show for the second lowest watched non-holiday episode of the show since 1997. The Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens game on ESPN drew 10.11 million viewers, down four million from the week before when the New England Patriots played the Buffalo Bills.
The third hour dropped by 300,000 viewers from the first hour. The main event of the show was the new League of Nations faction (WWE Champion Sheamus, King Barrett, U.S. Champion Alberto del Rio and Rusev) teaming with WWE Tag Team champions The New Day to battle Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and The Usos in a handicap match.
Ric Flair is scheduled to appear on tonight’s WWE Raw show in Pittsburgh, PA.
Flair is in Pittsburgh now, but he is at a lot of WWE shows backstage because of daughter and current Divas Champion Charlotte being in the promotion. However, he was scripted into the show as of earlier today. Most likely, his role will be something to do with Charlotte’s angle with Paige, but as we know, WWE can change on a dime when it comes to scripts.
With a weak NFL Monday night game as competition (Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns), as far as the competition goes, Raw should rebound over last week’s 18-year-record low in the ratings. A number approximating last week’s would indicate the problem is deeper than NFL competition.
No matches have been announced at this time for the show, which, given the three weeks between shows, should include announcements of most of the top matches for the 12/13 TLC pay-per-view show.
