OK opener. Wolfe didn’t do much besides a basic assortment of strikes of chinlocks, but it looked good. Woods got a decent pop for being from Florida.
– King Constantine def. Blake (w/Murphy)
Comedy squash with comedy provided mostly from B&M. Blake had Murphy with him, no Alexa Bliss. Constantine dominated, no-selling most of the way, and finished with a chokeslam into a back breaker.
– Patrick Clark & Kenneth Crawford vs. Dhinsa and Selmani
Sorry for not having names, but the female ring announcer butchered them all and I don’t recognize any of them from TV. Hopefully another report will help identify them.
– Alex Riley defeated Elias Sampson with a roll up
Sampson ran down the local crowd to draw heat, but the fans that reacted were still 50/50 on him. Not much to this, with lots of resting. Faces for the night are batting 4 for 4.
– Carmella defeated Emma in an OK match
Carmella’s ring entrance and mic skills are great, but her offense is terrible, especially the punches. Emma worked the crowd a lot by doing lots of hair pulls.
– Apollo Crews pinned Riddick Moss
Another average match. Moss spent most of the match bickering with the crowd and doing this goofy power walk. Crews won with his signature power bomb.
– Asuka defeated Billy Kay
Physical match. Nothing great, but Asuka’s strikes looked good, and BK had some decent, if unspectacular, offense.
– NXT Champion Finn Balor and the Hype Bros def. The Vaudevillains and Tye Dillinger
First few minutes was Mojo running around crazy, and then each face took turns beating down the heels. Zack Ryder played the face-in-peril before making the hot tag to Balor, and after a hot sequence with Riley and Mojo hitting their signature spots, he finished Tye with the 1916. Really good match to end the show.
– WWE.com promoted Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin, Bayley, Enzo and Cass, and all of them were nowhere to be seen tonight. The only advertised names that appeared were Balor, Crews, and Carmella.
Officially announcing what has been known for more about a year, WWE announced Friday that TMDK (The Mighty Don’t Kneel), a popular tag team from Japan, has signed with the company.
The team is made up of Michael Nicholls (Mikey Nicholls) and Shane Veryzer (Shane Haste), the top foreign tag team in Pro Wrestling NOAH until the arrival of the Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) from New Japan as part of the Suzuki-gun invasion in early 2015.
The two had reached an agreement last year to leave NOAH for WWE in 2015, but in working out their contract with NOAH, Haste suffered a knee injury that required surgery which put everything on hold. Nicholls & Haste returned to NOAH earlier this month for their farewell tour earlier this month.
The team was named Best Tag Team in Japan in 2013, a very difficult honor for a foreign team to win. They twice held the GHC tag team championship, and had a super hot series of matches for the titles with Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura, the Dangan Yankees.
Both originally came from Perth, Western Australia and wrestled for years on the Australian independent scene before starting as regulars in Japan after passing a tryout in 2011.
The lead story examines the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker trial and what is next regarding the two sides and appeals. The article examines why Gawker believed they would lose in the trial but prevail in appeal, how the jury came to the $140 million verdict, evidence Gawker is looking at introducing in the appeal, the role of Bubba the Love Sponge, the stupid things Gawker said in the trial, a realistic look at loss of income for Hogan, and why playing the tape had nothing to do with it.
Also in this issue, a complete rundown of WrestleMania weekend including lineups with many matches not yet announced for not only WrestleMania itself but for all of the different events next week in Dallas. There is also an update on the WrestleMania attendance, ticket sales for other events, plus mythical records, and people scheduled to appear that haven’t been announced.
Big shows with are coming up for Evolve, NXT, Wrestlecon and more.
UFC has huge plans for a Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz rematch, potentially at UFC 200.
MMA promoters are thrilled about the passing of the bill in the New York state assembly to legalize professional MMA. There are plans by both UFC and Bellator for live events in New York as soon as possible.
There have been lawsuits filed against WWE and by WWE that have been thrown out either completely or partially earlier this week.
Sting and Daniel Bryan are both in the news.
Check out the scene in Mexico with AAA losing talent, the Lucha Underground/AAA connection, how Lucha Underground stopped the main event on Elite’s first television taping, what Bellator star headlines that show, who has quit TNA, how the philosophy has changed, and the economics of all this.
Eric Young and Bobby Roode departed from TNA. Read about the background of both men leaving, their status and history in TNA, their value to WWE, their future as well as comments made by both regarding leaving.
This issue features the results of UFC’s Fight Night from Brisbane, Australia over the weekend, with thoughts on the Neil Magny vs. Hector Lombard officiating, ratings notes, plus match-by-match coverage.
CMLL’s Dos Leyendas show, its first big show of the year, with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results, plus the revealing of family with the country’s top heel, all in this issue.
DDT’s has its biggest show of the year, with the return of Kota Ibushi, held at Sumo Hall.
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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The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.
Also in this issue:
CMLL’s unique tournament going on right now and its history of creating some of the biggest stars in the company of the past 20 year
Perro Aguayo for the first time talks the death of his son
Notes on Dragon Gate’s Memorial Gate show
NOAH’s big show this past week with multiple title matches
Former WWE wrestler returns to New Japan at Invasion Attack
Tanahashi talks working with the Young Bucks
Two big weekend shows and four title matches in New Japan
Major woman’s star for three decades is retiring
Former three-time world champion moving to Canada to come out of retirement to go for the freestyle world title
NCAA Division I heavyweight title match and its background
Update on the status of Speedball Mike Bailey
Kurt Angle talks fighting MMA and returning to WWE
UR Fight show with Angle vs. Mysterio
The first modern wrestler to use entrance music wasn’t The Freebirds
What will air in early 2017 on Lucha Underground and future directions of the company
The next month of TNA Impact that was taped this past week
Business notes regarding UFC 196
Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice failing drug tests
What drugs they failed for and why they both failed the IQ test
Potential WWE lawsuit that is being talked about behind the scenes
If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can get one free classic issue of your choice sent to you today. With a 40 issue subscription, you can get two free classic issues sent to you today.
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For the United States, it is $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52.
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Well before the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker Media trial began, it was not a secret that Gawker believed they would lose the case before a jury, but believed they would win it on appeal.
But in a trial that got worldwide attention, as much for the questions of what constitutes legitimate news versus invasion of privacy, as the fact Hogan was involved, Gawker never saw what was coming.
A St. Petersburg jury of six people awarded Hogan $140.1 million, even more than the $100 million he was asking for, with one juror making it clear the figure was because they wanted to send a message to the company.
The WWE announced today that The New Day would be inducting The Freebirds into the WWE Hall of Fame on 4/2 in Dallas.
The connection is that The New Day as a three-man tag team championship team, where any two men can defend the titles, was taken from The Freebirds, of Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts, who may have been the first team to do so with their Freebird rules.
The Freebirds scheduled for induction are Hayes, currently a WWE producer, Jimmy Garvin, Gordy and Roberts. The latter two, who have passed away, will be represented by their sons who became pro wrestlers, Ray Gordy, who worked for WWE as Jesse, and Buddy Roberts Jr., an independent wrestler in Illinois.
Yesterday the company announced that Vader would be inducting Stan Hansen. Vader and Hansen had a memorable match at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 where Vader’s eye came out of its socket. It was a dream match at the time, as Vader was the foreign monster for New Japan Pro Wrestling, while Hansen had a similar spot with All Japan.
New York, NY. A boy gives the Bella’s some flowers. He shows them a Cena lunch box with a Nikki Bella action figure inside that he takes with him everywhere.
Now they are in Denver. Paige and Fox meet a fan at a coffee shop. It’s not a nice restaurant; it’s a little place to get to-go coffee. No one hangs out there. They go to a park with a fan. He lives in Portland, OR. He wants Paige to help him come out as a gay man to his family. He is afraid that they won’t accept him. He tells Paige that he gets his strength from her. Fox and Paige agree to go to his house when he comes out to his family.
Now in Phoenix, going from town to town, we have to move fast. We have a lot of story to get in to just one tiny hour. Nattie is looking at at an app and she tells Mandy about her new cat. Nattie is going on a big family jet-skiing vacation. Mandy complains that she never had a family vacation. Nattie invites Mandy’s family on her vacation. Then she freaks out because she realizes how dumb that was.
Brie is stoked because she is wrestling in her home town. Everyone loves her and she wins. She hugs her brother JJ backstage. Nikki is bummed because she can’t go to Sedona. In Sedona, Brie, Bryan, and their friends and family, are also going on a different sort of vacation, a cleansing vacation. JJ is upset because he doesn’t want to do everything that Bryan wants to do. The Bellas talk about their breasts.
Eva and Mandy hug an Uso. Carrano wants to get some creative stuff going for them, get them on Mania to fight for the Diva’s title, and share some wacky ideas for Eva. They want her to dye her hair blonde. We saw what happened last time they asked her to go blonde. She went AWOL.
Ontario, California. Paige is backstage, talking to some Divas about the promise she made to go to that fan’s house to help him come out to his parents. Renee Young tells her it’s a little weird that she agreed to that. Everyone tells her she is going too far. They tell her it’s a bad idea, even Nattie.
Back in Phoenix, Bryan tells everyone on the way to the vacation that they are going to visit a reincarnated Buddha, a teepee temple, and then a stupa, “which is like a sacred place.” Brie wants lunch. He tells them there will be no alcohol. This isn’t going to end well.
In Colorado Springs, Nattie walks up to Fox and tells her about the vacation with Mandy. She just learned Mandy is coming with fifteen people. R-Truth hugs Mandy and Eva. They tell him about their tag team. R-Truth wants them to be his dancers.
Meanwhile, in Sedona. Bryan and friends pull up to a sweet house with a meditation room, as Dean Ambrose and Renee Young show up. Ambrose has a hand drum. Bryan makes a healthy lunch. Everyone is pissed. They don’t want to eat healthy. Bryan tells Brie that she never cries. Bryan cries all the time.
Back in Colorado Springs, Paige and Fox are in a park. The entire WWE Total Divas universe has been turned on its head. Everyone is going on weird vacations, going to strange family houses, and sitting in small parks and no one is eating at any nice restaurants! Paige tells Fox that everyone said it was weird that they were going to that fan’s house. Fox wants to go. Paige decides to call him and tell him no. She chickens out when they hear his mom had a heart attack. Fox is happy because what’s the worst that can happen? I don’t know, Fox, how about two incompetent strangers showing up with a camera crew to a random and combustible family’s home, during one of the most sensitive conversations they’ve ever had?
In Tampa, Nattie smells her cat. She tells TJ about Mandy. Nattie tries to quote Maya Angelou. She googles Maya Angelou. TJ is saying funny things. Too bad you are reading this instead of watching, because there is no way possible to convey via the written word how he just interacted with his wife. He’s pretty chill about all of it in the end.
Brie and friends show up to this place and they go into a teepee with this really excited man in a cowboy hat. They do meditation. Everyone hates it except Brie and Bryan. Ambrose is pissed. The guy blows a giant horn in Bryan’s face. Everyone laughs. Everything I would have never thought would happen on this show is happening tonight.
Finally some semblance of order, as Mandy and Eva walk into a very nice restaurant called Boca. It’s got nice lighting, and a surprising feature… a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant! A fan tells Eva how inspiring she is. No one knows who Mandy is. Mandy wants Eva to go blonde. Mandy, if you keep talking about Eva going blonde then you are already dead.
Bryan is pissed that everyone made an unhealthy dinner. Bryan said that everyone agreed to do as he said because he paid for everything. Bryan is pissed that everyone is drinking. He gives them the business. Ambrose, shirt reading “I’m just here for the beer,” tells everyone he thinks they should drink. They drink. Bryan chooses not to participate in their toast and tells them such.
In Portland, Paige and Fox pull up to an amazing bed and breakfast. Fox says something stupid and they laugh. Paige asks the proprietor if he is gay. He is. He tells them that coming out to his dad was the hardest thing he’s ever done.
Back in Sedona, Bryan makes a joke then says he’s going to a Buddhist monument to meditate. Everyone says they aren’t going. Bryan says whatever. Brie doesn’t want to go, and Bryan is pissed.
Meanwhile at some dump of a bar in Portland, Paige and Fox are with the fan, and they realize they really aren’t qualified to actually help him.
In Orlando, Mandy and Eva talk to Sara and Sarah about their tag team. Eva and Mandy don’t really know anything about tag teams, especially Mandy. Sara tells Eva privately that she is way ahead of Mandy and Eva doesn’t need to change a thing.
Back in Sedona, everyone is in the hot tub. Dean Ambrose jumps in the pool. Bryan is sulking in bed. Brie tries to get Bryan to come to the tub. Bryan wants Brie to go to bed. Bryan surprises everyone and comes out in a cool bathing suit and judges a jumping contest. He has a really good time.
In Jacksonville, Eva and Mandy are at Tribute to the Troops. Eva and Nattie go to the mess hall. This looks nothing like the restaurants at which they usually dine. Eva tells Nattie about Mandy. Nattie tells her not to sweat Mandy.
Back in Portland, Paige, Fox and the fan pull up to his house. Everyone is un-phased by the cameras. Some tense piano music plays and he tells them he’s gay. Everyone is super chill with it, and there was really no issue at all. Everyone hugs.
In Orlando, Eva is fighting Bayley for the NXT Women’s Championship. 2016 WWE Hall of Fame inductee, Michael Hayes, in a hat no human should wear, stares at Eva and tells her she’s great. She wrestles and loses. Everyone in the crowd hates her and she loves it. She thinks that she’s entertaining. Mandy hugs Eva. Eva tells Mandy to get lost. Mandy acts cool and walks away.
Guess we must wait to find out what happens on Nattie’s vacation.
Less than two weeks before the “biggest WrestleMania of all time”, RAW’s ratings continue to stagnate. The show started weak but the audience remained remarkably consistent throughout the 3 hour broadcast, with a main event of Dean Ambrose facing Braun Strowman.
The average viewership was 3.4 million viewers, down about 2% from last week. It was down 19% from the same week last year but that’s not a fair comparison as it was the go-home show to Mania, which was held a week earlier in 2015. Comparing to the week prior to the go-home show last year, Monday’s show was down 13% as RAW continues to be down about 10% year over year.
After last week’s show saw the third hour as the highest rated of the show, things returned to normal this week as Hour 3 was down slightly from the previous 2 hours, which were almost identical.
RAW was just underneath The O’Reilly Factor as the most watched show on cable for the night as the FOX News show did 3,423,000 viewers. In the 18-49 ratings, RAW’s 3 hours were #2,3 and 4 on the night behind VH1’s Love and Hip Hop.
Daniel Bryan will not be appearing on Friday for what was scheduled as Daniel Bryan night in Madison Square Garden and there are reports we are awaiting confirmation on that indicate this is not limited to just the Madison Square Garden.
Several ticket holders for Friday night’s show were contacted today with a letter from Madison Square Garden stating:
“Due to a scheduling conflict, the ceremony to honor former WWE world heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan on March 25, 2016 has been postponed.
While this honoring may occur at a later date, WWE Live–Road to WrestleMania this Friday at Madison Square Garden will still take place as scheduled. The event will feature many of your favorite WWE Superstars. After nearly 5 years, Triple H return to action in the ring in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Also see Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Ric Flair, Sheamus, A.J. Styles, Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens and many more!
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and look forward to your continued support of the WWE and Madison Square Garden.”
UPDATE: WWE officials have said that Danielson has requested time off and it was granted.
There was what looked to be an injury after Raw went off the air in a dark match with The Wyatt Family vs. Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler & Sami Zayn.
Multiple reports have come in that Harper took a spill onto the floor and grabbed his right leg. Those at ringside believed he blew out his knee but as of this moment we don’t have anything official past the point the WWE medical staff came out immediately. He left under his own power but was helped to the back by the other members of the Wyatt Family.
This possible injury adds to a string of WWE injuries going back over the last few months. The most recent injury was to Neville.
Also during the dark match a fan attempted to attack Braun Strowman. It’s not clear exactly what happened but Strowman was attacked in some form and told security who dragged the fan out of the building.
We’ll update this if we hear more details tonight.
Crowd into AJ. AJ won with the Phenomenal Elbow around 12 minutes.
– Mark Henry vs. The Ascension
Henry wins a short 5 minute match. Mostly Mark and Viktor. Henry hit the World’s Strongest Slam on Conor.
– Stardust & Heath Slater & Adam Rose vs. Damien Sandow & Darren Young & Fandango
Heath and Darren start chain wrestling and Sandow is up on the second rope on the apron literally telling the people when to cheer and boo. Fun “everyone hits a finisher/big move” to end it in about nine minutes with Fandango winning with a sitout suplex slam.
– Promo shown on the big screen with Sheamus and Wade Barrett.
– Zack Ryder vs. Luke Harper
Harper is over with a group in the front row, since he wrestled for 2CW a lot. Basic match, crowd wasn’t really into Zack like they were 2 or 3 years ago when he was here last. Harper won with his discus clothesline in about 10 minutes, crowd actually cheered the pin. Before the finish, Ryder came off the top rope but missed, and kinda fell weird, he pulled down his knee pad, and got up into the clothesline and was helped to the back by the ref, not quite sure if he was really hurt or not.
– WWE Tag Champions The New Day (Kofi & Xavier) w/Big E. vs. Usos vs. Dudleyz
Bubba Ray got the biggest heat so far by saying him and D’Von were from Brooklyn and were real New Yorkers. Big E on the outside was insanely entertaining at one point, humping the floor for a good five minutes. They did a comedy spot with Xavier getting slapped hard on the back by everyone in the match, including Kofi. Complete comedy match and highly entertaining. Xavier pinned D’Von after he tagged a Uso on the top rope, who proceeded to splash D’Von, Xavier then came in the ring and threw Uso to the outside and pinned D’Von. Went about 17 minutes.
– Intermission
– Divas Champion Charlotte vs. Natalya
Pretty basic match, lots of “Whoo”s and Charlotte sucks chants. Charlotte working the knee led to a nice spot where Charlotte went for the figure four, but stopped and put the Sharpshooter on. Built up to Natalya getting the sharpshooter to a pretty good pop. Charlotte eventually won with a roll up out of the corner with her feet on the ropes. Decent match.
– Chris Jericho vs. Jack Swagger
Jericho cut a promo on Binghamton saying the place sucks. Jericho got the heat when Charles Robinson was pulling Swagger out of the corner and Jericho punched him. Jericho got caught in the ankle lock and pulls the ring apron into the ring for a rope break. While the ref is fixing the apron, Jericho poked Swagger in the eye and hit the Codebreaker for the pin. After the match, Jericho put Swagger in the Walls Of Jericho which brought out AJ. He went for the Phenomenal Elbow, but Jericho bailed.
– Sheamus and Wade Barrett vs. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns
Sheamus didn’t even bother putting his Mohawk up. Place went nuts when Dean came out and a Roman got a decent pop as well. Heat on Dean as he went for the Nigel rope spot and Barrett just kicked him while standing on the apron. Reigns won with the spear in about 14 minutes in a basic match:
