THE ROUND-UP
THE LATEST NEWS
VIDEO: HBO releases second trailer for Andre the Giant documentary
New Japan Cup results: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Michael Elgin
NXT Dade City, FL, live results: EC3 makes his in-ring return
Impact Wrestling Crossroads results: Austin Aries vs. Johnny Impact
MLW Spring Break live results: Matt Riddle, Low Ki vs. MVP, Joey Janela
Injury updates on Rey Mysterio and Bobby Fish
Two more NXT releases confirmed
THE LATEST AUDIO
WOL: Big weekend of shows, Fast Lane, ROH, TNA, Attitude Era thoughts, more! 3/9
Wrestling Weekly: Ohio Wrestling HOF, Paul Bearer memories, hot topics 3/9
B&V&G: Granny, NXT, THURSDAY NIGHT POTPOURRI! 3/8
We’re looking for reports from tonight’s Raw show in Minneapolis to [email protected].
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M.
Kenny Omega vs. Jay White for U.S. title
ROH 16TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW FROM SAM’S TOWN IN LAS VEGAS FRIDAY NIGHT
Facebook Live at 8:30 p.m. Eastern
Sumie Sakai vs. Hana Kimura in Women of Honor tournament
Tenille Dashwood vs. Brandi Rhodes in Women of Honor tournament
Honor Club and PPV at 9 p.m. Eastern
Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal for ROH title
Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe for ROH tag titles
Young Bucks & Adam Page vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky for six man titles in a street fight
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Flip Gordon
Marty Scurll vs. Punishment Martinez
LEGACY FIGHTING TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. ON AXS TV FROM THE ARENA THEATER IN HOUSTON
Casey Jones vs. Leomana Martinez
Miles Johns vs. Adrian Yanez
Jeremy Hardy vs. Vernon Lewis
Charles Cheeks III vs. Rivaldo Junior
Jason Langellier vs.Thonmas Webb
Nick Newell vs. Sonny Luque
CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. AT http://www.marca.com/claro-mx
Astral & Electrico vs. Cancerbero & Raziel
Lady Maravilla & Princesa Sugehit & Sanely vs. Dalys & Seductora & Tiffany
Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa & The Panther vs. Johnny Idol & Kawato San & Puma
Block B one-night tournament for CMLL tag team titles: Marco Corleone & Niebla Roja, Cavernario & Mr. Niebla, Diamante Azul & Stuka Jr., Okumura & Sam Adonis, Titan & Triton, Rey Bucanero & El Terrible, Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. and Mephisto & Ephesto
Angel de Oro & Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Cuatrero & Negro Casas & Ultimo Guerrero
NEW JAPAN FROM AIICHI GYM IN NAGOYA AT 4 A.M. EASTERN ON SATURDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita
Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino vs. Juice Robinson& David Finlay
Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka
Takashi Iizuka & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare
Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku
Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Chuckie T vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens & Tanga Loa
Bad Luck Fale vs. Lance Archer in the New Japan Cup
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi in the New Japan Cup
We’re looking for reports on Saturday’s Raw show in Oshawa, ONT, Smackdown in Corbin, KY, ROH TV tapings in Las Vegas and NXT in Fort Pierce, FL to [email protected].
NEW JAPAN FROM AMAGASAKI AT 2 A.M. EASTERN LATE SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Ryusuke Taguchi & Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka
Desperado vs. Shota Umino
Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens & Tanga Loa
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe vs. Takashi Iizuka & Taichi
Kazuchika Okada & Chuckie T vs. Seiya Sanada & Bushi
Kota Ibushi vs. Yoshi-Hashi in the New Japan Cup
Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in the New Japan Cup
Sunday has a Raw house show in London, ONT.
WWE FAST LANE PPV ON SUNDAY FROM COLUMBUS, OH AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME
A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena vs. Baron Corbin for the WWE title
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev
Bobby Roode vs. Randy Orton for U.S. title
Usos vs. New Day for tag titles
Charlotte Flair vs. Ruby Riott for women’s title
Naomi & Becky Lynch vs. Natalya & Carmella
NEW JAPAN FROM TAKAMATSU AT 6 A.M. EASTERN MONDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita
Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tanga Loa vs. Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino
Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Michael Elgin & David Finlay
Tetsuya Naito & Bushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Takashi Iizuka & Taichi
Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi & Chase Owens
Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the New Japan Cup
Seiya Sanada vs. Chuckie T in the New Japan Cup
Raw will be live on Tuesday from Detroit. Both Brock Lesnar and John Cena are advertised for the show. Smackdown has a house show on Monday night in Dayton, OH.
NEW JAPAN FROM FUJI-SAN AT 5:30 A.M. WEDNESDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Smackdown, 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge take place on Tuesday in Indianapolis. Matches announced are Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong and Charlotte Flair & Bobby Roode vs. Rusev & Lana.
F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Recapping Elimination Chamber and the Reigns-Strowman decision
What had been expected for nearly a year became official on Sunday night as Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns was announced for WrestleMania 34. Reigns defeated Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, John Cena, Elias, and The Miz in the main event of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view to set up him challenging Lesnar at WrestleMania. The match came down to Reigns and Strowman, with Reigns finally putting him down with two spears.
WON NEWSLETTER: March 5, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Elimination Chamber review, Jon Jones hearing
An updated look at WrestleMania, explaining the booking of Braun Strowman, the Brock Lesnar angle and plans for John Cena and Ronda Rousey are all in the headline story of this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Look at the story behind the Reigns promo, the goal of the promo, what is and isn’t reality about Lesnar, when Lesnar returns, Lesnar’s talks with UFC and his decision making right now and a reality check when we look back three years ago.
Also look at the John Cena interview, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio Jr., how the Rousey angle has gone so far, what the TV ratings said about Rousey’s debut, women’s title plans, as well as the rest of the WrestleMania and Fast Lane show.
Check out the Strowman situation for WrestleMania, flaws in the Elimination Chamber booking as well as full coverage of the show, with match-by-match rundowns with star ratings and poll results on the show.
Find out about Jon Jones’ hearing before the California State Athletic Commission and what it means, as well as the completely befuddling remarks made prior to the hearing.
Look at what may be a WWE drug scandal with the tease of 15 names being involved including one who purchased $140,000 worth of substances. Read the claims out there and teases of what else will be released. Find out about the realities of drug testing and the changing pro wrestling business from when the death rate was so high.
Look at what talent WWE is interested in, WWE signing a deal to do events in Saudi Arabia, lots of news regarding the concussion lawsuits filed against WWE, what happened in a deposition that went badly for the plaintiff in one of those suits, more on Ronda Rousey training, Chris Jericho’s 2018 schedule, why Apollo Crews’ last name was dropped and the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament.
Examine the secondary market in New Orleans for WWE events, update on a deal to bring WWE into a 100,000 seat stadium this fall, Ric Flair becoming a celebrity in Latin America, UFC talent at WWE event and why they weren’t identified, Bianca Belair injury update, WWE headed to Japan and the most-watched shows on WWE.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
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WON BACK ISSUE: February 19, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Yearly business breakdown, WCW shutdown nixed
The XFL went from television’s penthouse to its outhouse in record time as ratings plummeted on NBC to the point the entire league is already being labeled, just two weeks in, a major failure in most circles.It got so bad, that on 2/12, just eight days after the initial ratings for opening night came in at well above the levels even the most optimistic in NBC expected, that emergency meetings were held after an embarrassing show with a tremendous finish went 45 minutes long due to an alleged generator problem, an injury, and a double overtime.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
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Bryan and I will be back tonight for Wrestling Observer radio covering the ROH PPV and the latest news. You can send questions to the show to [email protected].
For the weekend, no Randy Orton on this week’s Saturday night house show but he’s working Sunday through Tuesday. Brock Lesnar is working tonight in Minneapolis and Monday for Raw in Detroit. John Cena is working the PPV in Columbus and Raw on Monday. He is not advertised for Smackdown on Tuesday.
In today’s New Japan Cup matches, Juice Robinson beat Yujiro Takahashi and Michael Elgin beat Tomohiro Ishii. The latter match was great. Elgin vs. Robinson will be on Wednesday in the second round.
Rich Swann has pulled himself from all of his appearances, including the ones he’s advertised on, including his WrestleMania weekend shows, even Crash in Mexico. He is very despondent based on the reaction to his wrestling. Previously he had said he would fulfill his agreed upon dates and then retire from wrestling.
Konnan underwent hip replacement surgery this past week. This is his third hip replacement as the last one came loose about ten years ago from coming back and doing angles too quickly and he’s been in great pain ever since.
We don’t have an update regarding Rey Mysterio Jr. and wrestling but he will be doing his autograph signing this weekend at the Kentucky Comic Con.
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Mayu Iwatani in the Women of Honor tournament will take place tomorrow at the ROH tapings in Las Vegas. (thanks to Jake Koch)
WWE
Paige, who is dating Kalan Blehm of the band Attila, will be touring with the band this weekend. Attila is performing shows this weekend with Insane Clown Posse.
If you want the textbook on building one of the greatest feuds of all-time, this is the run of Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zbyszko interviews from 1980. From both sides, these are some of the best interviews building a program you’ll ever seen. Their Shea Stadium match set the all-time pro wrestling gate record, although that has long since been broken. (thanks to Dave Doyle)
Odds as of this morning for Fast Lane from Paddy Power:
A.J. Styles is a -800 favorite in the WWE title match. John Cena at +750 is the next highest
Charlotte Flair is -1000 in the womens’ title match
Bobby Roode and Randy Orton are both -120 in the U.S. title match
Usos are -175 in the tag title match
Shinsuke Nakamura is -800 against Rusev
Becky Lynch & Naomi are -150 against Carmella & Natalya
UFC
Mairbek Taisumov is off the 4/7 UFC show in Brooklyn due to a delay in getting his visa.
Nick Newell, the fighter with one arm who actually first got interested in being a fighter when his college roommate (Curt Hawkins in WWE) was a fan, is coming out of retirement for the main event on AXS from Houston.
MISCELLANEOUS
Next week, ESPN will be airing the NCAA tournament in prime time on Thursday and Friday night, but the finals are being moved to ESPN 2 on Saturday night. We’ll have more next week. All six sessions will be televised as ESPN U will be doing all the afternoon sessions.
There was a ticket snafu today for ROH tickets for the 6/2 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. They went on sale at 10 a.m. General Admission tickets weren’t available at first and the only tickets shown were priced at $103, for every seat in the building. This wasn’t corrected for several hours. (thanks to Joe Puccio)
New Japan tickets for its 3/24 event at its gym that we wrote about yesterday sold out in 15 seconds.
Bar Wrestling sold out last night in Baldwin Park, CA: Scorpio Sky & B-Boy & Big Honky Kev b Matt Cross & Watts & Marty the Moth, Brian Cage b Tyler Bateman, Chelsea Green (who turned into Laurel Van Ness) & Britt Baker b Heather Monroe & Laura James, Joey Ryan b Hot Young Briley (Dolph Ziggler’s brother Briley Nemeth). After the match, The Young Bucks, Cody and Hangman Page all showed up in an angle taped for Being the Elite. Page and Ryan went at it and Page took the dick flip and poured a bottle of what was supposed to be urine on him. Kevin Kross b Willie Mack, Taya Valkyrie b Tessa Blanchard (said to be great), Rey Fenix & Pentagon Jr. b LAX. Next show is 4/12. (thanks to Jake Koch)
MLW’s show last night in Orlando was taped for television. There will be more on that but they are doing a series of 60 minute shows with Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini as the announcers. Dan Bynum, who was the director of World Class Championship Wrestling is directing, Charlie Bruuzzese of ECW was there as a Producer, as was Bruce Prichard at Senior Producer according to PW Insider. An announcement of the TV is expected soon.
AAW on 3/16 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street announced Jushin Liger vs. Trevor Lee as the main event, plus Jessicka Havok vs. Hudson Envy, Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Kingston, Moose vs. Keith Lee, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett & Colt Cabana vs. Curt Stallion & Jake Something & Conor Braxton, MJF vs. Paco, Zema Ion vs. Myron Reed plus Dave & Jake Crist, Joey Janela, Teddy Hart, Dezmond Xavier and Ace Romero. There will also be an afternoon meet and greet with Liger. You must have a ticket to the show to attend the meet and greet. They also run 3/31 in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus, with Havok vs. Ivelisse for the women’s title,Vega & Fitchett vs. Stallion & Something for the tag titles, AR Fox & Myron Reed vs. Trey Miguel & Steven Wolf and a Rumble with ACH, Callihan, Dave & Jake Crist, Moose, Keith Lee, David Starr, Trevor Lee and Eddie Kingston.
Independent wrestler James “Rude Boy” Riley pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography stemming from a bust last year at his home. Police found 10 images on his phone of children under 16 engaging in sex acts. He disappeared from wrestling after the bust. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
wXw Inner Circle 5 from yesterday in Essen, Germany: Travis Banks b Alexander James, Timothy Thatcher b Julian Pace, David Starr b Chris Brookes, Walter b Jonah Rock, Killer Kelly b Veda Scott, Mike Bailey b Mark Haskins. Rafa was supposed to come back tomorrow after a knee injury, but twisted his knee again and will be replaced by Marius Al-Ani. David Starr injured his ankle last night but will remain in the tournament. Bailey vs. Haskins said to be really good. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
Jurn Simmons will be having ankle surgery on Monday.
The Big Event autograph show is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the La Guardia Plaza Hotel in East Elmhurt, NY with Bret Hart Chuck Liddell, Danielle Moinet (Summer Rae), Scott Hall, Fred Rosser (Darren Young), D-Lo Brown, Mick Foley, James Ellsworth, Stu Bennett,Vader, Dan Severn, Gene Okerlund, Tessa Blanchard, Molly Holly, Madusa, Lisa Varon, Broke Adams, Brian Adias, Juventud Guerrera, LAX, Brandi Rhodes, Rachael Ellering, Lacey Von Erich,Allie, Madison Rayne, Diamante, Josh Matthews, Hurricane Helms, Doug Gilbert, Lex Luger, William Regal, Bob Holly, Tyrus, Ed Leslie, Ivory, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan and more.
Baja Stars USA on 3/17 in San Diego at 3020 Coronado Av. has Soberano vs. Mecha Wolf 450 vs. Cavernario.
Gran Guerrero & Euforia vs. Misterioso Jr. & Blood Eagle headlines 3/234 in Los Angeles at Leonardo’s Huntington Park.
Octagon & El Hijo de Octagon vs. Silver King & El Hijo de Silver King headlines on 3/23 at the Auditorio in Tijuana.
NWL tomorrow in Kansas City at the Turner Rec Center has Jeremy Wyatt vs. Martin Stone for the NWL title and Anthony Henry vs. Jet Royal. NWL TV begins airing in Florida/Alabama on Gulf Coast CW. The TV is also in Kansas City, Joplin, Springfield, MO and St. Joseph, MO.
Former UFC fighter Norman Parke faces Lukasz Chlewcki on the 4/14 KSW show in Wroclaw, Poland.
PWA on 3/31 in Cambridge, ONT at the Hespeler Memorial Arena has Elian Habanero vs. Joey Allen and Kobe Durst vs. Josh Alexander.
PWA on 3/17 in Kitchener, ONT at the Alpine Club
C4 Wrestling on 3/17 in Ottawa at the Vanier Columbus Club with Kobe Durst vs. Mathieu St. Jacques in an I Quit match.
Matt Wiese, the former Luther Reigns, talks about his issues with drugs.
Today in Professional Wrestling History: Steiner Brothers win NWA tag titles
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