We’re looking for your thoughts on Thursday’s New Beginnings in Osaka so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to Dave Meltzer
We’re looking for reports on today’s WWE show in Mannheim, Germany (Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio) and NXT in Tampa to Dave Meltzer
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT ON AXS
A.J. Styles vs. Kota Ibushi for IWGP title – This match was fantastic. I can just imagine how good it’ll be with Mauro Ranallo & Josh Barnett calling it.
CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT WWW.CLAROSPORTS.COM AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME
Robin & Bengala vs. Inquisidor & Espiritu Negro
Triton & Fuego & The Panther vs. Virus & Tiger & Puma
La Mascara & Dragon Lee & Guerrero Maya vs. Hechicero & Kamaitachi & Bobby Z
Valiente vs Euforia
Rush & Thunder & Marco Corleone vs. Cibernetico & Mr. Niebla & Ultimo Guerrero]
Mistico & Volador Jr. & Mascara Dorada vs. Negro Casas & Mephisto & Cavernario Barbaro
The WWE Germany tour finishes tomorrow in Magdeburg, Germany (Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio), and we’re looking for reports on that show as well as a house show in Fresno (Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Wyatt Family, Dudleys, Ryback, A.J. Styles, Kane, Natalya) and NXT in Palatka, FL.
NEW JAPAN NEW BEGINNINGS IN NIIGATA LATE SATURDAY NIGHT STARTING AT 2 A.M. EASTERN AND 11 P.M. PACIFIC ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan vs. Young Bucks & Cody Hall
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gedo & Kazushi Sakuraba
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay
Michael Elgin & Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil
Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe & Toru Yano for Never Open weight title
Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hash
Kushida vs. Bushi for IWGP jr. title
Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for IWGP tag titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP IC title
Sunday has WWE in Bakersfield,, CA (Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Wyatt Family, Dudleys, Ryback, A.J. Styles, Kane, Natalya).
Raw will be Monday in Anaheim. No Brock Lesnar or Paul Heyman on to the go-home show for Fast Lane. Ticket sales picked up with the announcement of A.J. Styles, although I’m sure in management that will be passed off as pure coincidence, and maybe it is. But this looks to be the first sellout of a Raw show this year. It’s very close at this point and Anaheim is good walk-up market.
Lesnar will make his first appearance on Smackdown since 2004 at the Tuesday tapings in Ontario, CA.
F4WOnline.com SALE! One full month of unlimited access for only $3.99!
If you’ve ever wanted to WATCH our radio shows here on the site, check out our new Youtube page! No full video shows, but lots of video clips, full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Figure Four Weekly
Figure Four Weekly 2/1/2016: Weekly Hogan/Gawker update
A look at the past weeks developments in the Hulk Hogan and Gawker lawsuit.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: February 15, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Daniel Bryan retires
The newest issue of the Wrestling Observer is one of the best of the year. A very detailed look at the end of Bryan Danielson’s career and retirement. Looking back at sports, pro wrestling and the ramifications that are and are not being talked about. Danielson’s retirement is a big story, both his short and long term impact on pro wrestling. How his story will act as a catalyst for change not only within pro wrestling but all contact sports. If you are a wrestling fan, a sports fan or a science fan, this may be the most important issue of the year.
Bryan Danielson’s retirement speech, career highlights, home town, character both in and out of the ring, booking, the crazy way he ended up as champion for the first time, the birth of the “Yes” chant, the build to WrestleMania 30 & 31, the various exams, why he wanted to continue wrestling and WWE didn’t, his goals outside of WWE and why he changed his mind in the last few weeks.
The quandary he was in about continuing his career, how his career began, the formation of ROH and the changing landscape of independent wrestling, the changing ideas of what a pro wrestling headliner can look like, the first time I ever saw him wrestle while sitting with Red Bastien and Nick Bockwinkel
The suspension of Titus O’Neil, a longtime WWE star talking about going into another sport, another star looking at retiring soon, lots of WrestleMania plans including an early summer major match, Steve Austin’s WrestleMania status, update on promotion of Stephanie McMahon, star who may be interested in returning, Fast Lane, A.J. Styles talks his beginnings in WWE and how hard he tried to hide the Royal Rumble story, how DDP figured in Styles’ return, Linda McMahon forms a new company, Roman Reigns in Raw main events, WWE cuts five in developmental, new WWE books. New announcer hired, Update on many Tough Enough competitors from the past season, plans for a WWE show taped this summer, international star WWE has interest in, as well as a look at all the weekend house shows from WWE & NXT with business notes.
Click Here: new zealand rugby team jerseys
F4WOnline.com SALE! One full month of unlimited access for only $3.99!
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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
You can also order print issues at www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected]
Rates are:
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 [email protected] 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.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.
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.
Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.
Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: Jan 4, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Starcade review, Jaguar Yakota retires, more
A look at how promotions did in 1998 overall, a review of Starcade with Nash pinning Goldberg, Jaguar Yakota retires, plus tons more.
FRIDAY’S NEWS UPDATE
MMA and WWE trending over the past week as far as Internet searches on Google go, Kevin Randleman was No. 7 yesterday with 100,000. Titus O’Neil was No. 17 on Tuesday with 50,000. Daniel Bryan was No. 6 on Monday with 200,000.
Lucha Underground set its record audience on Wednesday night, doing 136,000 viewers at 8 p.m. and the immediate 9 p.m. replay did 81,000 viewers.
A wild PPV show was announced on 3/20 from the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix. On the same stage, Roy Jones Jr. will fight a fan and if the fan can beat him, he gets $100,000. Ken Shamrock will face Dan Severn for the first time in 19 years to end their long standing rivalry in an MMA match. Kurt Angle will face Rey Mysterio Jr. in a pro wrestling match, and Chael Sonnen will face Michael Bisping in a grappling match. We’ll have a lot more on this as it approaches, but this is legit.
The World MMA Awards from last Friday will air tonight at 10 p.m. on FS 2.
WWE
Here’s a story on Daniel Bryan and C.M. Punk.
The special we wrote about yesterday, a look back at the first WrestleMania in 1985, airs tonight at 10:30 p.m. on the MSG Network.
The Edge & Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness debuts after Fast Lane on 2/21 on the WWE Network
Other new WWE Network shows include Daniel Bryan’s Greatest Moments, Brock Lesnar’s Road to the Undisputed title and The Best of Stone Cole vs. Mr. McMahon.
John Cena will be the honorary pace car driver for the Daytona Beach 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on 2/21 at 1 p.m., the same day as Fast Lane.
Stock continued to decline, closing at $14.65 per share, the lowest in a long time. Besides the decline in the market as a whole, this stems from yesterday’s report where the company lost money for the quarter and there was a slight decline in network subscriptions.
We don’t have an update on Riddick Moss, who was motionless after taking a fall during the NXT show in Jacksonville and they had to stop the main event (Dash & Dawson & Moss vs. Sami Zayn & Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore) last night after a triple suplex spot. He was able to get up and did walk from the ring to the back on his own but he was motionless for a long time. (thanks to Ross Blair)
Information on various web site activities for WrestleMania can be found here.
The newspaper in Seattle on the retirement of Daniel Bryan. Article here.
The New York Post has a story on the decline of WWE stock.
UFC/MMA
A story on Kevin Randleman here.
Bas Rutten, who ended up being very good friends with Kevin Randleman after their famous UFC title fight, talks about him here.
Bellator announced today that Michael Chandler has signed a multi-year multi-fight contract with the promotion. As noted in the current issue of the Observer, there are talks for his next fight to be 5/14 in San Jose against Josh Thomson.
TMZ reported that Tito Ortiz was cited for misdemeanor battery early this morning after allegedly getting physical with a woman inside of a Las Vegas night club. The alleged incident took place at Drai’s Nightclub at about 1 a.m. when a woman claimed Ortiz got physical with her and tried to rip her phone away. She said she had been taking photos inside the cub earlier and she thinks Ortiz may have thought she was trying to shoot photos of him. She claimed Ortiz tried to whip her around. Police arrived and Ortiz was not arrested, but was cited.
MISCELLANEOUS
Here’s a story on ROH and Daniel Bryan.
A very nice story from his local newspaper on Mark Nulty.
Carlos Amano, who retired due to a brain stem injury talks damage to pro wrestlers here.
Sami Callihan interview.
The building that the Stampede Wrestlers went to for decades every week in Regina, Saskatchewan is being torn down and Bret Hart and Dan Kroffat talk about it here.
Kevin Kiley Sr., who is the father of Alex Riley, has been in the news this week because he quit his job as a sports talk show host at WKRK-FM in Cleveland. Kiley said that his principles and the principles of the station didn’t match up. He’d been under controversy when he said the Buffalo Bills hiring a woman as an assistant coach was “absurd.” In the past Kiley Sr. had gotten heat by saying women shouldn’t be on the voting board for the Pro Football Hall of Fame or allowed to officiate the game. This had led to reporter Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk saying that people should boycott the station. Kiley said that in 35 years of reporting on sports, this was the first time when the station told him he could not defend himself against critics, so he quit. “You shouldn’t accept censorship ever. You should make sure the people on the radio are telling you the truth as they see it. Don’t let some clown in New York tell them what to say and then you think it’s your opinion or what not to say. That’s what happened here and I’m not accepting it.”
Joe Garagiola, the former NBC personality who often hosted the Tonight Show, was part of the Today Show crew and the major league baseball broadcast team, turns 90 today. his connection with pro wrestling is that he was the first announcer for Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis, and his brother Mickey was the longtime ring announcer on the show. Garagiola was also social friends with Gene Kiniski.
Tier 1 Wrestling will be doing an iPPV through WWNLive.com featuring Timothy Thatcher vs. Michael Elgin in their first-ever meeting.
41 years ago today before a sellout crowd in Miami Beach, Jack Brisco retained the NWA title over the Mongolian Stomper; Andre the Giant won a Battle Royal which also included Chris Taylor, and Bill Watts beat Bob Roop via DQ in a Florida title match.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix tomorrow night in Council Bluffs, IA at the National Guard Armory headlined by Arik Cannon.
AAW on 2/19 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Eddie Kingston vs. Sami Callihan for the AAW title, AR Fox vs. Matt Cage for the Heritage title, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Hero & Drew Gulak, Abyss & Kongo Kong vs. Ryan Boz & Russ Jones, plus Trevor Lee, Candice LaRae and others. On 3/18 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club has Jack Evans, Chris Hero, Ciampa, Silas Young, Colt Cabana and Drew Gulak. On 4/9 in Chicago at the Logan Square Auditorium has Matt Sydal and Hero
ON THIS DAY IN WORLD PRO WRESTLING HISTORY: Ted Dibiase wins Missouri state title; Christian wins NWA title