THE ROUND-UP
The Latest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
Mojo Rawley vs. Curt Hawkins added to Elimination Chamber pre-show
TNA Impact Wrestling results: Bobby Lashley vs. Eddie Edwards
WWE 2016 financials: Network subs up; 205 and UK tour updates
WWE NXT results: A Glorious Celebration
SmackDown ratings down following last week’s big number
AUDIO
Wrestling Weekly: Hansen vs. Andre, Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, mailbag 2/10
WOL: Tony Schiavone talks NWA Crockett, WCW, more, plus news! 2/10
B&V&G: NXT, Raw, WrestleMania 1 part 2, Granny’s Wrestling Report, more! 2/10
WOL: Everything you ever wanted to know about WWE’s earnings report 2/9
WOR: Smackdown, ratings, New Japan, UFC, mailbag, more! 2/9
F4D: Smackdown, Total Divas, Impact, Geek of the Week and more with Filthy Tom! 2/8
We’re looking for reports tonight from the NXT shows is Asbury Park, NJ and Venice, FL and ROH TV tapings in Pittsburgh (Adam Cole & Young Bucks & Cody vs. Briscoes & Bobby Fish & Jay Lethal, Marty Scurll vs. Donovan Dijak for TV title, Matt Taven & TK O’Ryan & Vinnie Marseglia vs. Caprice Coleman & Rhett Titus & Kenny King for trios titles, War Machine vs. B.J. Whitmer & Damien Martinez no DQ, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu, plus the beginnings of the Top Prospect tournament for 2017) to [email protected].
For this coming weekend, we’ll be doing three polls, for New Japan’s New Beginning in Osaka show, for UFC 208 PPV on Saturday from the Barclays Center and for WWE Elimination Chamber on Sunday from Phoenix. We’re looking for your thoughts on all of these shows, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M. EASTERN TIME
Volador Jr. vs. Will Ospreay
Kushida vs. Bushi
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Gedo
These are matches from the 2016 Best of the Super Juniors tournament
STYLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT FROM YBOR CITY, FL TONIGHT at FloSlam.tv
One night tournament with these first round matches:
AR Fox vs. Drew Galloway
Anthony Henry vs. Caleb Konley
Fred Yehi vs. Tracer X
Dan Barry vs. Sami Callihan
Plus a Fray match, which is a Rumble style match with eliminations only via pin, submission or knockout.
LEGACY FIGHTING ALLIANCE TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TIME FROM LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA ON AXS TV
Carnan Jenkins (0-0, 183.8) vs. Brian Wells (0-0, 184.3)
Carlos Vera (5-1, 135.1) vs. Joel Scott (5-5, 135.2)
Joshua Davila (6-6, 165.6) vs. Ray Blodget (10-3, 161.8)
Caio Machado (10-2, 135.5) vs. Trent Meaux (5-2-1, 135)
Thanh Le (5-1, 144.6) vs. Alex Black (11-4, 145.7)
Jon Kirk (19-12, 187.8) vs. Brendan Allen (6-1, 185)
Trevin Giles (8-0, 184.9) vs. Ryan Spann (9-3, 185.3)
CMLL LIVE FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN
Astral & Principe Diamante vs. Cancerbero & Raziel
Estrellita & Princesa Sugei & Silueta vs. Amapola & Dallys & Zeuxis
Atlantis & Stuka Jr. & Valiente vs. La Mascara & Ripper & Rush
One-night Torneo Incedibles, basically a one-night tag team partner where all teams are made up of wrestlers who are usually feuding with each other: Caristico & Mephisto, Cavernario Barbaro & Volador Jr., Kraneo & Marco Corleone, Diamante Azul & Pierroth, Angel de Oro & Rey Bucanero, Mascara Ano 2000 & Maximo Sexy, Rey Cometa & Puma and Blue Panther & Tiger.
It’s the watch all the tag matches disintegrate into teammates fighting each other in five minute matches all night long.
NEW JAPAN NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA LIVE AT 3 A.M. TONIGHT EASTERN AND MIDNIGHT PACIFIC ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Taka Michinoku vs. Hirai Kawato
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Henare vs. Yoshitatsu & Kushida & Tomoyuki Oka
Yuji Nagata & Juice Robinson & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo & Jado
Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi for Never trios titles
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Will Ospreay for British heavyweight title
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Takashi Iizuka for IWGP tag titles
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee for IWGP jr. title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin for IC title
Saturday has WWE Raw in Anchorage, Alaska, Smackdown in Las Cruces, MN, NXT in Albany, NY and Gainesville, FL and ROH in Columbus, OH (Adam Cole & Hangman Page vs. Jay Lethal & Bobby Fish, Young Bucks vs. War Machine for tag titles, Kingdom vs. ? for trios titles, Marty Scurll vs. Lio Rush non-title, Cody vs. Dalton Castle, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelly & Jay White vs Rhett Titus & Kenny King & Caprice Coleman, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu). We’re looking for reports on all of these shows to [email protected].
UFC 208 LIVE FROM THE BARCLAYS CENTER IN BROOKLYN ON SATURDAY
Fight Pass at 7 p.m.
Roan Carneiro (170) vs. Ryan LaFlare (170.6)
Rick Glenn (145.8) vs. Phillipe Nover (145.6)
FS1 at 8 p.m.
Jarred Brooks (125) vs. Ian McCall (125.2)
Nik Lentz (155.8) vs. Islam Makhachev (155)
Wilson Reis (125.2) vs. Ulka Sasaki (125.4)
Randy Brown (170.6) vs. Belal Muhammad (170.2)
PPV at 10 p.m.
Jim Miller (154.6) vs. Dustin Poirier (155.2)
Jared Cannonier (204.4) vs. Glover Teixeira (205.2)
Tim Boetsch (185.8) vs. Ronaldo Jacare Souza (185.8)
Anderson Silva (185) vs. Derek Brunson (186)
Holly Holm (144.4) vs. Germaine de Randamie (143.6) for UFC women’s featherweight title
WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV FROM THE TALKING STICK RESORT ARENA IN PHOENIX AT 7:30 P.M. SUNDAY
Curt Hawkins vs. Mojo Rawley (pre-show match)
Dolph Ziggler vs. Apollo Crews & Kalisto
Mickie James vs. Becky Lynch
Nikki Bella vs. Natalya
Tag team gauntlet matches for the titles with Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, The Usos, Vaudevillains, The Ascension, Heath Slater & Rhyno and Tyler Breeze & Fandango
Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi for women’s title
Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper
Elimination chamber for WWE title: John Cena, Bray Wyatt, A.J. Styles, The Miz, Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin
Besides Elimination Chamber, WWE Raw has a house show on Sunday in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Raw will be on Monday from Las Vegas. Neither Bill Goldberg nor Brock Lesnar are scheduled for the show. There is also a Smackdown brand house show in Oakland, CA at the Oracle Arena.
Smackdown will be Tuesday from Anaheim, CA.
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 2/6/2017: How WWE got it right with Goldberg this time
Over a decade after their match at Madison Square Garden was nearly booed out of the building, it’s remarkable that Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar will once again be a marquee match on a WrestleMania card in 2017. Their collision course that became inevitable once Goldberg was booked to dominate Lesnar at Survivor Series took the next step forward on last week’s Raw as Paul Heyman challenged Goldberg to the rematch on behalf of Lesnar… Subscribers click here to continue.
WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: February 13, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: NJPW New Beginning review, WWE Fast Lane/Elimination Chamber cards, more
An update on the WWE’s WrestleMania plans and then two PPV’s leading to WrestleMania is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. We update the situation with the Seth Rollins vs. HHH proposed match, new matches that have changed due to injuries, update injured talent and a new proposed championship match on the Mania show, as well as more on different planned matches.
We also look at plans for both Elimination Chamber and Fast Lane.
We’ve got full coverage of the New Beginning in Sapporo show headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki, with match-by-match coverage with star ratings, poll results and business notes. We look at the build up angle and the story behind the main event, and this week’s show in Osaka.
We look at the big coup by WWE Studios working with Dwayne Johnson, a current WWE star being talked about for doing MMA, Kurt Angle talks wrestling in WWE, NXT Takeover Orlando notes, and lots of thoughts on the XFL documentary and key points that were not in.
We also have more WWE WrestleMania week plans, more on Mike Adamle and his battle against dementia and his background, update on a lot of WWE injuries, a surprise coach at the Performance Center and update on where that come from, and another WWE movie project.
We also have tons of notes on the wrestlers brought to the Performance Center this past week as well as other athletes for tryouts, including who they are and their backgrounds including some very unique prospects. We also look at the most-watched shows of the past week on the network as well as a rundown of all the WWE and NXT arena events this past week with both highlights and business notes.
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].
Rates in the United States are $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 choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON BACK ISSUE: January 17, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Gary Albright, Observer awards, more
Gary Albright, a former world class amateur wrestling star and headliner on many big shows as a pro in Japan, died after collapsing in the ring at an independent show in Hazleton, PA before about 100 fans on 1/7. He was 36. The preliminary reports from the corner attributed the death of the 6-foot-4, 340-pound powerhouse to a heart attack, technically speaking a combination of severe atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and acute pulmonary edema… Subscribers click here to continue.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Some feel the smart money is already in for Sunday’s Elimination Chamber. My gut is it’s just that the results of the key matches are obvious:
Randy Orton is at -4500 (45-to-1) favorite over Luke Harper
American Alpha is at -4500 to win the Tag Team Turmoil
Dolph Ziggler is an underdog in the handicap match but odds are short
Naomi’s odds are dropping and it’s now just about even odds with Alexa Bliss after Bliss was a heavy favorite
Natalya’s odds are dropping greatly but Nikki Bella is still a favorite
Becky Lynch was also a significant underdog but the odds are closing to almost even in her match with Mickie James
Bray Wyatt is at -1350 to win the Chamber match
Natalya will be doing a regular column in the Calgary Sun. Her ex-uncle Bret for years had a column in the newspaper. In fact, the current back issue of the Observer has, in hindsight, perhaps the most important one he ever wrote.
Mick Foley will be writing a Christmas book called “Saint Mick” this year for release during the Christmas season.
Darren Young underwent successful elbow surgery yesterday.
Big Cass talks about the Royal Rumble and the house show Sunday in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Irv Muchnick on Donald Trump, Senator Richard Blumenthal and WWE talent being independent contractors.
UFC / MMA
So Michael Bisping and Yoel Romero had a Twitter battle. This led to Romero calling into Bisping’s radio show. And this is what ensued from there.
Today is the ten year anniversary of the Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie fight on Showtime, which was the first women’s MMA fight ever on major U.S. television. The story behind the fight is most interesting because Showtime wanted no part of it and promoter Gary Shaw, who saw Carano as a potential superstar, pushed for it. Basically the agreement was that it could put as an early fight on the show, but if there were any problems or it didn’t get over, Shaw was told he couldn’t ask for another women’s fight to be aired. As it was, on an otherwise lackluster show, it was Carano vs. Kedzie who stole the show and saved the show and the next thing you know, Carano’s fights on CBS were adding 1 million or more viewers in less than ten minutes.
A story on Chris LaRusso, who is in the ROH Top Prospect tournament, on why tonight is the biggest night of his career.
Brace MMA is 4/8 in Canberra, Australia at the AIS Arena.
Dan Severn talks the time he spent with Lou Thesz, as well as the WWE Hall of Fame.
National Wrestling League from last night in St. Louis: Marcellus Gaines b Javy Torres, Todd Letterman b Wayne Taylor, Cal Stark b Tommy Flagg, Dez Wellston & Jay Lutz b Adam Ryan & Jackie Lee Bosch, Maverick b Dominick Butler, Dak Draper b Jet Royal, Coco Rumble b Clayton Fox, Davey Gibson & Matthew Grundy b Cornell Douglass & Christian Adonis (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer).
Heart of Shimmer champion Nicole Savoy was on Over the Top Radio last night.
FIP will air live tomorrow night on FloSlam with Fred Yehi vs. Brian Cage for the FIP title as the main event.
Today would have been the 45th birthday of Louie Spicolli, who passed away 18 years ago.
Results from today’s ONE show at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
Muhammad Aiman b Eduardo Novaes via TKO from strikes at 2:50 of round two
Tiffany Teo b Priscilla Hertati Lumban Gaoi via decision after three rounds
Saiful Merican b Burn Soriano via TKO from strikes at 5:00
Alex Silva b Roy Doliguez via armbar at 2:36 of the third round
Keanu Subba b Ahmed Mujtaba via guillotine at 2:56
Movlid Khaibulaev b Herbert Burns via decision after three rounds
Ann Osman b Vy Srey Khouch via TKO from strikes at 4:58
Agilan Thani b Jeff Huang via choke at 2:10 o the second round
Ev Ting b Kamal Shalorus via split decision after three rounds
F4W / WO EMPIRE WRESTLEMANIA GROUP INFO
BUS INFO:
The Empire bus to WrestleMania will cost $50.00 and will be round trip from Rosen Inn at 9000 International Drive 32819 (a few blocks away from Wrestlcon).
The bus will leave at 4pm (time subject to change) for WrestleMania and will leave WrestleMania no later then one hour after the show. If you would like a seat email Ed at [email protected] or message him on the BOARD~! for Paypal payment instructions.
DINNER INFO:
WHAT: Dinner at Texas de Brazil
WHEN: Friday March 31st
WHERE: 5259 International Dr Ste F1, Orlando, FL 32819 at 5 p.m. (they may open at 4:30 for us)
WHO: All your best empire buddies
DETAILS: The cost of the dinner will be $68.00 which includes the dinner, salad bar, soft drinks and tea, and dessert, tax and tip. This is a pre pay dinner and you can send payment to paypal at [email protected] (please send as a gift to a friend). Payments must be made by March 24th (if you wait until after that, Ed will charge an extra $5.00 for being a pain).
Today in Professional Wrestling History (2/10): Masa Saito wins AWA gold at the Tokyo Dome
CONTACT INFORMATION
Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]