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THE ROUND-UP
THE LATEST NEWS
WWE Chicago live results: Brock Lesnar defeats Kane in 35 seconds
WWE Main Event results: Curt Hawkins goes 0-179
Tammy Sytch held on bond after being arrested earlier this week
Rey Mysterio injured during match for Northeast Wrestling
UFC 222 live results: Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya
ROH Manhattan Mayhem live results: The Kingdom vs. Bullet Club
NXT Royal Oak, MI, live results: Gargano and LeRae battle Almas and Vega
WWE Moline, IL, live results: AJ Styles retains in a four-way
NXT Orlando, FL, live results: Ricochet vs. Raul Mendoza
THE LATEST AUDIO
Best Of WOL: Joey Janela, Mandy Leon, Court Bauer 3/4
WOR: Rey Mysterio injury, Roman Reigns, UFC 222, tons of weekend news! 3/4
We’re looking for reports from today’s WWE shows with Raw in Rockford IL, Smackdown in Cedar Rapids, IA and NXT in Indianapolis, plus reports from the Friday & Saturday night Lucha Underground shows, last night’s Border City show in Windsor, ONT and tonight’s Destiny Wrestling show in Mississauga, ONT to [email protected].
We’re also looking for your thoughts on UFC 222, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
Raw is Monday in Milwaukee with Nia Jax vs. Asuka. There is also a Smackdown house show in Lacrosse, WI.
NEW JAPAN 46TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW ON TUESDAY AT 5 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
Katsuya Kitamura vs. Manabu Nakanishi
Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Sho & Yoh vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado for IWGP jr. tag titles
Seiya Sanada vs. Yoshi-Hashi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
Minoru Suzuki vs. Togi Makabe for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay non-title
Smackdown, 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge takes place Tuesday in Green Bay, with Carmella vs. Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso & Naomi vs. Braun Strowman & Alexa Bliss and cruiserweight title tournament matches with Buddy Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali and Drew Gulak vs. Mark Andrews.
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 12, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Debut of the XFL, Stan Hansen retires, more
With fan and media reaction after its debut all across the board and a huge buzz leading to a monstrous television rating, the only way to review the debut of the XFL over the weekend is this. Despite what sports people may think and even hardcore fans of sports may think, the majority of people attend sporting events as well as wrestling events based on quality of hype. They enjoy themselves based on quality of atmosphere of the show, and going home happy (either the babyface prevailing at the end or the home team prevailing).
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I talk all the WWE weekend news as well as last night’s UFC show.
After Brian Ortega’s win over Frankie Edger last night, Dana White pushed the idea of Max Holloway vs. Ortega for the featherweight title, which is the fight that makes logical sense. Holloway said he’d like the fight to be on International Fight Week which would be 7/7.
White also pushed the idea of Cris Cyborg facing Amanda Nunes next. Sean O’Malley was X-rayed and did not have a broken foot.
We have no update on Rey Mysterio Jr. and his biceps injury from Friday night.
As far as Google trends, as of a few hours ago, Brian Ortega was the third most searched term for today with more than 100,000 searches. For yesterday, the most searched term was UFC 222 with about 650,000 searches accounted for. About 500,000 is normal for a current UFC show but Cyborg vs. Holly Holm topped 1 million. Cyborg was one of the most searched. Deontay Wilder had 200,000, for second place, beating Duke basketball and the death of David Ogden-Stiers. He was the only boxer to make the top 20. Mackenzie Dern was No. 16 at 50,000
Northeast Wrestling from Friday night in Waterbury, CT, before 1,900 fans: Robbie E & Cam Zagami b Adrenaline Rush (Keith Youngblood & Daniel Evans) to win the tag titles, Christian Casanova won three-way over Chris Battle and Bull Dredd, Brian Anthony b Manscout Jake Manning (Anthony is doing the King Booker gimmick from years ago), Ron Zombie b Mike Gamble, Tenille Dashwood b Deonna Purrazzo, Brad Hollister b Matt Riddle, Josh Briggs b Wrecking Ball Legursky, Rey Mysterio Jr. & Flip Gordon b Caleb Konley & Joey Mercury. There was also a brawl with The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll doing a pull-apart with The Kingdom. Lanny Poffo read a poem he had written about Randy Savage and threw Frisbees in the crowd. Good response to the women. Great response to Hollister vs. Riddle. Mick Foley was there and put Mr. Socko on heel manager Jared Silberkleit.
Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky’s flight from Los Angeles to New York was canceled which is why they weren’t at the show. Ultimo Guerrero arrived late due to being caught up in customs. The CMLL wrestlers showed up after the show started and Soberano Jr. got to the building five minutes before his match started, which may partially explain the problems with that match. They also, during the live show to people who were watching, put on a Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson match during intermission.
WWE
Ronda Rousey and her mother, Ann Maria DeMars, were both inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in Columbus, OH last night.
John Cena will be on the Tonight Show on Wednesday. Ronda Rousey will be on Ellen on 3/13.
Regarding last night’s Brock Lesnar 35 second win over Kane in Chicago, this is a storyline attempting to turn Lesnar heel by WrestleMania and ergo, make Roman Reigns the babyface for that match.
The WWE Network will be releasing a number of episodes of the old squash match TV show All-Star Wrestling on the Network, with shows from 1975 to 1980. A lot of the 1980 shows are during the build to the Shea Stadium show that year. I doubt they’ll have the localized promos for New York, which would be some classic stuff because the promo work of Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zbyszko was incredible.
MISCELLANEOUS
Impact announced last night it will be doing TV tapings in Windsor, ONT at St. Clair College on 6/1 and 6/2.
The return of Badr Hari on Friday night for Glory, against Hesdy Gerges sold out the 9,500-seat Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam and aired live in Holland and was heavily pushed and Hari everywhere. Hari weighed in 29 pounds lighter than he did when he faced Rico Verhoeven. (thanks to Henk Mulder)
KSW in Poland, which is a promotion that has the best live production values of any promotion except possibly Rizin, ran over the weekend as well. The big news on the show was that Tomasz Narkun beat Mamed Khalidov to end Khalidov’s 20-fight unbeaten streak. Narkun was the company’s light heavyweight champion while Khalidov is the middleweight champion. In promoting the show, there was a photo of Khalidov talking about his streak and dressing up in a black jacket and black hat just like Undertaker.
Pro Wrestling Eclipse on 3/18 in Oshawa, ONT has Tyson Dux vs. Teddy Hart.
UCW on 4/14 in Owesnboro, KY at the Sports Center features Vader, Tommy Dreamer, Hurricane Helms and Shane Douglas.
Shimmer on 4/14 and 4/15 in Berwyn, IL will have Kris Wolf on the show.
The PWA promotion in Australia was featured on today’s version of The Today Show in that country. The video is geoblocked but Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles were featured. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
WrestleClash in Canberra, Australia from yesterday before 425 fans: Robbie Eagles b Caveman Ugg, Jak Arkham b Mick Moretti, Jack Bonza & Adam Hoffman b Gino Gambimo & Mehmet, Mikey Broderik b Slex in a no DQ match, Luke Watts b Marcius Pitt, Kellyanne b Shazza McKenzie, Crofy b Elliot Sexton. Sexton put Josh Torney, a local radio DJ, through a table. (thanks to Kevin Chiat and Greg Delaney)
Hoosier Pro Wrestling from last night in Columbus, IN before a full house of 240 fans: Fireball b Paul Ax, Dillen Swango & Buck Sexton won tag titles over Vinny Bambino Scarecrow b Echo the Clown-DQ, Drax b JC Bunyan, Butch Manson b The Referee, Tim Lutz b Ace Jackson, Kenny Kage b Flash Flanagan. Next show is 4/7. (thanks to Jerry Wilson)
Stardom sold out in advance at the small Shinikiba first ring earlier today in Tokyo: Starlight Kid b Hanan, AZM b Ruaka, Shiki Shibusawa b Nao Yamaguchi, Natsuko Tora & Kaori Yoneyama b Konami & Hiromi Mimura, Io Shirai b Xia Brookside in a good match, Toni Storm & Bea Priestley b Momo Watanabe & HZK, Sumire Natsu & Kagetsu & Hana Kimura b Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano & Jungle Kyona. There was a big post-match angle with Odea Tai throwing garbage on Nakano. The first two matches were part of the Future of Stardom title tournament. Yamaguchi was making her pro debut. (thanks to Jake Koch)
IWS from last night in Montreal before 500 fans: Stacy Thibault won Battle Royal, Buxx Belmar b Big Magic to win IWS title, Brute Van Slyke b Steven Mainz, Jason Gray b Keven Gray, Scott Parker b Beef Wellington, TDT b Kevin Blanchard & Black Dynamite, Max Lemire b Sexxxy Eddy, Matt Angel won three-way over Frank Milano and Rob Van Dam. Pat Patterson was at the show. Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate are coming for their 4/28 show.
NSPW from last night in Quebec City before a sellout of 722 fans: Benjamin Tull b Matt Falco to keep NSPW title, Clean Up Society b Kikin N Stompin, Dylan Bostic won three-way over Pee Wee and Michael Style, Markus Burke b Sinn Bodhi. The next show on 5/26 will have Austin Aries, Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia.
Some interview previews: Kevin Sullivan, Fabulous Ones, Tammy Sytch and Raven.
Today in Professional Wrestling History: Stan Hansen wins AJPW Triple Crown
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