Wrestling Thread July 11-18/WWE Live Draft July 19th/ WWE Champ is Who The Hell Knows

His new gimmick is cool with LIJ.

He is such a smooth athlete.

I love his spot where he does the Flair corner flip right into a springboard dropkick.

Takes me back to the Ohtani days when he used to do that
 
7/4/16 Wrestling Observer Newsletter for you guys :D


ROH BEST IN THE WORLD POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 51 (70.8%)

Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)

In the middle 21 (29.2%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Bucks & Cole vs. Moose & War Machine 29

Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe 18

B.J. Whitmer vs. Steve Corino 15



WORST MATCH POLL

Daniels & Kazarian vs. Sabin & Shelley 17

ACH vs. Silas Young 10

B.J. Whitmer vs. Steve Corino 8

Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 6/28.



The 26th annual G-1 Climax tournament which, in the last few years, has gained more international interest as the period with a large percentage of what will be the year’s best matches, was officially announced this past week.

New Japan announced the format, identical to last year, with 19 shows over 28 days, split into A block and B block shows. A.J. Styles, who competed in the 2014 and 2015 tournaments, called it the most physically difficult and professionally rewarding thing he’d ever done. All 19 shows are scheduled to air live on New Japan World.

As of right now, the first show on 7/18, and the final three shows on 8/12, 8/13 and 8/14, will be broadcast in both English and Japanese with Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino as announcers.

Each wrestler will have nine singles matches, and on the days when their block doesn’t have singles matches, will be working tag team matches. While there will be some short matches and some matches that aren’t physically arduous, there are the exceptions to the rule, as, particularly on the big shows, expectations are high to produce PPV main event quality bouts.

The 2013 and 2014 tournaments were probably the best two pro wrestling tournaments in history. Last year couldn’t quite match up, but it may also have had the best finish, with the last three nights headlined by three of the year’s best matches, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. A.J. Styles (a match both men now refer to as the greatest match of their respective careers), Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada, and the two winners, Tanahashi vs. Nakamura, being as good as three straight night main events as you would ever see.

Living up to that standard will be difficult this year, with Styles and Nakamura out, and Tanahashi not nearly at 100 percent due to neck and shoulder problems.

The cast of characters is similar to last year. Newcomers this year are Kenny Omega, Tama Tonga (the only American in the tournament), Seiya Sanada, Evil, Yoshi-Hashi, and NOAH wrestlers Naomichi Marufuji and Katsuhiko Nakajima. While good, from a quality standpoint they can’t match the level of those who departed.

It’s notable that even though ROH is not running any shows during the tournament, nobody from ROH is in the tournament, not even heavyweight tag team champions Mark & Jay Briscoe. The junior heavyweights are usually not put in the tournament, although many expected Kushida, as champion, in and that didn’t happen.

The only non-regulars are Marufuji and Nakajima, as well as Toru Yano, who had been a regular until a few months ago. All three have been working with NOAH. While Marufuji is a name star, and Nakajima is likely to have excellent matches, it’s notable that they didn’t bring back Minoru Suzuki, who has had sensational matches in years past (most notably his 2014 match with Styles), nor Takashi Sugiura or Go Shiozaki, who are NOAH’s top singles guys of late. Shiozaki not being there makes sense, because NOAH wouldn’t want their champion to be losing singles matches.

Like every year, it’s divided into two blocks. Everyone in the block has a singles match with everyone else. The top point-getter in each block, based on two points for a win, one point for a draw (30 minutes) and zero for a loss, double DQ or double count out, meet in the championship match. If there is a tie, and there often is, like in all Japanese tournaments, the person going to the finals is based on head-to-head-records against the others who are tied. If that still ends up even, there would be a playoff.

The A Block has Kazuchika Okada (IWGP heavyweight champion, 2012 and 2014 winner), Tanahashi (2007 and 2015 winner), Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto (2008 winner), Togi Makabe (2009 winner), Satoshi Kojima (2010 winner), Bad Luck Fale, Tonga, Sanada and Marufuji.

The B block has Michael Elgin (IC champion), Katsuyori Shibata (Never Open weight champion), Tetsuya Naito (2013 winner), Kenny Omega, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, Evil, Yano, Yoshi-Hashi and Nakajima.

The most notable omission is Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who had some good matches last year and was a nostalgia favorite in recent years. Tenzan, who won in 2003, 2004 and 2006, being out is a sign they feel, and rightly so, that he, with all his nerve damage, simply can’t handle having that many top level singles matches in a short period of time.

In recent years, the tournament winner has gone on to challenge for the IWGP title at the Tokyo Dome. That is not a lock as the winner gets a briefcase with the Tokyo Dome contract, similar to Money in the Bank. However, they also can’t afford to lose a singles match between the G-1 and Tokyo Dome show, because if they do, the person who beats them gets the briefcase and title shot.

Because the G-1 winner usually main events the Tokyo Dome, that limits the possibilities, because you need a marquee star in that main event position. Really, two of Okada, Tanahashi and Naito from that standpoint are the likely to win the tournament and headline, or beat the tournament winner and headline. Shibata would appear to have an outside shot, but I can’t see anyone else. I could see a scenario for Omega to win the briefcase but then lose it to Naito later in the year, as unlikely as that sounds.

In addition, for Okada, who goes in as champion, the people who beat him during the tournament are likely to get IWGP title matches between September and November.

You can tell who they are counting on based on line-ups, because traditionally, the main event is supposed to be the best match and will get the most time. Once again they are looking at Tanahashi to carry the A block even while injured with nine main events in nine matches, even with Okada in his block. Shibata is being looked to carry the B block also with nine main events in nine shows.

However, as we’ve seen in the past, the match order can change in the last week. The tour ends with three straight shows at Tokyo Sumo Hall. The 8/12 will decide the A block winner and will feature the first Tanahashi vs. Okada singles match since the Tokyo Dome, but also a Goto vs. Marufuji match which right now is listed as the main event. The B block winner will be decided on 8/13, with Shibata vs. Evil and Naito vs. Omega as the key matches.

By tradition of the past few years, the best shows in G-1 are usually the Tokyo events, as well as 7/30 in Nagoya and 8/6 in Osaka. Yokohama and Fukuoka usually get good action but the crowds aren’t usually as strong.

The opening night is 7/18 at the Hokkaido Sports Center in Sapporo, which starts at 2 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning Eastern time with A block matches of Makabe vs. Tonga, Goto vs. Fale, Kojima vs. Ishii, Okada vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Sanada.

7/22 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has B block matches of Yoshi-Hashi vs. Omega, Yano vs. Nakajima, Elgin vs. Evil, Nagata vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Honma.

7/23 in Tokyo at the Machida Municipal Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has A block matches of Kojima vs. Tonga, Marufuji vs. Fale, Ishii vs. Goto, Okada vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Makabe.

7/24 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has B block matches with Yano vs. Omega, Elgin vs. Naito, Nagata vs. Evil, Honma vs. Yoshi-Hashi and Shibata vs. Nakajima.

7/25 in Fukushima at the Big Palette at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Ishii vs. Fale, Kojima vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Goto, Makabe vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Tonga.

7/26 in Nagano at the Big Hat at 5:30 a.m Eastern has a B block show with Nakajima vs. Evil, Honma vs. Omega, Nagata vs. Yoshi-Hashi, Yano vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Elgin.

7/28 in Tokorozawa at the Citizens Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Makabe vs. Kojima, Okada vs. Tonga, Goto vs. Sanada, Ishii vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Fale.

7/30 in Nagoya at the Aiichi Gym at 5 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil, Honma vs. Yano, Nagata vs. Nakajima, Elgin vs. Omega and Shibata vs. Naito.

7/31 in Gifu at Industrial Hall at 3 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Sanada vs. Fale, Ishii vs. Tonga, Kojima vs. Okada, Makabe vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Goto.

8/1 in Takamatsu at the City General Gym at 6 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Omega vs. Evil, Yoshi-Hashi vs. Nakajima, Nagata vs. Elgin, Honma vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Yano.

8/3 in Kagoshima at the Arena at 5:30 a.m Eastern has an A block show with Marufuji vs. Sanada, Goto vs. Tonga, Kojima vs. Fale, Makabe vs. Okada and Tanahashi vs. Ishii.

8/4 in Fukuoka at the Citizens Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Nagata vs. Yano, Elgin vs. Yoshi-Hashi, Honma vs. Evil, Nakajima vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Omega.

8/6 in Osaka at the Edion Arena at 5 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Sanada vs. Tonga, Kojima vs. Goto, Makabe vs. Fale, Okada vs. Ishii and Tanahashi vs. Marufuji.

8/7 in ****uoka at Act City at 3 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Elgin vs. Yano, Nagata vs. Omega, Naito vs. Evil, Honma vs. Nakajima and Shibata vs Yoshi-Hashi.

8/8 in Yokohama at the Bunka Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Marufuji vs. Tonga, Okada vs. Fale, Makabe vs. Goto, Ishii vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Kojima.

8/10 in Yamagata a the City Sports Center at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Yano vs. Evil, Yoshi-Hashi vs. Naito, Nakajima vs. Omega, Honma vs. Elgin and Shibata vs. Nagata.

8/12 at Tokyo Sumo Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has the final A block show with Fale vs. Tonga, Kojima vs. Sanada, Makabe vs. Ishii, Goto vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Okada.

8/13 at Tokyo Sumo Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has the final B block show with Yano vs. Yoshi-Hashi, Elgin vs. Nakajima, Nagata vs. Honma, Naito vs. Omega and Shibata vs. Evil.

****************************************************************

As timing would have it, the death of Muhammad Ali coming three weeks before the 40th anniversary of the Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight, combined with a book being released, saw a new perspective being looked at for what was generally viewed as a low point of sports when it happened.

On June 26, 1976 (the night before in the U.S. due to the time change) at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall, Ali, the most famous athlete in the world at the time, and Inoki, Japan’s biggest pro wrestling star at a time when pro wrestling was one of the country’s most popular sports, met in a mixed contest.

The idea of champions from wrestling and boxing going at it wasn’t new. In the early part of the 20th century, there were flirtations made, and usually ended once boxers started training with wrestlers and realized how limiting their skill set was in that type of a contest.

Still, during the 20s, there were lots of talks between the camps of Jack Dempsey, the world heavyweight boxing champion at the time and one of the legends of the sport, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis, pro wrestling’s biggest star. Lewis, who in many ways was the forerunner of Hulk Hogan when it came to telling tales, at times talked about the fight being signed, while Dempsey would deny it. But later articles came out detailing negotiations and the match was very seriously talked about at one point.

Many boxing champions, most notably Primo Carnera, a muscular giant who really couldn’t box who was manipulated to the title through questionable means and was later a big draw as a wrestler, and even greats like Joe Louis and Jersey Joe Walcott later did some wrestling. But that was after their boxing careers had ended.

Similarly, there were name pro wrestlers who did boxing matches. Archie Moore, in particular, one of the greatest boxers of all-time, late in his career did matches against Professor Roy Shire, Sterling Dizzy Davis and Iron Mike DiBiase. All were set up by pro wrestling angles. All are also listed in Moore’s career boxing record.

Shire faced Moore on September 8, 1956, in Ogden UT, losing via blood stoppage in the third round of which was almost surely a worked match. It was Moore 189th career fight and he was an all-time great, 39 years old at the time. Shire, five years younger, had never boxed. Shire and Moore remained close and Shire sometimes used Moore as a special referee on big shows when he promoted wrestling in Northern California in the 60s and 70s.

Moore faced Davis on March 9, 1959, in Odessa, TX, also winning by a third round blood stoppage, in what is also generally considered a worked match. Davis, who by that point was 44 years old and had never boxed, and at that time in his career was considered in absolutely no condition to fight. Davis was a childhood friend of Gorgeous George, who actually came up with some of the gimmick, in particular the somewhat effeminate actions and the fancy looking robes, that George used on national television years after Davis had them as part of his act as a drawing card in Texas and Mexico.

On March 15, 1963, Moore, then 46, just four months after being stopped by 20-year-old rising heavyweight Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, fought DiBiase, the adopted father of Ted DiBiase and a former star college football player and All-American heavyweight wrestler.

Newspaper reports of the match, held in Phoenix, indicate reporters went in believing it would be a “pro wrestling” version of a boxing match, and being surprised and saying that it was a very legitimate fight. Still, many who weren’t there naturally would look back historically point to the coincidence of the same finish, Moore winning via blood stoppage in the third round, as the Shire and Davis fights. DiBiase, who had also never boxed previously, became the answer to the trivia question as to who was “The Mongoose’s” last opponent in his 220 fight career.

In a sense, those matches are important historically as far as boxing goes, because Moore, considered by many boxing experts as among the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in history (the box.rec web site lists him as the greatest of all-time in that category), holds the all-time boxing record with 131 knockouts. But take away those three fights, and his 128 would only tie him for the record with Sam Langford.

Sports Illustrated in its early days in the early 1950s ran a piece asking who would win between Rocky Marciano, the heavyweight boxing champion at the time, and Lou Thesz, the pro wrestling world champion. The comments were split, with some feeling that Thesz was a fake and that Marciano would win, and others saying that while pro wrestling may be fake, that Thesz was a real wrestler, and in a contest like that, the wrestler would take the boxer down and it would be all over from there.

Still, before that time there were really only two somewhat significant matches of that type, the Pete Sauer (a noted shooter in pro wrestling who was later world champion as Ray Steele) quick win over Kingfish Levinsky in about 30 seconds and the December 2, 1963 mixed fight where 31-year-old Gene LeBell, a two-time national judo champion who was taught by Lou Thesz and Strangler Lewis, won over Milo Savage via choke in the fourth round.

Ali vs. Inoki is a match where history, because of what happened afterwards with the birth of MMA as a sport and with Ali becoming such a revered personality, has made the match viewed very differently today than what it was at the time.

Long considered a joke, it’s now starting to be considered an important piece of combat sports history, even more so with the new book, “Ali vs. Inoki: The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment,” by Josh Gross, which just came out

Make no mistake about it, and history may rewrite this forever, but this was always supposed to be a worked pro wrestling match and not a legendary sports contest or the historical predecessor to the birth of a major sport.

New Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid-1970s was in a heated war with All Japan Pro Wrestling for superiority. Both promotions had weekly prime time shows on national television. While the popularity of the sport was not at the level it was during the Rikidozan boom, where matches with the Sharpe Brothers, Lou Thesz and The Destroyer did mind-boggling ratings, Inoki and his All Japan counterpart, Giant Baba, were as big or bigger sports stars at the time in their culture than Tom Brady, Stephen Curry or LeBron James would be today. Even to this day, polls in Japan of the ten most famous sports stars of the 20th century always have Baba, Inoki and Rikidozan listed in the top seven and all three were listed in a poll in 2000 in Japan that was admittedly ridiculed for being among the 50 most influential people in the world of that century.

Baba, through his connections with the NWA, the dominant group of wrestling promoters at the time, was able to bring in the biggest American wrestling stars. At the time it was the concept of the American stars facing Baba, and his rising star tag team partner, Jumbo Tsuruta, that led to the most interest.

Inoki, blocked from mainstream talent, had to create his own stars, such as his big rival Tiger Jeet Singh, or dream matches with the likes of IWE champion Shozo Kobayashi and Korean legend Kintaro Oki.

One of the most famous aspects of the war was after Inoki did a legendary 60:00 draw with Billy Robinson in 1975, which many consider the greatest match of the era. Baba then contacted Robinson and offered him the biggest contract up to that point in time in pro wrestling history to jump sides. But Baba didn’t use that deal to build Robinson. Robinson had never lost via pinfall in a singles match in Japan and was a household name prior to the Inoki match from his late 60s run with the IWE as world champion. Instead, Baba, who, unlike Inoki, always put business before ego, insisted that Robinson lose cleanly to him, losing two of three falls, in their first meeting. Many have second-guessed that decision, not the idea Baba had an ego like Inoki, but because Baba felt it was important for All Japan to show he was the superior wrestler to Inoki. A decade later, things were different. When Baba signed Stan Hansen, who was Inoki’s big rival, even though Hansen had lost to Inoki, Baba protected Hansen and Hansen became generally considered the biggest American star in Japanese wrestling history.

But when Inoki signed Bruiser Brody, who was, with Hansen, one of Baba’s two biggest stars and who Baba at the time avoided beating, it was Inoki’s insistence on getting the first win over Brody (which Brody refused to do, always saying for business he should get the first win and Inoki should win the rematch), that led to that relationship falling apart.

Inoki & Baba started together, with Oki, as the three people Rikidozan picked to follow him as the biggest stars in wrestling. Inoki and Baba both debuted on September 30, 1960. They wrestled many times when both were starting out. Baba won every one of those matches.

Baba was a giant, at 6-foot-8, and was the tallest man ever to play Japanese Major League baseball, and he became the next big star after the death of Rikidozan. After Rikidozan’s death in 1963, Toyonobori was put in the top spot and business did not do well. Business rebounded when the JWA started building around Baba. Inoki left JWA to be the top star of an independent group, and gained a big baseball stadium win over Johnny Valentine. When that group failed, Inoki came back to the JWA as a superstar, but he was generally viewed as No. 2 to Baba.

When Baba & Inoki were together in the JWA, the legendary tag team that were on top during the 1968-71 boom period, while both were protected and were the two top stars, Baba was the International champion, the belt Rikidozan won from Thesz.

In 1972, Baba and Inoki had left JWA to form All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling, and to get into a war that had its ups and down. But the personal rivalry between the two was never settled prior to Baba’s death in 1999.

In 1975, while Inoki definitely had his supporters and fan base, most fans still remembered from a few years earlier, when both were in the same promotion, that Baba was the bigger star. And he still had access to the biggest name pro wrestlers of the era, like Bruno Sammartino, Jack Brisco, The Funk Brothers, Harley Race, and others.

Inoki and business manager Hisashi Shinma saw that Inoki was never going to be able to have the list of American victims to match with Baba. His wins over Kobayashi and Oki were huge, and to some fans his wins over Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz were bigger than Baba’s wins with the conception that Inoki was beating the real shooters, the two symbolic Gods of Pro Wrestling, while Baba was beating pro wrestlers. New Japan also, through a connection with Vince McMahon Sr., was able to bring in Andre the Giant as a regular Inoki opponent. But Inoki was never allowed to pin him and never got a clean win over Andre until 1985.

But they came up with a concept to take Inoki beyond just being the best pro wrestler in the world, but marketing him as the world’s greatest fighter. That’s where Ali came in. Baba might have rallied the country when he won the “real” world championship from Brisco in 1974 (the NWA title was considered the real world title than before everyone grew up on Rikidozan challenging but never being able to beat Thesz for it). But the NWA title was nothing compared to the world heavyweight boxing title, the greatest prize in combat sports, let alone Ali, the man who held it.

Vince McMahon Sr. and Sammartino had made overtures for a mixed match with Ali, thinking the box office potential at the time for a national closed-circuit fight. The first time they had that idea was in 1965 for a world title unification match with NWA champion Lou Thesz, but that fell apart in the negotiations. But closed-circuit had made boxing promoters rich using Ali as the draw, would be enormous. Ali’s people told them he’d do it for $6 million. Sammartino was of the belief it would be a legitimate contest, but McMahon Sr. was also one of the people who was involved with Ali vs. Inoki and made clear he wanted that fight to be a work.

Sammartino actually made the challenge at a boxing get-together where he and McMahon Sr. were invited through their connections with Willie Gilzenberg. Gilzenberg was the figurehead President of the WWWF, minority owner of Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the parent company, but was better known in the sports world as a noted boxing promoter in New Jersey.

McMahon Sr. went to the other major wrestling promoters with the idea of raising the $6 million and doing a national closed-circuit event, calling people like Verne Gagne, Mike LeBell, Eddie Graham, San Muchnick and others. But they rejected the idea. Gagne was bitter about the other promoters not working with him in promoting his movie “The Wrestler,” which had just come out. Others thought that why should they put up the money where McMahon would get all the credit as promoter, and it was a vehicle to make Sammartino, McMahon’s guy, into an even bigger star, when they all had their own local drawing cards to promote as No. 1.

McMahon also called New Japan Pro Wrestling, who then took the deal because with their connections, they were able to meet Ali’s price, although in the end they never came close.

Keep in mind that money and athletes purses were very different then. Ali made $2.5 million for the first fight with Joe Frazier in 1971, and the nation stood still that night for an event that was bigger than any Super Bowl. There just wasn’t that much money that could be made from an event in that era, given limitations of closed-circuit and the price that was charged for entertainment.

Don King had managed to get the government of Zaire and the city in Kinshasa (Kinshasa being the name of Shinsuke Nakamura’s finisher is directly due to Nakamura’s fondness for the Ali vs. George Foreman fight in that city) to put up $5 million for their fight. So this was going to be the biggest payday for one day that any athlete in history was to get. Ali was going through a nasty divorce. And it wouldn’t even be a real fight.

While Ali was the big score, he was actually the second “mixed martial arts” fight in remaking the story of Inoki’s career. Nearly five months earlier, on February 6, 1976, Inoki beat 1972 Olympic judo gold medalist Willem Ruska of Holland in a worked match that became legendary in the culture. That was a booked win for Inoki (in exchange for Ruska being pushed afterwards as a pro wrestling big star for big money by New Japan) to build to the Ali fight. While people today may look at Inoki vs. Ruska and see a poor pro wrestling match, in 1976 this was a gigantic event in Japanese culture and started to make Inoki bigger than Baba because he would challenge and beat real fighters from other sports. While beating Ruska made Inoki an even bigger star in Japan, the event got little interest outside the country.

The idea was that beating Ali would make Inoki a household name worldwide. In the rivalry between Inoki and Baba, a major point, besides Baba being the top guy in the late 60s when they were both stars and regular tag team partners, is that Baba was a huge star in the U.S., while Inoki was not. Because he was billed at 7-foot-3 and in his youth was a great athlete, Baba was a big star in the early 60s, in short order getting multiple shots at all three major American world champions, Sammartino (WWWF), Thesz (NWA) and The Destroyer (WWA). Inoki came to the U.S. but never got over to any great degree.

In a heated wrestling war built around the two big stars, beating Ali would put Inoki on a level Baba couldn’t touch. In doing so, New Japan would overcome its connection disadvantages and most likely, by virtue of having the biggest star, be the No. 1 group in Japan.

The Japanese figured the $6 million payday was enough to buy them what they wanted. And Ali’s side agreed to it.

Ali went to Japan to do a pro wrestling match. He had already done his pro wrestling angle with Gorilla Monsoon in Philadelphia to build it up on pro wrestling television shows. He got his pro wrestling wins on ABC’s Wide World of Sports over Kenny Jay and Buddy Wolff in Chicago to build the match up to the U.S. mainstream sports audience.

Decades later, when TV-Asahi was celebrating its anniversary and running down the highest rated shows in network history, that included a feature on Ali vs. Inoki, which did a 54.6 rating and about 60 million viewers. Somehow, the network had found an old audio tape recording of a meeting between the sides from a hotel a few weeks before the fight where they were working out the finish.

From most accounts, the idea was to book a finish that would protect Ali in losing, particularly in the U.S. market, while make Inoki look strong, particularly in the Japanese market.

The idea is that Ali would pummel Inoki with punches, and Inoki would blade. Ali, who had a reputation as a humanitarian, wouldn’t want to inflict more damage to Inoki, and would step back and want to stop the fight. At that moment, Inoki would deliver his enzuigiri, a kick to the back of the head, and Ali would go down and be pinned for a three count. To Americans, Ali was being a sportsman and the Japanese guy attacked him when he let his guard down. Plus the kick was to the back of the head, a spot where American sports fans saw it as illegal from growing up and learning about rabbit punches. For Japan, it would be your come-from-behind win, Inoki using his karate skills to overcome the greatest boxer of all-time.

Inoki would become the biggest pro wrestling star in the world, and be able to work the U.S. on top as the man who beat Ali. New Japan would outdistance All Japan. And Inoki would surpass Baba in the eyes of the older fans who remembered how things were five years earlier when both were on the same team.

Ali only had short time to promote the fight. He had a heavyweight title defense against Jimmy Young on April 30, 1976, winning a unanimous decision in a fight he didn’t look good in, and really won more because of his name. On May 24, 1976, he retained his title beating Richard Dunn, who nobody took as a serious challenge to him, in Munich, Germany via fifth round knockout. He was scheduled for a September 28, 1976, title defense at Yankee Stadium next against Ken Norton, who he had split two previous fights with and was considered a major title defense.

In the end, Ali had second thoughts. He apparently thought that losing with all the talk would be akin to participating in a fixed boxing match, even though earlier that month he had no issues in winning in his other matches or putting Monsoon over in the angle.

In the days before the fight, it nearly fell apart. Reports that the fight was in grave jeopardy hit the U.S. The reason, Ali refusing to do the job, and Inoki’s side not wanting to put up that kind of money for Inoki to lose, were never revealed publicly.

In the end, as shocking as this was, the agreement was to do a legit fight. Since Ali was the star, and so much money was spent in promotions, the end result was a rule set that was described by Sammartino at the time as Inoki trying to fight with his hands cuffed and his legs cuffed as well.

The terrible fight, and it was, was largely dictated by the rules. Ali was allowed to box, as well as punch on the ground. Inoki couldn’t punch, since he wasn’t wearing gloves. They also banned him from using karate chops to different parts of the body. In hindsight, people 40 years ago knew nothing about fighting and believed karate chops were deadly. The enzuigiri was banned as well, as well all submission moves, suplexes and slams. Inoki could take Ali down and pin him for three seconds. That appeared to really be about all he could do, but Ali could get a break or a standup by grabbing the ropes. A lot of people believed Inoki would still be able to take him down easily and Ali would have no chance, not realizing that as long as Ali stayed near the ropes, he was in no harm.

In Japan, as shown by the television rating, this was a gigantic event. In the U.S., it was something less.

It got some media coverage, but nowhere near what an Ali boxing match would get. Most sportswriters believed it was going to be fake pro wrestling. And certainly, the Monsoon angle and the Jay and Wolff matches would tell you that. Howard Cosell, who announced the Jay and Wolff fights for ABC outright called them a farce, decried them as they were going on, and kept saying that in all this nonsense, Ali could get hurt. Any sports fan watching either the Monsoon angle or the two wrestling matches would just see it as Ali doing fake pro wrestling. Ali actually took to pro wrestling fairly well for the time give his lack of experience, and in his short foray, he was the best promo in the entire business.

Vince McMahon Sr. and Bob Arum were the main promoters in the U.S. Unlike most of the closed-circuit events in the U.S., where Arum would go through local boxing promoters, McMahon Sr., went through his contacts of wrestling promoters, with the idea they all had weekly television to promote the fights. Plus his office would send them interviews to put on their television shows done by Ali and Fred Blassie to promote the fight. McMahon Sr. appointed Blassie as Ali’s manager. It worked because Blassie was a big-name heel manager in the Northeast, and was a huge star in Japan in the 1960s.

Most of the promoters, with their own cards to promote, didn’t push the show all that hard. Outside of the Northeast, where the success was more due to the Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen grudge match which drew more than 32,000 fans came to Shea Stadium (and keep in mind that children under the age of 14 were not allowed to attend at that time), it didn’t do that well on closed circuit.

On April 26, 1976, Sammartino was defending his title against Hansen. During the match, Hansen went for a bodyslam, and accidentally dropped Sammartino on the top of his head. Sammartino suffered a broken neck and was told that if it wasn’t for his powerful neck muscles, he could have been paralyzed. Still, not knowing the seriousness of his injuries, Sammartino got up from the fall, continued the match, and did his fiery comeback like nothing was wrong. Hansen hit Sammartino with his lariat. Sammartino bladed, and lost the match via blood stoppage although he was pounding on Hansen as the match was being called, to build for a no stopping for blood rematch three weeks later. In the dressing room, when the adrenaline wore off, he realized he was seriously hurt and was hospitalized.

The big show was only two months later, far too early for Sammartino to return.

“Vince (Sr.) was calling me up every day,” recalled Sammartino. “He had committed so much money for the closed-circuit. I don’t know how much money he committed, but it must have been a considerable amount, and he was very concerned that this thing was a bomb. Vince kept calling me, saying, `If I don’t make the match (Sammartino vs. Hansen), we’ll be ruined. I said, `Vince, I’m in the hospital with a broken neck.’ He kept begging. He said, `As long as we get you in the ring, we won’t do anything to your neck in any kind of danger’ and I okayed it. My God, when my doctor found out about it and my family found out about it, they said, `Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind.’ But we pulled it off.”

Whether true or not, Sammartino was told that so much was tied up into the fight that if it bombed, the company could go over. That was the line it took to finally convince Sammartino that he had to do the match.

Sammartino was promised his usual percentage (Sammartino’s contract was that he got six percent of all house shows except Madison Square Garden where he’d get five percent). He was also promised three percent of the closed-circuit revenue from all of McMahon’s cities. He never got a dime from that. After the fact, McMahon told him that Arum had balked on the deal.

Sammartino came in, attacked Hansen right away and threw punches and kicks and Hansen quickly bailed out. It was all he could do and Sammartino, out of shape for perhaps the only time in his career, was afraid the public would hate the match. Newspapers listed the match at 10:19, but Sammartino believes it went closer to two minutes. In the end, they were happy that Sammartino was back, cheered wildly as he pummeled Hansen causing him to quit in his quest for the title. It set up a rematch on August 7, 1976, where a healthier Sammartino bloodied up and destroyed Hansen, ending their main event program. But the reputation turned Hansen, who was a largely unknown 320-pound former college football player at West Texas State, into a worldwide headliner as the guy who broke Sammartino’s neck.

By January, McMahon Sr. booked Hansen to New Japan, where he quickly became Inoki’s leading regular rival. For most of the next 24 years, there was no bigger American pro wrestling star in Japan that Hansen.

Most New York coverage of the event talked about how terrible the Ali vs. Inoki match was, but that the fans at Shea left happy because they all came to see Sammartino return and get his revenge on Hansen.

The original idea was for three boxer vs. wrestler fights, with Ali vs. Inoki from Tokyo, Andre the Giant vs. Chuck Wepner from Shea Stadium in New York and NWA world champion Terry Funk vs. Henry Clark (a ranked heavyweight boxer who was the California state champion at the time). The latter fight fell through. Clark was knocked out by Earnie Shavers on March 28, 1976 in Paris, although the fight may have been through before that. Funk and Clark were in the ring some time before the fight however for something taped that aired on television where the first round was shown but nobody ever spoke of it again. Andre and Wepner did a worked match which Andre won via count out after he threw Wepner over the top rope at 1:17 of the third round. Newspaper reports at the time commented that Andre, billed as 7-foot-4 and 424 pounds at the time, appeared to be more like 6-foot-9 and 370 pounds (he was actually a little bigger than that, but Wepner, who was a real 6-foot-5, was going to make Andre not look as tall in comparison, although the weight difference was probably 175 pounds or more. Nothing about the match itself was real, although there was a post-match brawl that looked like a wrestling pull-apart riot that evidently had some real moments. Wepner did clock Andre with a real punch and Andre was stunned for a split second. Gorilla Monsoon, who was in Andre’s corner, was throwing boxing people around that were in the ring.

The local promotions would book an undercard, using the territorial stars, and then the show would finish with Andre and Ali’s fights, except on the West Coast, where, due to the time difference, the local matches would follow the two big matches.

In most cases, the promoters pushed their own talent. Clips of Inoki beating Ruska, Ali doing interviews, Fred Blassie doing interviews and Andre doing interviews were sent to all the major promoters. Most gave the event only a nominal push.

The mentality seemed to be ‘Why push guys who weren’t in the territory?’ It was the same mentality where few promoters got behind Gagne’s movie. In particular, promoters didn’t seem to want to push Inoki, who wasn’t going to be coming to most of those cities. Plus, there was the political issue as many of the NWA promoters were aligned with Baba, and thus, Inoki was the political enemy, even though New Japan worked with the NWA office in Los Angeles and with McMahon.

Roy Shire in San Francisco aired one Ali promo the Saturday before the show, and himself offered a rebuttal saying how Ali with his “buggy-whip arms” was going to be destroyed by the 6-foot-3, 270 pound Inoki (who in reality was roughly the same size as Ali, both being about 220-225 pounds).

Gagne promoted a three-match live event at Chicago Stadium, an opener where Greg Gagne beat Bob Orton Jr., followed by **** the Bruiser & The Crusher, the AWA tag team champions, beating Bobby Heenan’s team of Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum. The main event saw Nick Bockwinkel retain the AWA title going to a 30:00 draw with Verne Gagne.

For whatever reason, unadvertised, when I showed up that night at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, way earlier than the announced start time, they aired the AWA matches on the screen. While San Francisco a few years later was an AWA city, at the time the fan base, a mix of wrestling and boxing fans, didn’t really react to any of the guys, even though several of them were stars in the territory years earlier.

While Bruiser & Crusher were the legends of Chicago as the beer drinking street fighters, to the San Jose crowd, they were old men who, by the San Francisco standard of working, were awful. People laughed, loudly, at how fake the match looked. Gagne vs. Bockwinkel was much better, a very good, but not great match. Gagne was 50 years old by this time, and while he kept himself positioned as the supreme technical wrestler and top babyface I the Midwest, unless you grew up with him and the name Verne Gagne, he wasn’t that impressive. Bockwinkel, then 41, at that point was very much a top tier worker.

Gagne, when it was over, acted frustrated, noted it had taken him a year to get this rematch and that he felt Bockwinkel would never give him another. The storyline is that Gagne was on the verge of winning when time ran out. Usually a title match would be 60 minutes, but because of the time frame of the Andre and Ali fights, they had to book it for a shorter time limit. It was cut to 30 minutes and time ran out on him. Bockwinkel, always the master of promos, said that Gagne had his chance and saw no reason to give him another one, and Heenan was even more inflammatory.

There was many the other cities hosting live shows that were closed-circuited across their territory.

Paul Boesch in Houston got NWA champion, Terry Funk, in a title defense with Rocky Johnson, which, ironically, would have made far more sense to air in California since Johnson was a big local favorite in Northern California and also a headliner and former Americas champion in Southern California.

In an interesting trivia note, one of the biggest angles in Memphis wrestling history stemmed from this night. With all the talk of Ali vs. Inoki, Jerry Jarrett wanted to do a worked boxer vs. wrestler feud, using his top star, Jerry Lawler. Johnson, the father of Dwayne Johnson had been a top pro wrestler, and a headliner in many territories, and also had a boxing background, including sparring with Ali, George Foreman and Clark. He had quick hands and quick feet, and a great physique. Jerry Jarrett noted today such an angle could never possibly work because of communications, but he was able to bring in Rocky Johnson and bill him as a pro boxer who was a knockout artist, given a made up record as well as a mythical ranking in the top five contenders to Ali’s title. The local media covered it like Lawler was facing a very real opponent from another sport, and as part of the buildup, Johnson was specifically said to have never been a pro wrestler. Four days before pro wrestler Johnson faced Funk, on June 21 at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, a sellout crowd of 11,188 , saw Lawler beat Johnson in a wrestler vs. boxer showdown. A few weeks later, in a rematch, Johnson won by knocking Lawler out in the sixth round before 10,138 fans. Several weeks later, Johnson was taught to be a pro wrestler and became one of the hottest babyfaces in the territory.

The Omni in Atlanta was booked with Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr., the classic wrestling rivalry in its 7th year going strong. They also did a 30 minute draw. This aired throughout the Southeast, as well as a number of other NWA cities, including St. Louis.

Indianapolis had a live show with WWA champion The Strangler (John Hill aka Guy Mitchell) going to a 30 minute draw with Wilbur Snyder, and also aired the matches from Chicago since Bruiser was the area’s biggest star.

Fritz Von Erich ran a show in Dallas at the Sportatorium.

Mike LeBell ran at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, with Gory Guerrero vs. Roddy Piper as the main event. That was built up as boxer vs. wrestler, since Gory, then 55, was known as the master wrestler. Even though Piper was the area’s top heel, during this period he cut promos for Ali, who was made the heel on the wrestling shows and Inoki the babyface, and did have a boxing background. They did their own wrestlers vs boxer match that the wrestler won.

Detroit headlined with The Sheik vs. Pampero Firpo, and had a 23-year-old Randy Poffo (Randy Savage) wrestle veteran Swede Hanson in the opener.

Calgary went with International tag team champions Mr. Hito & Heigo Hamaguchi (later Animal Hamaguchi, who became a big star in Japan as a wrestler, and an even bigger star as a wrestling coach for the world champion Japanese women’s wrestling team and father of multi-time world champion and Olympic medailst Kyoko Hamaguchi) defending against Big John Quinn & Paddy Ryan.

While much of Florida got the Omni show, they did run a house show in Tallahassee with Dusty Rhodes & Buddy Colt (attempting to make a comeback after a plane crash) & King Curtis Iaukea faced The Assassin & The Missouri Mauler & Rock Hunter.

Fans in Santa Clara were throwing chairs and nearly rioted starting in the 11th round and becoming even more when it was over. Roy Shire, at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, seeing how unruly the crowd was in the most dangerous arena on the West Coast, as well as at his other arenas, gave a pep talk to his wrestlers to save the show. Broadcast through most of the West Coast, the fans saw Don Muraco & Masa Saito beat Pedro Morales & Tony Garea in a good match due to the heels, while Pat Patterson beat United States champion The Great (Mr.) Fuji in two of three falls in a non-title match which was clearly the best match we saw of the entire night. Patterson managed to get a quote in Sports Illustrated in the build up saying how he would have leg dived Inoki and immediately put him in the figure four leglock and winning would be easy.

Sammartino was not a good soldier in promoting the main event. Even though WWWF and McMahon by this point had a business relationship with Inoki, supplying him talent, Sammartino was loyal to the other side of the war in Japan. He considered Baba a personal friend, and never liked Inoki, stemming from working with both during the 60s. To show how valuable McMahon felt Sammartino was, he had become the U.S. booker for talent to New Japan, but his biggest star and champion, the guy who Inoki would most want to face at the time, refused to go. Sammartino told McMahon that he would never work in opposition to Baba. McMahon still never considered switching the title.

Sammartino also didn’t like Ali. He felt Ali was a racist when he would talk about interracial marriage on television. And when they did meet, it didn’t go well. There was the challenge at the boxing dinner as well as the fact that for every kid growing up in the Northeast, they had at some point gotten into a schoolyard debate over who would win a fight, Sammartino or Ali.

Once, in Philadelphia when both were doing interviews, Ali was talking about how he could beat any wrestler.

“He looked at me, and said, `and I know I could beat Sammartino, too.’ I said, `There’s a ring over there, why don’t you try it.’ Probably, he was just clowning. But I wasn’t a big fan of him, right or wrong. I had seen something about him. He came to Pittsburgh to make a speech and he came across as too much of a racist. He was condemning black men or women who would marry white men or women. He bragged about how he had all kinds of women, but he would never touch a white woman. To me, that was pretty racist. I didn’t know how to take the guy. I respected him as a boxer. I watched a lot of his fights. I don’t believe he was the greatest fighter who ever lived, because I’d seen Joe Louis fight on tape. I saw Ali fight Doug Jones, a light heavyweight, and Doug Jones beat him. The people booed like hell when they raised Ali’s hand, and that was before his suspension. He lost to (Leon) Spinks, lost to (Trevor) Berbick, who weren’t great fighters. Joe Frazier, those were tough fights, great fights, and he did well, but he lost once to him. The guy that nobody ever talks about anymore is the guy who never lost a fight, Rocky Marciano, 49-0 with 43 knockouts. But I hate when people make comparisons, about so-and-so being the greatest because you don’t know. Maybe Ali could have beaten Louis. Maybe a guy like Ali would have beaten him on points, you don’t know.”

Sammartino, when asked about the fight in media interviews beforehand, said that he considered Inoki a third-rate wrestler, that Baba was considered the real champion by the Japanese people, but also that he believed a wrestler would beat a boxer.

The rule changes didn’t take place until the days before the fight.

In an interview Sammartino did right before the fight started, with Bill Apter, that was released for the first time this past week, he said, “I really resent the rules. It’s not fair to say it’s a fighter against a wrestler. The demands that Ali has made, it’s like Inoki is handcuffed and his legs cuffed as well. Ali can hit him when he’s down. The wrestler can’t put on any punishing holds. He’s not allowed to slam him. I resent they (Inoki’s side) went for such rules. If Ali should win, they’ll say that a boxer beat a wrestler, when it really was a boxer beat a handcuffed man who wasn’t allowed to do anything.”

Most of the fight was Inoki laying on his back and kicking at Ali’s legs. In those days, there was no kickboxing in the U.S., let alone MMA. Nobody understood leg kicks. In Japan they didn’t really understand it either. Watching the fight today, while still a terrible fight, Inoki clearly won. Inoki landed 78 kicks to Ali’s legs, which swelled up and bruised up badly. Sammartino recalled them putting lotion on Ali’s legs to prevent the swelling from getting bad and that only made it more difficult for Inoki to grab them without slipping off. Ali landed six punches in 15 rounds. Inoki noted later that while the fight was a bomb, he considered it the high point of his career, sharing the ring for 15 rounds with Ali and putting himself in danger of fighting the best boxer in the world. Others weren’t nearly as kind, feeling that both fighters never put themselves in any danger.

Sammartino noted that when the tape came out this past week, he’s heard that people were very critical of his commentary. But in 1976, that is exactly what everyone thought of the fight. By round 11, Sammartino said they should suspend both men’s fighting license. By round 13, Sammartino said they should withhold both men’s purses because they were cheating the public. At the conclusion, he said, “I would arrest them both. It was the most disgusting, disgusting, I can’t even come up with the words. They should both be barred from being in the ring again. They should both be suspended and fined ugly.”

Four decades later, he said, “I listened to it (his commentary) since it was new to me (Sammartino said it was so long ago he’d forgotten he and Apter had done the tape in the dugout of Shea Stadium watching on the big screens), and it came back to me. To be perfectly honest, whether anybody agrees or disagrees, that thing was horrendous. You were a kid. I wasn’t a kid. I was wrestling that night. I was older than both Inoki and Ali were. I’m there watching and it I was frustrated. Here’s the great opportunity where wrestling could gain some real respect and it was wasted. I believed that a wrestler will beat a fighter any day. And I still believe that, without question.”

Not much happened in the fight. Inoki mostly stayed on his back and stayed away. In the fifth round, he clinched and went for a takedown but Ali grabbed the ropes immediately to break it. In the six round, Inoki got a takedown, but Ali again grabbed the ropes. Frustrated, Inoki threw an elbow, which was illegal and was docked a point.

In the seventh, Inoki tripped Ali, but Ali scrambled up on his own before Inoki could cover him.

In the tenth round, Inoki got inside and clinched, but Ali again grabbed the ropes.

In the 13th round, the most eventful, Inoki charged at Ali, but Ali was against the ropes. Ali then made faces at Inoki and stuck out his tongue. Inoki grabbed Ali in a position for a Greco-Roman back suplex, the Lou Thesz finisher, but that move was illegal to begin with, and Ali grabbed the ropes right away. Karl Gotch, Inoki’s trainer and second, who was 52 at the time but still thought by everyone in Japan and insiders as the guy who would have destroyed both of them in a real fight, glared at Ali after Ali grabbed his fist and seemingly threatened him. In another clinch, Inoki kneed Ali in the groin. Both knees and groin strikes were illegal. Ali went to ref Gene LeBell and started cursing, saying it was ********. Ali mad, threatened to walk out right there. LeBell grabbed Ali and told him to return to the ring, and tried to joke telling him he can’t leave, “Because I’ve got money on you.” Ali wasn’t amused. Ali was mad and threw two punches that landed in that round before Inoki dropped to his back and started kicking at Ali’s legs for the rest of the round.

Ali threw his best punch in the 14th round. Little or nothing happened in the 15th round and it was over.

The scores were then read. Judge Kokichi Endo, the pro wrestling judge (Endo was a major star as Rikidozan’s tag team partner in the early days of Japanese wrestling) scored it 74-72 for Ali. Boxing judge Kou Toyama scored is 72-68 for Inoki. The third judge was LeBell, who, because of deducting points from Inoki in the sixth round for the illegal elbow, the eighth round for reasons nobody seems to recall, and the 13th round for the low blow, had a 71-71 scorecard and the fight was ruled a draw.

Around the U.S., fans were furious. Not only was the fight terrible, but nobody won.

Ironically, viewed today, with knowledge of leg kicks, Inoki would have probably won 12 of the 15 rounds.

In most of the U.S., the show was considered a bomb. There were about 250,000 tickets sold in closed-circuit locations around the country. Still, there is no question this promotion was the predecessor for both the first Starrcade promote by Jim Crockett Jr., seven years later, and the first WrestleMania promoted by the son of Vince McMahon nine years later. The big difference was that the current Vince McMahon has his own television all over the country and promoted the show like crazy. It connected more with wrestling fans, even though it didn’t draw the boxing fan audience that Ali vs. Inoki did.

It was promoted ten times as effectively, and even had more mainstream coverage because of Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, Ali and Billy Martin.

They sold 400,000 closed circuit tickets, but that show was promoted ten times as effectively. In St. Louis, which was a wrestling capital, both shows ended up about the same, doing almost identical crowds of 3,000 at Kiel Auditorium. The idea the numbers were even close when the local promoters were for the most part not behind the show was astounding, which largely speaks to the popularity of pro wrestling in 1976 and Ali’s drawing power with sports fans. That’s even with much of the boxing establishment ridiculing he fight, and the general media feeling was it wouldn’t be real.

Lawsuits followed, as Ali ended up only getting $2 million for the fight. Inoki was promised $1.8 million, but ended up getting $400,000. New Japan was reeling. Instead of being the nail in Baba’s coffin and the ascension of Inoki into Japan’s biggest sports star and national hero, and pro wrestling’s biggest worldwide name, he was the guy who laid on his back for 15 rounds, regardless of the rules. Still, Inoki kept winning his pro wrestling matches. New Japan brought in boxers, karate fighters, judo guys and kickboxers for Inoki to beat, including Wepner and later Leon Spinks. Inoki ended up bigger than ever, and New Japan surpassed All Japan for a time. New Japan had a golden period of massive business from 1981 to 1983 as clearly the No. 1 pro wrestling company in the world, build around Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu and the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama. Running major arenas every night, they sold out 90 percent of their shows in 1982. But as was the case every time Inoki got successful, a scandal brought him back down and threatened the future of the company. Inoki ended up as a huge drawing card in a number of countries around the world. But he never achieved the popularity he had hoped for in the U.S.

Ali was never the same as a boxer. Whether it was the Frazier “Thrilla in Manila,” fight, the long-term wear-and-tear, the kidney problems or the leg damage he took in this fight, or a combination of everything, he was a different fighter when he stepped into the ring with Norton. Many believe Norton won that fight as well. When the fight ended, the announcers calling the fight said they would be very surprised if Norton hadn’t won the championship. But all three judges gave the fight to Ali. Ali never knocked anyone out after the Inoki fight, although he won his next three fights via decision before his upset loss to Spinks.

The fight was largely forgotten in the U.S., except as a point of ridicule. “Remember that time Muhammad Ali fought that Japanese wrestler?” as the answer to trivia questions such as “What was his name?” or “What was the lowest point of Ali’s career?”

In Japan, the fight after a few years of being remembered as a travesty–the crowd at Budokan Hall that destroyed all pro wrestling gate records were every bit as mad at Inoki and Ali as American fans were–it later was viewed by mythical proportions. As great as he really was, Ali became an even greater fighter in hindsight because he became so much larger-than-life. Inoki’s career also became far more legendary because of his decades on top and on television. People who never saw the fight, and only saw photos or read stories about it, heard and were told about how Inoki and Ali went 15 rounds to a draw in the battle of the greatest boxer of all-time against the greatest wrestler. It must have been epic, right? Whether pro wrestling was or wasn’t real, Inoki drew with Ali, he beat Ruska, Wepner, Willie Williams, Spinks and other martial artists. He was viewed as Japan’s greatest fighting machine.

The generation that grew up with that Inoki, and the teachings of people like Gotch, like Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki, Akira Maeda, Satoru Sayama, Nobuhiko Takada, became the stars and promoters of shoot style pro wrestling. That transitioned into the heyday of MMA and K-1 kickboxing. It would be an overstatement to say Ali vs. Inoki was responsible for all that, but it would be very accurate to say Inoki’s mixed matches, the most famous being with Ali, were the direct cultural reason this all happened.

During the heyday of the Pride Fighting Championships, Inoki was the face of the brand and even though retired, by far its most popular fighter. But things have changed in the last decade. The generation that saw Inoki in his prime and grew up with him got older. The ones who read about his 1976 fights and saw him at the end as a pro wrestler also got older. The generation of kids told by their parents about watching his matches are grown up now and not telling their kids about him, because it’s not their first-hand knowledge.

Now 73, there is a younger generation in Japan who barely knows who he is. But still, to this day, if you ask people in Japan what was the most famous wrestling match of all-time, unless they are very old and remember Rikidozan’s matches with Lou Thesz, Fred Blassie, The Destroyer or The Sharpe Brothers, the answer that will be said most often is Ali vs. Inoki.

But even more, ask people about the first MMA fight in history, and that fight will be mentioned immediately. While it’s far from the case, and in reality shouldn’t even be considered because of what it was truly supposed to be, the fact it even happened made it so.

For the same reason, in recent weeks, with the death of Ali and the book, major media in the U.S. has looked back at this fight as the fight that inspired mixed martial arts. And with the book, the fight may also, 40 years after it happened and was viewed as a farce, be considered one of the most important historical moments that led to and predated the birth of a major sport.

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The hotly-debated question regarding the future of Trevor Mann seems to have been answered in a swerve when Prince Puma aka Ricochet, first won the Lucha Underground title, but then lost a retirement match at the Ultima Lucha Tres tapings in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles on 6/26.

What’s notable is that he didn’t lose the much promoted match with Johnny Mundo. After winning the Lucha Underground championship in a match where he put up his career, with the idea that if he signed a new deal he’d get the championship but if he didn’t he’d lose the match, he didn’t sign a new deal and still won the match on what appeared to be his last night with the company. After the match with Mundo was over, Dario Cueto came out and said that Pentagon Dark was cashing in the Gift of the Gods championship (which he won the day before, likely the week before when it stuff airs in 2017). Cueto noted that this violates the rules where to cash in your title shot you have to wait a week, because it’s stupid to have a big match without promoting it. But he then said “I make the rules anyway so it doesn’t matter.” Cueto then announced the Puma vs. Pentagon Dark match is a loser must retire match. Vampiro interfered leading to Pentagon winning. So in a sense, Puma got screwed on the way out, and Pentagon, the company’s most popular wrestler with the exception of Rey Mysterio Jr., stole the title in heel fashion but the face he screwed isn’t even there to get revenge. While the swerve of having Puma win the title for a split second may have been okay if the goal was to work the 300 fans in the building into thinking Puma was staying, only to have it taken away (which really only would work in reverse, in the sense Puma loses, it’s restarted and then he wins and stays). But this is supposed to be for the television audience, and by the summer of 2017, none of this will matter.

While some noted WWE just did the same thing one week earlier, the difference is the WWE booking made sense to build future storylines. This would be the exact same thing as if Rollins was leaving the promotion, beat Reigns (who wasn’t being suspended) to win the title, then lost to Ambrose, who turned heel on him, but he’s not even coming back to wrestle Ambrose again. This also built a very logical next major feud, except it’s not happening.

Pentagon then did a victory speech.

Puma then came out, and this may or may not end up on television, where he gave an emotional speech thanking everyone for believing in him, mentioning the fans and the crew. The entire locker room came out and celebrated while fans chanted, “Thank you Puma.”

It is theoretically possible that Puma could come back without a mask as Ricochet, and he’s far more effective without the mask. But the story from backstage was that Mann, 27, is going to accept the WWE offer rather than sign a new contract here. He was offered a lucrative deal to stay, which, with his other income from working indies and New Japan, would have made him higher paid than the vast majority working WWE, and without the road expenses. It’s not known what WWE offered to get him, but it was known they wanted him bad and were looking at raiding the promotion for anyone not under a long-term contract. I know of people looking at booking him on dates and he was taking them several months in advance and talking about having to wait to commit to bookings at the end of the year based on New Japan dates, which would indicate he’s staying there at least until the end of the year.

A lot of people have debated the decision, not knowing which way he’d go. He is friends with a lot of people in WWE, and lives in Orlando with girlfriend Tessa Blanchard and Apollo Crews. Blanchard, got a tryout here but hasn’t been used on television, and also has been used on NXT television as enhancement talent, but isn’t under contract there.

As things stand right now he will be going to WWE when he’s legally allowed. As noted before, the standard contracts for Lucha Underground performers don’t allow them to work for another television promotion until six months after the last episode they appear in airs. In theory, that would be the end of 2017, because the 6/26 show taped show was at last word scheduled to air sometime next summer. My gut is that he’ll be able to get out sooner than that just because it’s pretty much unfair to make him wait that long, plus in WWE, he won’t be going as a masked wrestler so it’s not a confusion in the marketplace issue. He will be taking indie dates and continue to work for New Japan until the time he is allowed to sign with WWE. But this also limits how much New Japan would want to invest in him, even with his talent.

Nothing was said to talent in specific about dates, but there was talk among the crew that they will start taping season four in January and wrestlers were given the impression there would be tapings in the winter. That gives them six months to sign needed deals and procure money to film another season. The show’s ratings in season two increased greatly from season one, but started falling off after the Aztec Warfare match. Still, the show makes no economic sense, often drawing less than 100,000 viewers and spending in excess of $400,000 per episode on production. The idea is to build up characters with the idea of making them big enough stars to do a movie and also merchandise it as a franchise, but they will never be strong enough to do that off El Rey. Overall viewership was way down in season two with the loss of UniMas, and they didn’t even have a Spanish language broadcast. The deals that were considered the key, a Spanish language deal with Univision in the U.S. and Televisa in Mexico both never happened.

Ultima Lucha Tres, taped this past weekend, was said to be more exciting than Ultima Lucha Dos. I believe the air dates for Ultima Lucha Dos are 7/6 and 7/13.

The Ultima Lucha two-hour show will be part of a crazy night of television. UFC has a live show likely for five hours plus on FS 1. Lucha Underground has its two-hour Ultima Lucha Dos show from 8-10 p.m. WWE will have NXT that night with the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Finn Balor match, and then have the first show of the Cruiserweight Classic immediately following. The WWE’s two hours in first-run go head-to-head with Ultimate Lucha in the 8-10 p.m. Eastern time zone block. John Cena also hosts the ESPYs that night.

Fans for the final taping were really hot. At 8:30 a.m., they start to give out tickets, and for the 6/26 show, fans started getting in line at 1 a.m. camping out all night to get the best available seats.

The third season’s Ultimate Lucha is probably going to be two weeks, with a one hour show followed by a two-hour final episode. The way the interviews were structured, it appears it could even be two straight two-hour shows. An interesting note is that Rey Mysterio Jr. was not at either taping. This weekend was his daughter Aliyah’s 15th birthday (the one in the skit with C.M. Punk years ago), her Quinceanera, which is a big deal in the Latin culture. He’d asked for the weekend off a long time ago. I’m under the impression he has a match on the show that was taped earlier.

I’d been told a few days before that the booking was really gonzo with them doing all kids of crazy ideas that really made little sense, and well, it was your independent wacky booker show that has no concept of building anything and just throwing out idea after idea.

Taped on 6/25:

1. The Mack won a Battle Royal over Rabbit Tribe, P.J. Black, Ricky Mandel, Joey Ryan, Argenis, Vinny Massaro, Mascarita Sagrada, Son of Madness and Pimpinela Escarlata. The winner of the match was to get a unique opportunity. After Mack won, Dario Cueto announced that Mack would be in a trios title match “next week” against champions Drago & Steve Pain & Luchasaurus. Cueto said he would be the one picking Mack’s partners, and then announced they would be Killshot and Dante Fox, who were wrestling later on this show and were feuding. Cueto said they’d be his partners if they both survive their match.

2. Ivelisse beat Catrina. They brawled all over the building. Ivelisse bled, but it may have been stage blood since it was so far out of view of the fans. They fought on top of the office and on the stairs. Both were tearing each other’s clothes off. Ivelisse eventually got the magic rock from Catrina and hit her with it for the pin.

3. Fenix beat Marty the Moth Martinez in a mask vs. hair match. They had a number of near falls. Mariposa, Marty’s supposed sister, came out. But she then turned on him. I guess all the brother vs. brother feud flops in wrestling don’t teach any lessons. Marty tore up Fenix’s mask. Fenix then did a massive blade job. Marty got scissors and was looking to stab Fenix. Melissa Santos, who Marty has the hots for and protects Fenix, then came out. Marty tried to kiss her. Santos kicked Marty in the groin and Fenix kicked him in the head and got the pin after a 450. After the match, Marty was handcuffed with his writs to the guard rail while they shaved Marty’s head.

4. Pentagon Dark beat Son of Havoc in a ladder match for the vacant Gift of the Gods title. The crowd was split here because these are two of the favorites, but Pentagon seemed to have the support of about two-thirds of the crowd. Pentagon won the title after a choke slam through a table.

5. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Famous B beat El Texano Jr. in a handicap match. The stipulation here is that if Texano lost, then Famous B would get his contract. Famous B still had a broken arm from Pentagon Dark here, so he had Wagner Jr. in the match.

6. Aerostar pinned Kevin Kross. This was a dark match.

7. Killshot beat Dante Fox in a Hell of War match. This was a 2/3 fall match and said to be the most brutal match by far in the history of the promotion, even beating out the Vampiro vs. Pentagon match from Ultima Lucha Uno. It was a two of three fall match where the first fall was a first blood match, the second fall was a street fight and the third fall was a stretcher match. Among the weapons involved included tables, ladders, chairs, broken glass and barbed wire boards. Fox (AR Fox) won the first fall when he drove Killshot (Sean Strickland) into a large plate of glass in the ring. Killshot was bleeding heavily from the back. Killshot won the second fall with an electric chair driver onto broken glass, which caused Fox to bleed buckets. In the third fall, a large pit with chairs and tables was wheeled out to the floor entrance. Both men fought where the band played and Killshot hit Fox with a bottle, and he fell off the stage into the pit. Fox was then carried out on a stretcher to lose. Fox was taken out in an ambulance in front of the fans.

For 6/26:

1. Matt Striker won a $100,000 Battle Royal. I think he won. They had a Battle Royal and it appeared to come down to Fenix and Dr. Wagner Jr. Famous B was hiding the entire match and jumped in and threw both guys out, doing the Bobby Heenan spot. But that wasn’t enough. Matt Striker came in to interview Famous B, but then instead threw out Famous B and was announced as the winner. I believe this was all a dark match. Mascarita Sagrada was seriously injured either in this match or the Battle Royal the day before. Not sure the severity but it didn’t look good. One person noted he was lucky because at least being hurt here, the company will pay his medical costs, which wouldn’t happen in Mexico.

2. Pimpinela Escarlata beat Matt Striker. Vampiro then came into the ring and said that for Striker to get the $100,000, he had to beat one more person, who was Pimpinela. Pimpinela then pinned Striker with a schoolboy. Vampiro and Melissa Santos then brought a cake in the ring and said it was Striker’s 46th birthday and had the crowd singing Happy Birthday to him. That was a rib as well, as this really was his birthday, but I believe his real age is 42.

2. The Mack & Killshot & Dante Fox won the trios titles over Drago & Luchasaurus & Steve Pain. Both Killshot and Fox came out wrapped in bandages selling their match from the previous day. Both men’s backs had fresh cuts. Fox worked with a tank top on. His bandages came off accidentally during the match and blood was pouring down the left side of his body. Both Killshot and Fox still did big dives. All three celebrated together and Killshot and Fox seemed like they had made up after their war the day before.

3. Sexy Star beat Taya in a last woman standing match. Another wild match. They brawled in the stands. There were power bombs into the barricade. Both fell off the bleachers through two stacks of tables on the floor set up next to Melissa Santos. Both sold it big but Sexy Star was up at nine to win. A lot of fans booed Sexy Star after the match. Taya, even though a heel, became popular this season with the regular fans, surpassing both Ivelisse and Sexy Star. This was a better match than the Catrina vs. Ivelisse match the day before.

4. Matanza Cueto beat Dragon Azteca Jr. in a cage match. The very first move of the match was Azteca coming off the top of the cage with a crossbody. Holy psychology, Batman. At the 3:00 mark, Matanza slammed Azteca through the cage, which broke, and Azteca was sent to the floor. Azteca was then declared the winner since he escaped the cage. Dario Cueto then announced that wasn’t a fair finish. He announced the match must continue and the only way to win is pinfall or submission. They brawled all over the ringside area. Then they got back in the cage. Black Lotus then showed up and climbed to the top of the cage from the outside and hit both with a crossbody. Matanza then got up and used the Wrath of the Gods, which was his spinning slam, and got the pin. Matanza was celebrating and Black Lotus then laid out Matanza with a low blow. Dario Cueto then attacked Black Lotus. Matanza recovered and laid out Black Lotus with the Wrath of the Gods. Evidently the new monster that Ricardo Lamas introduced to take out Matanza in season two didn’t go anywhere since he never worked any tapings.

5. Mil Muertes won a three-way elimination match over Cage and Jeremiah Gray (Sami Callihan). Another brutal and bloody match. Mil Muertes missed a spear on Gray and went through a pane of glass. Gray brought in bamboo skewers and stuck them into Cage’s head. Gray was the first one eliminated. Muertes then pinned Cage after hitting him with the stone and the flatliner. Muertes won the armor glove that Cage had been using the last few shows that was never explained to the live audience. As the lights dimmed and Muertes posed, King Cuerno, who missed the entire season due to recovering from back surgery, returned and stole the glove.

6. Prince Puma pinned Johnny Mundo in a career vs. Lucha Underground title match. Very good match. P.J. Black, Jack Evans, Taya and Ricky Mandel all came out. Puma took them all out with a dive. Ref Marty Elias was knocked out. Ref Rick Knox did a flip dive out of the ring onto Black, Evans, Taya and Mandel. Puma won with a 540 splash.

7. Pentagon Dark beat Prince Puma in a career vs. career match for the title. The story was that Pentagon broke Puma’s arm. Puma sold a ton. At one point he even bandaged himself up from a first aid bag at ringside. Puma was going for the 540 when Vampiro got out of the commentary seat and pulled Pentagon out of the way. Pentagon than got the pin after a stiff looking package piledriver. Vampiro and Pentagon celebrated the end the season with Pentagon doing an interview saying he was the champion and everyone has to get through him.

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World Wrestling Entertainment brought in both name wrestlers and almost complete unknown from around the world this past week to tape the first round of the Cruiserweight Classic, a sports type presentation unlike anything the company had ever done before.

It was not a box office hit. Even though tickets were priced relatively inexpensively, a lot of the Full Sail regulars who attended NXT did not come to the tapings on 6/24. They drew only 250 fans, so just before the show started, they end up removing chairs from the floor so as to make the building not seem like there were a lot of empty seats (although with late arrivals some were put back in). They also had to tarp off two sections of the regular bleachers they use. There were reports it was sold out but that people who had purchased tickets looking to unload them on the secondary market couldn’t, but that makes no sense because they tarped sections off before the show started so they knew attendance would be down. The removing of chairs from the floor was done late, which could have been when they saw the line and it was lighter than expected, so that explanation could have been part of it as well, but wouldn’t appear to be all of it.

They tried to produce the show like it was MMA, taking things from both the U.S. and Japan, with an opening ceremony, although unlike with MMA with it being everyone on the stage, this was introducing them individually in the ring giving their backgrounds. The referee would give instructions before the match and ask the guys to shake hands. After the match, both competitors were brought to the center for the boxing/MMA style raising of the hand.

Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr., were the biggest name stars involved to the crowd as far as outsiders went, but it was those who were in NXT, Tommaso Ciampa, Rich Swann and Johnny Gargano, who got the biggest reactions. Most of the matches were good, but there were said to be some people that nobody could understand how they made the cut. It was said that the talent gap was huge, with great wrestler and guys who offense looked really bad. The ones who weren’t good were mostly weeded out and when they get down to the final four and give the matches more time, it’ll probably be great.

Overall the guys who ended up the most over after their matches were Gargano, Ciampa, Ibushi, T.J. Perkins, Sabre Jr., Swann and Jack Gallagher. The guys who were said to have sucked were Ho Ho Lun and Kenneth Johnson, while of guys who won, Drew Gulak, Tony Nese and Noam Dar didn’t get over in the building since the fans didn’t know them and they didn’t have standout matches.

All of the winners advanced to the second round of the tournament on 7/14 at Full Sail University. The next round will be 8/26, and that leads to a two-hour live special on 9/14.

The show was said to be good. But the crowd got tired as they usually do with long tapings at Full Sail. The crowd thinned out after the third hour with people leaving.

The tapings will be broken up into weekly one hour shows at 9 p.m. Eastern every Wednesday on the WWE Network.

Most of the unknowns didn’t really get over. Ibushi wasn’t an unknown. Metalik, Gallagher and Raul Mendoza got over the best of the people who the crowd didn’t know going in.

A funny story is that sitting in the front row, with his cat, was Teddy Hart.

Paul Levesque after was talking about future editions of such a tournament, so the idea seems to make it a regular thing.

7/13 TV show:

1. Gran Metalik, who was CMLL/New Japan star Mascara Dorada, pinned Alejandro Saez, who is Chilean star XL, with the Dorada screwdriver. Saez had to cut 30 pounds to make weight. When he came out in the building, the graphic twice accidentally read “Mascara Dorada,” so somebody get their wires crossed. Metalik got over quickly here ***1/4

2. Ho Ho Lun from Hong Kong pinned Ariya Daivari in 5:13 with a bridging suplex. Lun is not very good as the caliber of wrestling in Hong Kong is low. Obviously they are trying to find themselves some stars for the China market. Daivari was billed from Iran, as opposed to Minnesota. *1/2

3. Cedric Alexander pinned Clemont Petiot from France in 5:57. Petiot was a Lance Storm trainee. Alexander won with the back stabber. **½

4. Brian Kendrick, back to being The Brian Kendrick, pinned Raul Mendoza in the TV main event in 7:29. Mendoza is Jinzo from the DTU promotion in Mexico. Mendoza was bleeding from the mouth. Kendrick won with a crossface. One of the big spots was Mendoza doing a coast-to-coast dropkick. **½

7/20 TV show

5. Tajiri pinned Damian Slater from Australia with the buzzsaw kick in 5:29. **3/4

6. TJ Perkins beat Da Mack from Germany in 6:39 with an ankle lock submission. Perkins was billed from The Philippines. This match got over strong to the live crowd. ***½

7. Lince Dorado pinned Mustafa Ali in 6:04 using a shooting star press. Dorado was billed from Puerto Rico. Ali was a late replacement from Brazilian wrestler Zumbi, who had a visa issue and wound up instead working the Grand Prix tournament that Elite was putting on starting the same night in Mexico City. Ali is from Chicago but was billed from Pakistan. Ali suffered a neck injury and was having trouble standing up and needed medical attention. Another very good match. First time people chanted “This is awesome” was here. ***½

8. Akira Tozawa pinned Kenneth Johnson in 9:46 after a deadlift German suplex. Tozawa did a good job here because Johnson was said to be out of his league here, but the match still wasn’t bad. **½

7/27 TV show

9. Zack Sabre Jr., who was one of the favorites, made Tyson Dux submit in 8:29 with a double armbar. ***1/4

10. Drew Gulak beat Harv Sihra in 5:18 with a dragon sleeper. The Sihra Brothers were billed from India. **½

11. Tony Nese beat Anthony Bennett in 9:29 with the 450 splash. Bennett may have been shaken up. The ref stopped Nese from doing the 450 and waited until checking on Bennett and then allowed Nese to do so. That will likely be edited off the show. The trainer came up as Bennett had trouble getting up. **½

12. Kota Ibushi pinned Sean Maluta in 9:41 with a last ride power bomb. Interesting Ibushi didn’t do his Phoenix splash. Maluta seemed to suffer an ear injury as the trainer came out to check on his as well. Maluta was billed from American Samoa and his the nephew of Afa. Ibushi came off like a huge star. ***½

8/3 TV show

13. Rich Swann pinned Jason Lee in 4:20 using a 450 splash. The crowd was into Swann a lot because they know him. Lee was the other wrestler from Hong Kong. ***

14. Noam Dar beat Gurv Sihra in 7:22 with a heel hook submission. **

15. Jack Gallagher of the U.K. beat Fabian Aichner of Italy in 6:47 with a running dropkick into the corner. Very good match and both guys got over with the crowd. ***½

16. Johnny Gargano pinned Tommaso Ciampa in a battle of regular tag team partners in 12:09. These two, being familiar, picked the crowd up. Gargano reversed out of an armbar and got a crucifix pin. ***3/4

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Ring of Honor ran its Best in the World PPV on 6/24 with no outside talent to a somewhat mixed reaction.

The show going in felt like it didn’t have a high interest level. Some of the matches looked good on paper, and they pretty much all delivered, but nothing was must-see. The last PPV, War of the Worlds on 5/8 from Chicago drew a sellout crowd and featured stars of New Japan. It ended with the Young Bucks, Adam Cole, Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa destroying everyone in sight, including Jay Lethal, Colt Cabana, Taeler Hendrix, a tons of security people, Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino as Mr. Wrestling III. It was acknowledged here, with Nigel McGuinness explaining that he didn’t suspend everyone because the rest of the locker room demanded he not do so, and also for economic reasons, noting that The Young Bucks move too much merchandise. The latter was kind of a funny explanation for a modern business of that type.

This show The Bucks & Cole were in the mid-card against Moose & War Machine, who weren’t even involved in the last angle. Jay Lethal and Colt Cabana ended up PPV with no winner because of the interference, but Lethal instead faced Jay Briscoe, who lost to War Machine in a tag title match on that show.

But the show can be summed up pretty easily. The wrestling was very good, but it came across flat on television due to the miking of the crowd. Just like in Chicago, it came across like the crowd was dead, while live reports indicated it was super-hot. The situation was the same for this show in Concord, NC. If anything it was even more obvious because you could see the crowd reacting but not hear them. Then, at the end of the show, when the announcers signed off, the crowd quadrupled in reaction. So it was a case of turning down the crowd to not drown out the commentary, but in doing so, they did it to the point the show was flat. This happens with UFC and WWE all the time, so it’s not just some issue with a low-budget production. But it’s something that needs to be addressed for 8/19, the next PPV, Death Before Dishonor at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas. It’s the second time ROH will have done a PPV at Sam’s Town, and unlike the past two shows, that crowd wasn’t as hot. The Las Vegas audience was more into the New Japan stars and the Young Bucks.

Still, the wrestling made the show easy to watch. Every match was good. Aside from a late segment involving the formation of a new heel group, The Cabinet, which is Kenny King & Rhett Titus & Caprice Coleman doing a spoof on a presidential cabinet, it was easy to watch. But so much of wrestling today is viewed based on crowd response (and it should be given the goal should be garnering interest in the show so people care, and then working a match to accentuate that as much as possible), and if you were looking for that, this show didn’t come across as a hot show.

The show saw all three champions, ROH champion Jay Lethal, whose reign has passed one year; tag champs Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian, The Addiction, and TV champ Bobby Fish retain.

From a news standpoint, the next-to-last match of Roderick Strong, a cameo debut of Kevin Sullivan and an angle attempting to make Kamaitachi and the debuting Jay White into players was the big story.

With the exception of the Briscoes, Strong goes back the longest in ROH, going back nearly 13 years to the fall of 2003. His tenure is more a sign of how much the business has changed than anything. He’s always been good, but had the tag of too small and not charismatic enough. But as working ability and indie cred has become a bigger deal as the fan base itself has constricted, he’s had more options and it really is time for him to go somewhere else. Because he wasn’t a high flyer, but was considered too small to be a heavyweight, New Japan didn’t make a big play for him even after having outstanding matches last year with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada, as well as having the best match of the recent New Japan/ROH joint shows in Japan when he faced Tomohiro Ishii. New Japan could have put him in the G-1 the last two years. Last year the idea was they’d already finished plans before seeing his matches last May. This year, given the G-1 lineup, there’s really no explanation other than him falling into the weird category of too big and too grounded to be small, but too small to be big.

Sullivan was at an ROH show in April in Dallas over WrestleMania weekend, and then did a video with Steve Corino to promote the Corino vs. B.J. Whitmer match. The idea was he was aligned with Corino, but in the finish of the match, turned on Corino and went with Whitmer. There was no obvious follow-up at TV the next day.

Because some of the undercard went long, the Lethal vs Brisco title match was cut back. It was still a good match.

Corino vs. Whitmer, an old-style bloodbath was the big surprise of the show. One could say the show was good, but also missable, but Corino vs. Whitmer was a type of match that no longer exists on the big stage. In WWE it can’t exist, because you can’t do blade jobs. In TNA it can, but they always overdo those matches and make the weapons shots meaningless. This match had all the old tricks, from Corino bleaching his hair blond and wearing all white (to make the blood show up better), to the timing and usage of the weapons that it was really something to see. It’s kind of a weird deal. Wrestling existed for decades with double juice matches and blade jobs. Today, that seems out of touch, with Hepatitis scares and the idea of blade jobs being barbaric. But when blood is rarely used, it does have great impact when it is with people who know how to make it work. The idea is not to turn it into a cartoon or use blood for the sake of blood instead of as a tool to psychologically build a match, and those are two different things.

Our response level was down 31 percent from the last show, but that probably has to do with the lack of New Japan talent. The show drew 800 fans to the Cabarrus Arena, which holds nearly 3,000, so that wasn’t a strong showing for a PPV. TNA drew 1,800 last year for Bound for Glory in the same building, although much of that was papered.

1. Kyle O’Reilly beat Kamaitachi in 13:49. Both worked on the others’ knee. Kamaitachi used a dragon screw and twice got the figure four, but O’Reilly made the ropes. Kamaitachi tackled him outside the ring. O’Reilly kicked the ring post and Kamaitachi went back to work on the knee. Kamaitachi did a dropkick off the apron as well as a senton off the top rope to the floor that he landed hard on. Kamaitachi used a German suplex and a belly-to-belly into the turnbuckles. The finish saw O’Reilly win with a brainbuster and an armbar submission. Not as good as most Kamaitachi singles matches, although there’s a difference working a main event than an opener. ***1/4

2. ACH pinned Silas Young in 11:10. Good match. Young is showing more and more every time out and ACH matches are almost always good. Young got near falls with a power bomb and spinning suplex. ACH did a springboard flip dove over the top. After several near falls, Young missed a springboard move and ACH used jumping double knees, a brainbuster and a 450 splash for the pin. ***1/4

3. Mark Briscoe pinned Roderick Strong in 15:17. Strong tried to pull Briscoe’s hair, but it came off. He shaved his head and was wearing a wig. Briscoe used a blockbuster off the apron. He also did an overhead belly-to-belly. Strong came back throwing Briscoe head-first into the post. Strong dropped him like a backbreaker on the guard rail and threw him into the barricade. They kept blocking each others’ suplex attempts until Mark got it. Mark used a number of big moves including a Death Valley bomb, and then came off the top rope with an elbow, but Strong got his knees up. Briscoe came back, using Strong’s own Boston crab on im. Strong powered out. Strong did a jumping knee as Briscoe was on the top rope. He followed with a top rope superplex, but Briscoe cradled him off the move for a near fall. Strong hit a gut buster, a double arm power bomb and then used the Boston crab. Briscoe made the ropes. Briscoe used an elbow off the apron like Mick Foley. Briscoe came off the top rope into a dropkick by Strong. They traded chops and elbows. Strong hit the sick kick but Briscoe kicked out. Briscoe came back with a sick kick of his own, a brainbuster and got with a fisherman buster. After the match, the fans were chanting “Thank You Roddy” and he was shaking hands with people on the way out. ***3/4

4. Young Bucks & Adam Cole beat Moose & Ray Rowe & Hanson in a tornado match in 12:58. This was non-stop big moves and got the biggest reaction on the show. The Bullet Club opened with superkicks and a triple tope. Matt Taven on commentary was running down the Bullet Club and pretending Cole was Kenny Omega. Moose dove over the top onto everyone. Moose swing Cole into the barricade. War Machine did a double lawn dart spot with Matt & Nick into each other. The Bucks came back with a double low blow spot. They gave Moose a triple superkick. Rowe had both Bucks on his shoulders but Cole superkicked Rowe. Moose did a crossbody on all three. Hanson power bombed both Bucks at the same time. Moose did a clothesline and German suplex on Nick. Hanson missed a tope. More superkicks on Moose & Rowe. Nick did a top rope moonsault to the floor on everyone. Hanson did a flip dive onto everyone. Hanson did a splash off the top onto Cole but the Bucks saved. Hanson did a moonsault into double superkicks. They also gave Stokley Hathaway a triple superkick and then gave Moose a triple superkick. Finally The Bucks hit the Meltzer driver on Moose for the pin and all three kissed each other after winning. Then they said it was a five-star match. ****1/4

5. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian beat Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley in 12:11 to retain the ROH tag titles. They struggled early to get the crowd coming off the previous match. This happens after almost every Young Bucks match so it would probably make sense to put them on later in the show. Sabin did a flip dive on Kazarian off the apron. Shelley did a knee off the apron on Daniels. The match got good. Daniels did an Asai moonsault but landed with his knee on Kazarian. Sabin hot tagged in and did a tope under Shelley’s legs onto both Daniels & Kazarian. Daniels threw Shelley into the post. Shelley used sliced bread on Daniels but Kazarian hit a DDT on Shelley. Everyone was down. Kamaitachi came out and ran to ringside and attacked Jay White. They got into a great brawl. There had real intensity there and in the confusion and with referee Paul Turner distracted, Daniels used a low blow on Shelley and Daniels & Kazarian did the Best Meltzer Ever, which is a tombstone piledriver by Kazarian spiked by a top rope moonsault by Daniels, on Sabin for the pin. Daniels & Kazarian & Kamaitachi are a new heel group. ***½

6. B.J. Whitmer pinned Steve Corino in a Fight Without Honor, essentially a street fight, in 14:42. Corino came out to the late Shinya Hashimoto’s theme music. Corino was very close with Hashimoto, who gave him his big career break in Japan with Zero-One. They brawled early. Likely gimmicked since it was the way the match was worked, but Corino lost a tooth. Whitmer destroyed him early. Whitmer used a neckbreaker and they pushed that Corino was coming back from neck surgery. Lots of chairs were thrown into the ring. Corino hit an STO on the apron. Corino threw a chair at Whitmer’s surgically repaired knee and Pillmanized the knee. Whitmer started throwing short punches hard to the forehead where Corino has scar tissue trying to open him up. Corino bled. Whitmer brought in tables. The doctor wanted to stop the match due to Corino bleeding but he told the doctor he wanted to continue. Whitmer gave Corino an exploder into a table. The table didn’t break the first time, but exploded the second time and Corino kicked out at one. Corino came back and broke the pieces of the table on Whitmer’s head. Corino then got a beer bottle that Taven had left at the broadcast table. He broke it over Whitmer’s head. Whitmer was bleeding heavily at this point and Corino poured what was supposed to be rubbing alcohol all over Whitmer’s bleeding head. Corino pulled out scissors. Fans were chanting “ECW.” Corino pulled off his boot and took off his sock. He loaded his sock with a roll of quarters. Whitmer beat him to the punch and hit Corino with a roll of quarters but Corino kicked out. Corino hit a package piledriver and the light went out. When the lights came on, Kevin Sullivan was in the ring with a robe. Sullivan pulled out a spike and teased hitting Whitmer with it, but instead hit Corino. Whitmer then pinned Corino after an exploder suplex. Great match. ****

7. Bobby Fish beat Dalton Castle in 16:41 to retain the TV title. They told a story here that the two of them in real life are good friends, but they were wrestling because Castle wanted the title. Castle dominated early. Fish came back with some attempted heel hook submissions. Fish worked over the knee. Castle did an overhead belly-to-belly over the barricade into the crowd. Castle then dove over the barricade onto him. Fish used an exploder into the post. They teased a double count out while The Boyz were fanning really hard. Both barely got in by the count of 20. Castle did a suplex, a German suplex and a sick looking Saito suplex where Fish landed on his head. They teased Fish was really hurt by it, but he delivered a hard knee. Castle went for his bang a rang finisher, but Fish countered into a front rolling cradle for the pin. ***½

The All Night Express and Caprice Coleman came out to “Hail to the Chief.” Coleman noted that the All Night Express were never defeated for the tag team titles. He claimed they had to pay to get a segment n the show. They said they were now going to watch each other’s back because they were all underrated and underpaid, and they are now uniting to form The Cabinet. Coleman said he was the Minister of Information. Rhett Titus said the whole show has been young punks flipping around and nobody on the show looks like a pro wrestler. He said these guys need to do their bench presses and their squats. He said ROH has tag team champions with no abs, and that the Young Bucks always skip leg day and just do superkicks. They said the Cabinet will make wrestling great again, won’t skip leg day and will win all the gold.

8. Jay Lethal retained the ROH title beating Jay Briscoe in 12:52. This was essentially the one-year anniversary of Lethal’s win over Briscoe to take the title in the first place. All action good match. They were hurt from what they could potentially due by the time being cut. Lethal did two tope’s and Briscoe followed with two of him own, followed by a third running flip dive over the top. Referee Todd Sinclair threw out Taeler Hendrix for interfering. Mandy Leon was at ringside as timekeeper and she and Hendrix went at it. Briscoe kicked out of the Lethal combination. Briscoe went for the Jay driller but Lethal blocked it and Briscoe came back with a power bomb and Death Valley bomb for near falls. Lethal used a diamond cutter off the apron to the floor. Lethal tried a huracanrana off the top rope, but Briscoe blocked it. Briscoe went for the Jay driller off the top rope but in mid move Lethal countered into a huracanrana. Lethal hit the elbow drop off the top rope two-thirds of the way across the ring for a near fall. Briscoe finally hit the Jay driller but Lethal kicked out. Fans were chanting for both guys but Lethal hit a diamond cutter off the top rope and got te pin with the Lethal injection. Both shook hands after the match. Crowd was pretty hot for this match. ***3/4

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Ryan “The Real Deal” Jimmo, a UFC light heavyweight from 2012 to 2015, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in the early morning hours of 6/26 at the age of 34.

According to the CBS News in Canada, an altercation took place between the drivers of two vehicles in the parking lot of the H2O Lounge in Edmonton, where Jimmo and his girlfriend were planning on moving back to.

Jimmo walked up to the occupant of the other vehicle. When he walked away, the other vehicle, a dark-colored pickup truck, accelerated and struck him from behind, running him down. He died shortly after from the injuries, with the autopsy report stating his death was due to blunt force trauma. The vehicle, occupied by two Caucasian males, sped off, and nearly hit a red car before disappearing. Police have not found the drivers, although the vehicle was believed to have been found on 6/27 and seized for forensic examination..

Jimmo was originally from St. John, New Brunswick, the son of a karate master and was once top five in the world. Jimmo started in karate at a young age and started competing at the age of ten, winning a number of tournaments. He was also a high school football star and then started competing as a bodybuilder before getting into MMA.

He lost his first fight in Edmonton on February 3, 2007, to Adam Braidwood, a former CFL football player, being stopped in 1:54. But he won his next six fights, becoming a regular name fighter for Edmonton’s Maximum Fighting Championships. Among his early wins was over Craig Zellner, a former pro wrestler known as Race Steele who was trained by Les Thatcher and did some WWE matches.

In 2008, after winning six fights in a row, he was chosen for season eight of the Ultimate Fighter, the season coached by Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which produced a number of UFC fighters including Krzysztof Soszynski, Ryan Bader, Sean O’Connell, Tom Lawlor, Kyle Kingsbury, Vinny Magalhaes and George Roop. But he lost in the first round to Antwain Britt.

He continued winning fights in Canada, including a 2008 win over kickboxing legend Rick Roufas, as well as Marvin Eastman, Emanuel Newton, Wilson Gouveia, Zak Cummings and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. With a 16-fight winning streak and being the MFC light heavyweight champion, he was signed by UFC and made his debut on July 21, 2012, knocking out Anthony Perosh in seven seconds in Calgary, the third fastest finish in UFC history.

He got over huge on that show, both for the knockout, and for doing the robot dance, which became a trademark.

But he only won two of his next six fights. He was also very outspoken and that didn’t help him. He once complained on Twitter about how far back his comp tickets for a big show were. That likely didn’t help him and after losing his second fight in a row, to Francimar Barroso on May 30, 2015, in Goiania, Brazil, he was released, with a 19-5 record. He never fought after that.

The death came less than two months after the MMA world was rocked by another hit-and-run death of a fighter, Bellator’s Jordan Parsons. Parsons was crossing a street in Delray Beach, FL, on 5/1 and run over by a Range Rover, which severed his leg and left him near death. He passed away on three days after the accident at the age of 25.

In his case, police arrested a suspect, Dennis Wright, on 5/7, who was charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death, tampering with evidence and driving with a suspended license, and as a habitual offender with six license suspensions. The difference in cases is Wright, who was believed to have had too much to drink at a bar before driving, was an accident while with Jimmo, it was very clearly on purpose.

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Michael Elgin scored his second major win in as many weeks, as the new IWGP IC champion, who took the title from Kenny Omega on 6/19 in Osaka in New Japan’s first-ever ladder match, followed it up winning the Elite International Grand Prix tournament on 6/23 and 6/25 at Arena Mexico.

That probably isn’t coincidental as New Japan sent two singles champions, Elgin and IWGP jr. champion Kushida, and they don’t like their champions losing. In the case of Kushida, he lost in the semifinals to Volador Jr., which could set up a title match in either Mexico or Japan. Volador Jr., the Mexico rep and only Elite main event regular in the tournament, lost to Elgin in the finals.

They did a big post-match confetti celebration playing the Canadian national anthem. The final was also said to be the best match of the tournament. Elgin was given a championship belt. Volador Jr. vowed to get revenge this coming week at the CMLL tournament. CMLL and Elite work together, run the same arenas, but are different promotions.

It’s hard to say what Elite gets out of putting Elgin over unless he’s going to lose to one of their top stars on the way out. When you do a tournament like this, it only makes sense to put over someone who you are going to feature regularly. At worst, to not do that, the person who wins should lose to the person you’re grooming to be an upcoming top star.

Attendance for the tournament was horrible. The first round on 6/23 drew only about 1,000 fans to Arena Mexico. The second show did just under 2,000 fans. However, the fans in attendance were hardcore fans and particularly on the 6/25 show, they were very loud. The bad crowds were based on the tournament having so many wrestlers that nobody in Mexico had heard of, the fact that Elite hasn’t done well since moving to Thursday and Saturday is a new night for them, plus CMLL running a tournament next week overshadowed this.

Some of the talent was brought in specifically for this tournament including Bram and DJZ from TNA, Lio Rush from ROH, David Tita from Cameroon, Chicano from Puerto Rico, Sabu, Jinder Mahal and P.J. Black from the U.S. Elgin, Kushida and Tama Tonga are in Mexico for a few weeks and also working CMLL’s World Grand Prix tournament, a one-night 16-man tournament on iPPV on 7/1.

Part of the reason this tournament may have flopped at the box office was because it makes no sense at all to have two international tournaments at the same arena running a week apart. And CMLL is the established promotion and its tournament, even though they haven’t run one in years, does have history behind it. In addition, much of the talent brought in from the outside has no history in Mexico.

The situation with Black appearing was a surprise, because he’s with Lucha Underground, and Lucha Underground competitors in the past have been blocked from appearing with CMLL or Elite in Mexico since they are opposition to AAA.

We’ve heard two versions of this. The first is that the guys who were blocked from Elite, such as Brian Cage, were guys who had previously worked for AAA in Mexico. The other version is that either Black’s contract didn’t allow Lucha Underground to block him from appearing, or that he wasn’t under contract, which one source said. Either way, Black, while in Mexico, made it clear that he knew he was getting into trouble by doing this date. Still, this was a black eye to AAA, since Dorian Roldan had gone on Twitter and made a remark that Black wasn’t going to be there. Some CMLL reps on 6/23, when Black arrived, sent photos to Roldan of him at Arena Mexico before the show with their own sarcastic comments directed toward him.

He ended up losing in the first round to Volador Jr., which was booked that way for a CMLL star to cleanly beat a Lucha Underground star. He didn’t even get a booking on the second show. Hernandez, who originally was in the tournament as the Puerto Rico rep, was pulled. He’s not with Lucha Underground, but has been working AAA TV’s as part of the Team Trump heel group with Cage.

The concept was that they were bringing in wrestlers from 16 different countries.

The first round results saw: 1. Bram (U.K.) beat Zumbi (Brazil); 2. Lio Rush (United States) beat David Tita (Cameroon); 3. DJZ (Philippines) beat Hip Hop Man (late addition, not sure where he was billed from). DJZ looked great and this was the second best match of the first day; 4. Tama Tonga (Tonga) beat Chicano (Puerto Rico). This was said to be the worst match not he show; 5. Sabu (Saudi Arabia) beat Veneno (Panama). Sabu was the most over foreigner and that pretty much said that of the 1,000 people there, they were older fans who were super hardcore fans. Sabu kept using a chair right in front of the ref. Since he was going over, they couldn’t DQ him but it was said he made the ref look real bad. Also looking bad is Fantasma, the commissioner, who was right there watching but because Veneno wasn’t booked for the Saturday show, they had to just let Sabu do it or throw the match out and screw up the plans; 6. Michael Elgin (Canada) beat Jinder Mahal (India). What was notable is that even though this was an older fan base that knew Sabu, nobody knew who Mahal was even though he spent years in WWE. Elgin got over with his power moves; 7. Kushida (Japan) beat Heddi Karaoui (France). It was said that Karaoui had no business in the ring with Kushida; 8. Volador Jr. (Mexico) beat P.J. Black (South Africa). This was said to be the best match of the show.

The second show featured the final eight in quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. The matches were all short except the championship match which went about 13:00. 1. Elgin pinned Rush. Very good match. Elgin’s power moves got over great again, but the finish was a disaster. Elgin was going for the pin and referee Terror Chino got confused. He thought it wasn’t the finish when it was. So he counted to two and then stopped. He looked at Elgin and Elgin looked at him and time stood still. Chino then asked what to do and then started to count to three; 2. Kushida beat DJZ. Very good match. DJZ looked great again. Kushida won with the hoverboard lock; 3. Volador Jr. pinned Tonga. Good match. Volador did a big dive. Volador won with a superkick and backstabber; 4. Bram beat Sabu. Sabu was the most over foreigner again and like the first night, kept using a chair in front of the ref. Sabu’s only real move was to throw chairs at Bram’s face. When Bram won, the crowd booed a lot because this was an older traditional crowd who thought Sabu was a legend and had no idea who Bram was and felt Bram shouldn’t have won. The thing in Mexico is no matter how old a legend gets and how little he can do, he’s still a legend and the fans believe they should only lose to people of that status, which is why fans wouldn’t accept people like Mil Mascaras and Canek losing to just anyone; 5. Volador Jr. beat Kushida in the first semifinal. Kushida did a flip dive over the post. What they did was good but they only went 5:00. Volador won with the Super Frankensteiner. The crowd popped big seeing the Mexico entrant beat someone who is considered a major modern star; 6. Elgin beat Bram. Said to be average; 7. Elgin beat Volador Jr. to win the tournament. They played the Canadian national anthem and the Mexican national anthem before the match started. Easily the best match on the show. Volador did a moonsault off the apron and Elgin caught him and powerslammed him on the floor. They did a lot of near falls with lots of “Mexico” chants. Elgin won with a power bomb into the turnbuckles and the Elgin bomb, the spinning power bomb, winning clean. The crowd politely clapped for his winning and cheered him pretty good when he got the trophy even though he beat a Mexican. He did a nice speech after and then Volador spoke in Spanish and put over Elgin.

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Gilberto “Pepe” Melendez, a Tennessee-based wrestler best known as Gypsy Joe, who had the reputation as being indestructible, and was the trivia answer for years as to who was the world’s oldest full-time pro wrestler, passed away on 6/16.

His age was claimed to have been anywhere from 82 to 94 years old, but I’d guess about 86 as the most reasonable estimate. His local obituary listed a December 2, 1933, birthday in Orocovis, Puerto Rico, making him 82. He had been in poor health for several years and recently entered into hospice care.

Melendez spent much of a 50-year career working for smaller promotions. His first real career break came in 1966 when he and Frank Martinez formed a masked tag team called The Blue Infernos in Tennessee. But his real career stardom came as a cult favorite in Japan.

He started coming to Japan in September 1975 with the IWE promotion, the No. 3 group in Japan at the time which had weekly network television. The IWE couldn’t compete with All Japan and New Japan, the major groups of the time, when it came to talent, either native or foreign. So they tried to make up with it by doing gimmick matches like cage matches and chain matches that the major promotions didn’t do, and relied heavily on blood.

He was a headliner on the first tour, beating Mighty Inoue in a cage match, to set up two IWA title matches with Rusher Kimura, both losses, the second in a cage match. The tour was promoted around “killer heels,” well known stars Killer Tor Kamata, Killer Karl Krupp and Killer Tim Brooks. Joe teamed with all of them for tag team title shots.

On October 8, 1975 in Koga, when he had his first cage match against Kimura, the company’s top star, he was the first person in Japan to come off the top of the cage, using a kneedrop. In some circles he is credited with the first wrestler ever to come off the top of a cage, but that’s not the case as Jimmy Snuka was coming off the top of cages in Oregon matches earlier. However, he may have been the first to come off the top with a kneedrop. That spot, airing on network television, made Joe an instant star and for the next decade, he made most of his money in Japan. He was never considered a superstar, but he was remembered for his durability and did get a number of big matches.

In 1977, he was part of the company’s tag team tournament, teaming with Mad Dog Vachon. They went to the semifinals, but the team broke up after losing to Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi, leading to matches against Vachon.

When the IWE folded, Melendez was signed by Giant Baba and was a regular with the promotion as a mid-carder from 1981 to 1985, with his high spot every night being when he would bend over and his opponent was supposed to hit him as hard as he could across the back with a chair. While most of his hard chair shots were to the back, he also would regularly take brutal chair shots to the head, and they did a great degree of damage as time went on. That period with All Japan, and perhaps the IWE period, were likely the only times he made significant money as a wrestler during his long career.

While he never won a title in Japan, he challenged for the NWA International heavyweight (at the time one of the biggest titles since that was the belt Rikidozan won from Lou Thesz) title on July 1, 1980, in Osaka, against Kintaro Oki, the WWU jr. title in a few matches with Ashura Hara, and the IWE tag team title with Killer Tim Brooks as his partner against Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue.

Because of his stardom in the IWE and gimmick of being able to take unreal punishment, he started with All Japan as a headliner, working main events from the start. His first All Japan match was on August 20, 1981, losing via DQ to Giant Baba in the main event at Korakuen Hall. On September 4, 1981, in Osaka Furitsu Gym, his challenge of Jumbo Tsuruta for the United National title, which he lost via count out, main evented a sellout show that drew 6,600 fans, which had a Mil Mascaras vs. Chavo Guerrero IWA title match as the co-feature. Five days later he lost his first All Japan match via pinfall when facing Mascaras for his title, which was impressive for a guy who at the same time in the U.S. was working as a “name” television jobber on TBS.

He had another run in Japan in the 90s with the W*ING promotion, including having Taz’s first match in Japan. He had a retirement match in Japan on February 3, 1993, but returned in 1995.

He continued to wrestle regularly for two decades after that point, once being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest active wrestler. He worked several times per week, mostly on small shows in Tennessee, until he was about 80 years old.

Right before his retirement, he wrestled for the first time in Japan in seven years on December 11, 2010, doing a singles main event match with Tajiri, who brought him in to headline a Smash Wrestling show at Shinjuku Face. Believed to have been 80 years old, the oldest wrestler ever to do a match in Japan, the two sold out the small building and he still took the requisite super hard chair shots to the back that night. Tajiri actually broke two chairs over the back of Joe that night.

He retired with a match on January 7, 2011 in his home city of Tullahoma, TN. In August, 2013, after battling gout and rickets, he needed his right foot amputated. He had been confined to a wheelchair and the once super resilient hard training guy had gotten very frail.

At an event on 11/7 in Nashville, Mick Foley came and inducted him into the Nashville Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Because of his spot of taking the hardest chair shots of the time in wrestling, he garnered a reputation as being resilient, which remained his gimmick as he got older and was able to do less and less in the ring.

Those in wrestling always said that you couldn’t hurt him, and that reputation was decades before the most famous story about him took place to exemplify it.

In around 1990, so he’d have been around 60 years old, he was home on a Sunday and one of his neighbors came to his house and asked him if he wanted to go fishing. He had gone fishing with him and some of the other neighbors a few times. Joe politely declined, saying he wanted to stay home that day and watch baseball on television. But the guy kept pushing him to do it.

So Joe left with him. Instead of going fishing, they went to a local dive bar. Joe didn’t want to be there, as he by that point wasn’t a night club kind of guy unless it was something like his birthday or a special occasion. His neighbor said they were stopping there to get some sandwiches for the day. So they went in and Joe sat down at a table. A lady bartender came over, recognized him, and even though it was 1990, she kept talking to him about watching wrestling and mentioning Jackie Fargo and Tojo Yamamoto and the stars from that era. She asked what he was doing there and he told her he was with his friend but if he didn’t hurry up he was going to go home because he wanted to watch baseball.

His friend kept trying to talk to the woman, but she kept asking Joe questions about old-time wrestling. The friend got so mad he stormed outside the door. He came back in, with a gun, started yelling at Joe about trying to steal the girl from him and shot him from only a few feet away. Joe, impervious to being hurt, then beat the guy up pretty badly. The people at the bar jumped in and the police came. They insisted on Joe going to the hospital. Joe told the doctor to stitch him up fast because he wanted to go home and watch the baseball game. They told him there was no way they could release him because he was bleeding internally and he ended up spending a few days in the hospital. His neighbor was arrested and was taken to prison, and ended up dying in prison. His story was that he wanted to go out with the woman at the bar and found out she was a big wrestling fan, so figured he could get over with her by bringing Gypsy Joe in. But he said when he saw Joe hitting on her, he lost his mind. When Joe was asked if that was true, he said he wasn’t hitting on her at all and said, “Hell, no, she was fat and ugly, and I just wanted to watch baseball.” He was back wrestling almost immediately after being released from the hospital.

He was reported to have started wrestling in 1951 in Puerto Rico. Martinez said he and Joe met in 1958 when both were being trained by Pedro Morales in Brooklyn and the Rocca & Perez Gym. They were trained to be shooters and wrestled amateur against wrestlers from other area gyms.

His first U.S. matches were in 1963, when he started with the old WWWF on small shows under the name Pepe Figueroa. He had trained with both Pedro Morales and Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico when they were breaking in.

Melendez as Gypsy Joe was sometimes confused with a number of other Gypsy Joe’s in wrestling. He actually started using the name Gypsy Joe in 1971, and was the fifth wrestler to use the Gypsy Joe name in that era. While two of the others had as much if not more U.S. success than he did, he ended up as the most famous because of his career longevity and his Japan stardom.

Frank Falzarano was another Gypsy Joe, who wrestled in the 50s and 60s and was the Midwest junior heavyweight champion in 1954, and was a star in New England in the 60s. Some history books claim him as Midwest junior heavyweight champion during the days of wrestling on the Dumont Network.

There were other contemporaries he’s often been confused with. There was a Gypsy Joe Rodriguez, who was Frank Rodriguez, who worked in prelims for WWWF from 1963 to 1983. This Gypsy Joe and Gypsy Joe Rodriguez even feuded in 1972 in West Virginia, when this Gypsy Joe went as Gene Madrid and ***************************************************************

GYPSY JOE



CAREER TITLE HISTORY



NWA WORLD TAG TEAM (Tennessee): w/Frank Martinez as Blue Infernos def. Jackie Fargo & Len Rossi March 22, 1967 Nashville; Also as Blue Infernos def. Don Kent & Jim Osborne in a one night tournament March 23, 1967 Chattanooga to win recognition in that city as champions; lost to Bad Boy Hines & Billy Boy Hines April 27, 1967 Chattanooga; w/Martinez as Blue Infernos def. Bad Boy Hines & Billy Boy Hines May 11, 1967 Chattanooga; lost to Bad Boy & Billy Boy Hines May 27, 1967 Chattanooga



NWA NORTH AMERICAN TAG TEAM: w/? as The Infernos def. The Spoilers January 17, 1976 Caguas, PR; titles held up in a match with Jose Rivera & Jose Miguel Perez March 6, 1976 Bayamon; w/? as The Infernos def. Jose Rivera & Jose Miguel Perez for held up titles March 13, 1976 Bayamon; titles held up in match with Carlos Colon & Jose Rivera August 7, 1976 Caguas; w/? as The Infernos def. Carlos Colon & Jose Rivera August 28, 1976 Bayamon; lost to Argentina Rocca & Jose Miguel Perez September 11, 1976 Bayamon



NWA SOUTHERN TAG TEAM: w/Frank Martinez as The Blue Infernos def. Mario Milano & Len Rossi October 29, 1966 Nashville; titles held up after match with Chuck Conley & Chief White Eagle November 18, 1966 Chattanooga; w/Frank Martinez as Blue Infernos def. Chuck Conley & Chief White Eagle; lost to Len Rossi & Mario Milano November 1966; w/Skull Murphy Jr. def. Rocky Johnson & Jimmy Valiant May 25, 1980; lost to Jackie & Randy Fargo June 11, 1980 Nashville; w/Skull Murphy Jr. def. Rocky Johnson & Jimmy Valiant; lost to Ken Lucas & Ricky Morton



NWA MID AMERICAN TAG TEAM: w/Leroy Rochester (Sylvester Ritter aka Junkyard Dog) def. Pez Whatley & Bearcat Brown in tournament final December 25, 1977 Nashville; lost to Lanny Poffo & Pez Whatley January 14, 1978 Chattanooga; w/Dutch Mantell def. Lanny Poffo & Bobby Eaton February 1978 Nashville; Titles vacated and Gypsy Joe & Buzz Tyler were awarded belts; lost to George Gulas & Tojo Yamamoto April 1978; w/Tojo Yamamoto def. Dutch Mantell & Ken Lucas September 23, 1978; lost to Dutch Mantell & Ken Lucas October 8, 1978 Chattanooga; w/Tojo Yamamoto def. Dutch Mantell & Ken Lucas November 25, 1978; lost to George Gulas & Bobby Eaton December 16, 1978 Chattanooga; w/Tom Renesto Jr. def. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy July 4, 1979 Nashville; lost to Tojo Yamamoto & Great Togo July 25, 1979 Nashville; w/Tojo Yamamoto def. Pat Rose & Rocky Brewer March 19, 1980 Nashville; lost to George Gulas & Rocky Brewer April 2, 1980; w/Tojo Yamamoto def. George Gulas & Rocky Brewer May 1980; lost to George Gulas & Rocky Brewer May 28, 1980 Nashville



NWA WORLD BRASS KNUCKLES (Tennessee): def. Mexican Angel in tournament final November 15, 1978 Nashville; lost to Don Fargo February 12, 1979; def. Don Fargo March 3, 1979; lost to Don Fargo March 25, 1979 Chattanooga; def. Don Fargo August 1979; lost to Dennis Condrey August 15, 1979 Nashville; def. Dennis Condrey; lost to David Shults August 18, 1979 Chattanooga



NWA WORLD SIX MAN (Tennessee): w/Tojo Yamamoto & The Beast def. George Gulas & Bobby Eaton & Arvil Hutto January 1979 Tullahoma, TN; lost to George Gulas & Bobby Eaton & Mexican Angel 1979



USWA JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT: As El Grande Pistolero def. Danny Davis March 8, 1991 Dallas; lost to Danny Davis April 23, 1991 Louisville



NWA CENTRAL STATES TAG TEAM: w/Mr. Pogo def. Marty Jannetty & Tommy Rogers (Tommy Lane) October 11, 1984; lost to Bulldog Bob Brown & Marty Jannetty December 9, 1984 Des Moines



NWA CENTRAL STATES TV: def. Art Crews September 2, 1984 Kansas City; lost to Buzz Tyler September 12, 1984 Lincoln, MO



NWA WESTERN STATES TAG TEAM: w/Killer Tim Brooks def. Gary Young & Gino Caruso December 15, 1979 Amarillo; Titles vacated when Joe left territory



WEST VIRGINIA HEAVYWEIGHT: as Gene Madrid def. Jimmy Jones January 24, 1972 Bluefield, WV; lost to Cuban Assassin (Angel Acevedo) Mach 13, 1972 Bluefield, WV; def. Cuban Assassin April 24, 1972 Bluefield, WV; lost to Pat Clancy May 8, 1972 Bluefield; def. Frank Rodriguez August 5, 1972 Bluefield, WV; lost to Dale Starr October 14, 1972 Bluefield, WV

*************************************************************** Rodriguez went under his real name.

There was also a Gypsy Joe Rosario, who was Isaac Rosario, who worked around the country from 1964 to 1975, mostly in Texas, Florida, and Tri- States for Leroy McGuirk. He would use the name Pancho Valdez in territories where either Rodriguez or Melendez had previously used the Gypsy Joe name. Tony DeMore was another Gypsy Joe from 1960 to 1965, who worked in the WWWF as well as Pittsburgh and Calgary as Gypsy Joe. Melendez later worked as the Gypsy Joe in Calgary in the mid-70s.

Carmine Mucioli worked all over the U.S. as Gypsy Joe from 1948 to 1960 and is the one who held the Midwest tag team titles in 1953 and 1954 with The Sheik.

Melendez mostly worked as Gypsy Joe, although his biggest U.S. run was under a mask teaming with Frank Martinez, a long-time WWWF prelim wrestler, as The Blue Infernos for Nick Gulas in 1966 and 1967.

At first the two were only making $200 a week and were ready to quit. Danny Dusek, one of the bookers, saw something in the masked team and made them headliners, and they started drawing big crowds in the Birmingham circuit against Tamayo Soto & Tojo Yamamoto, veteran heels who ended up as being the babyfaces.

But Joe got into trouble knocking out a fan in Alabama, so they were moved to the Memphis end of the territory. But Joe got into legal trouble again punching fans and had to leave the territory because of a lawsuit.

He also worked under the name Gene Madrid from Spain, as part of a brother tag team with Jan Madrid, who were the top stars in West Virginia in the early 70s, and he even owned a piece of the promotion at the time. He continued to use the name Gene Madrid based on that run whenever he returned to West Virginia, even more than 35 years later.

Besides Martinez, Melendez’s best known tag team was with Tojo Yamamoto, an area legend who was pretty much a household name, similar to Jackie Fargo and Jerry Lawler, in Tennessee. Gypsy Joe & Yamamoto were called the No Pain Train as Mid American tag team champions and World trios champions in 1978 and 1979.

“Joe loved Tojo Yamamoto,” said Beau James, a friend, wrestler, promoter and local wrestling historian. “They were close for many years. Joe was in Japan when Tojo killed himself. He found out when he was in the Nashville Airport when he got home. He saw a picture of himself with Tojo on television and stopped to see what it was about. “

Joe saved the answering machine tape of the two times Yamamoto called him wanting to talk, but he was in Japan and never got the messages, the week before he killed himself.

He was also Aztec Joe in Detroit doing a Native American gimmick, and also did that gimmick in Alaska using the name Chief Tuna. His last major television role was as the masked El Grande Pistolero, working as the USWA junior heavyweight champion in 1991.

In 1981, he was a regular enhancement talent on Georgia Championship Wrestling, presented as a veteran star with a name, a higher level enhancement guy than the rookies and on rare occasion, he would get a television win. But he was most remembered for losing to name talent like Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, Tommy Rich, Jay Youngblood and others.

An avid workout guy, he remained muscular well into his 50s and he was likely in his early 60s in the Pistolero role, although that doesn’t last forever and he didn’t look like that at all in his late 60s and 70s.

In the early 90s, he and Tracy Smothers had a shouting match that nearly got violent in the dressing room at Korakuen Hall as both dropped everything and were ready to go at it when others calmed them down.

Joe was known for being a grumpy old wrestler who hated everything. Ricky Morton used to joke that Joe even hated ice cream.

However, James, who has been around the independent scene in Tennessee for decades, said he would always give him advice about his matches and that every wrestler from Middle Tennessee from the last 30 years would have a story about how Joe helped them.

But Joe was very old school and protective. In Jerry Lawler’s autobiography, he noted that when he was a kid, Joe was one of his wrestling heroes. Joe was proud of that. But in the book, Lawler mentioned Joe’s real name, and he was no longer happy about being in Lawler’s book. At one point he started writing a book, and then after a few days decided against it, because he couldn’t bring himself to open up on things.

In 2003, Joe, then well into his 70s, wrestled New Jack in a weird match that fell apart. The match became famous because New Jack, mad that Joe wasn’t selling at certain points, threw him down several times and roughed him up on the ground. At another point, frustrated Because Joe wasn’t selling, Jack hit him hard with a barbed wire baseball bat. A lot of people were upset over Jack doing it, and probably should have been, give Joe’s age and with the idea that if Joe was younger he’d have wiped the floor with New Jack. But friends of Joe’s noted that they weren’t worried because they truly believed you couldn’t hurt him. When it was over, Joe got up like nothing had happened.

James had talked to Joe about it many times, as well as with many people who were there, and had seen New Jack’s explanation, said the way he understood it is New Jack thought it was beneath him to work with an old man like Joe. He said New Jack probably didn’t understand, know or care who Gypsy Joe was. Even with local fans seeing Joe shrink due to age, he was still over to the Middle Tennessee fans based on his reputation and what they’d seen from him on a regular basis for decades. Jack said that Joe gave him a stiff head-butt, but that was part of Joe’s match was to give people a stiff head-butt.

While New Jack did rough him up, Joe got up like nothing happened and wrestled the next afternoon. Joe was more upset about the way New Jack talked to him before the match, showing him no respect, then what he did in front of the crowd. The two never saw each other again. However, Joe was very bitter about it. He started carrying a knife with him in his bag when he would go to his matches, hoping New Jack would be booked on the same show as him, which thankfully never happened.

Joe & Martinez as The Blue Infernos first won the Southern tag team titles from Len Rossi & Mario Milano in 1966 in Tennessee, and then held the area’s world tag team titles twice in 1967. He is also believed by some to have been one of The Infernos who held the WWC North American tag team titles three times in 1976 in Puerto Rico, including dropping the titles on September 11, 1976, to Rocca & Perez in the legendary duo’s last run together before Rocca’s death. I’ve had conflicting notes on whether he was part of the team. Sources that list him, list him with Martinez, but Martinez never talked about a run in Puerto Rico. In looking at Joe’s career, there are no matches for him in 1976 during the period the Infernos were in Puerto Rico. He also never went to Japan during that period and he was a regular there the year before an d the year after. But one close friend of his said he couldn’t confirm if they were or not and never recalled Joe talking about that run.

From 1977 to 1980 he was a regular for Nick Gulas, and later Jerry Jarrett, teaming with Yamamoto as The No Pain Train, holding the Mid American tag team titles four times. He also held those titles with Leroy Rochester (who later became Junkyard Dog), Dutch Mantell, Buzz Tyler and Tom Renesto Jr. He was also a four-time World Brass Knux champion, feuding regularly in bloodbath matches with the likes on Don Fargo, Dennis Condrey and David Shults. That was probably his best run in the U.S. aside from the Blue Infernos days.

He claimed when he came from Puerto Rico to New York, even though he had wrestled for years, he wanted to be a major league baseball player and claimed he got a Yankees tryout, but that he found out he couldn’t hit major league pitching.

His age was always a mystery. An ex-wife, now 54, said that Joe was really 38 years older than he was, which would make him 92. Although if you look at him physically through the years, and the time line of a career he claimed started in 1951, that sounds a little on the old side. At one point he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest active wrestler.

I met Joe in 1992, and he at the time was not so subconscious about his age and told me he was 62, talking about how he had given up weights and would do rep after rep with surgical tubing to keep his body both strong and flexible. He was no longer as muscular as he’d been as El Grande Pistolero, but was in good shape for that age. That would make him 85 or 86.

James said that years back Joe insisted his age was 77 for three straight years. Last year he was telling people he was 84. Jackie and Don Fargo always claimed Joe was older than they were. If Jackie was alive, he would now be 86 and Don would be 85. Paul Morton, Ricky’s father, claimed he and Joe were the same age, and if Morton was still alive, he’d be 94. But if you looked at his physique in 1991 when he was a masked wrestler, if he was 94 now, that would make him 69, and even if he was using heavy amounts of steroids at the time, he was far too muscular to be 69.

Every morning when he would get up, he’d do all kinds of exercises for every body part using the tubing. He would also warm up with it before his matches. In 2009, Misty James, Beau’s wife, gave her a new set of bands and while he put them in his bag and would carry them around, he would still use the same bands from the 90s for his workouts, which by that point were no longer tubs, just long worn out pieces of rubber. He lost a lot of weight and size by 1995, and at that point start shrinking and his body started aging.

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Raw on 6/27 did a 2.21 rating and 3,088,000 viewers (1.49 viewers per home), the lowest number since 1997 not against major team sports competition.

The only two non-holiday shows that did less viewers were two weeks ago, which did a 2.03 rating and 2,962,000 viewers against Game Five of the NBA championship series, and a November 23, 2015, show against the NFL, that did a 2.15 rating and 2,950,000 viewers.

What was bad here is it wasn’t an awful show, and there was no major third hour viewer tune-out. In this case, it was a low first hour, meaning people weren’t that interested in seeing wrestling to begin with, followed by only a small second hour increase. The third hour declined, but not badly. Raw was third for the night on cable trailing Rizzoli & Isles (4,355,000 viewers) and Major Crimes (3,989,000 viewers) on TNT. There was sports competition in the form of the Olympic swimming trials on NBC that did 5,170,000 viewers, but that only went against the first hour of Raw.

The show did 3,096,000 viewers at 8 p.m (second lowest in history for a non-holiday show in that hour), 3,173,000 for the second hour and 3,011,000 for the third hour.

The show was down 11 percent from the prior week, coming off the Money in the Bank PPV and the title win by Dan Ambrose.

The show did a 0.83 in 12-17 (down 11.7 percent), 0.93 in 18-34 (down 13.9 percent), 1.31 in 35-49 (down 11.5 percent) and 1.20 in 50+ (down 6.3 percent). The audience was 63.1 percent male in 18-49 and 61.9 percent male in 12-17.

The Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter-led Premier Boxing show on CBS did 2,415,000 viewers, about the same as most recent UFC shows on FOX has done. It was the first CBS prime time boxing show in years and had a fight of the year for the main event, called by Mauro Ranallo who labeled it one of the best bouts he’d ever broadcast. It lost to Olympic diving qualifying on NC (3,210,000) but beat Major League Baseball on FOX (2,092,000).

Bellator on 6/24 had terribly disappointing numbers. At 7 p..m., a one-hour documentary on the life of Kimbo Slice drew 416,000 viewers. Bellator Dynamite from 8-11 p.m. did 601,000 viewers (an added 74,000 viewers via DVR through Monday). That’s a below average number for a major show which included Rampage Jackson and Michael Chandler in a lightweight title fight. Now they were hurt by starting an hour early, but still, I think you’d want 1 million viewers on average for a Jackson fight, and even with the earlier start time about 800-900,000. Jackson vs. Ishii did 914,000 viewers (and another 126,000 via DVR) and peaked at the end of the match at 1 million (and another 140,000 via DVR) . The kickboxing matches from St. Louis after the Jackson fight ended, which aired from 11 p.m. to 12:40 a.m., did 418,000 viewers (with 21,000 more watching later via DVR). Given the time slot, it started high, as the first fight with Joe Schilling vs. Hisaki Kato did 595,000 viewers (and 29,000 more via DVR), and peaked at 636,000 at the finish. Bellator was No. 2 in sports for the night trailing ESPN’s coverage of the College Baseball World Series, but that shouldn’t have impacted a Bellator number.

For a breakdown, the show did a 0.19 in 12-17, 0.16 in 18-34, 0.28 in 35-49 and 0.21 in 50+. The audience was 64.6 percent men in 18-49 and 61.2 percent male in 12-17. As far as who stayed for the kickboxing, only 47% of the Bellator viewers 12-17 stayed for the kickboxing. In 18-34, they actually did a 0.17 in 18-34 meaning more watched on average (I’d guess that’s because that age group came in late at 9 p.m. for the Bellator), while 61% of the 35-49 stayed and 76% of the 50+ stayed.

For men, most of the women who watched Bellator actually started at 7 p.m. watching the Kimbo special which did almost identical demo numbers at Bellator, while men rose greatly during the Bellator show itself.

The Raw replay on Syfy on 6/24 did 473,000 viewers.

Smackdown on 6/23 did a 1.58 rating and 2,145,000 viewers (1.44 viewers per home).

Smackdown was the seventh most-watched show on cable. The biggest competition was the NBA Draft at 2,994,000 viewers (that was an average over a five-hour draft, it likely did significantly larger numbers against Smackdown since those were earlier picks). It only increased from a 1.56 rating and 2,073,000 viewers going against Game six of the NBA playoffs that did 20.70 million viewers, so really this was a lot worse than last week even though it was slightly up.

It was actually up significantly among those under 50 in every demo, but since over 50 is the strongest demo and it was down, the end result was being barely up. The show did a 0.58 in 12-17 (up 45.0 percent), 0.52 in 18-34 (up 18.2 percent), 0.82 in 35-49 (up 7.9 percent) and 0.88 in 50+ (down 10.2 percent). The audience was 56.7 percent men in 18-49 and 62.1 percent male in 12-17.

Lucha Underground on 6/22 drew 104,000 viewers for the first-run episode and 62,000 for the replay. The average viewer age was 56 and the audience was 92 percent men.

Ultimate Fighter on 6/22 didn’t air on FS 1 due to soccer coverage. The 6/16 show that did 409,000 viewers, added 234,000 more through DVR viewership. The 6/9 show did 376,000 viewers and another 204,000 via DVR viewership.

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RESULTS



6/23 Largo, FL (WWE NXT - 350): Mojo Rawley b Josh Woods, Steve Cutler b Kishin Raftar, Nick Miller & Shane Thorn b Patrick Clark & Angelo Dawkins, Hugo Knox b Tino Sabbatelli, Carmella & Bayley & Asuka b Mandy Rose & Alexa Bliss & Nia Jax, Andrade Cien Almas b Oney Lorcan, Ember Moon b Daria Berenato, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable & Shinsuke Nakamura b Sunny Dhinsa & Gzim Selmani & Tye Dillinger

6/23 Mexico City Arena Mexico (Elite Lucha Libre - 1,000): Karonte Jr. & Magnus & Okumura b Bandido & El Hijo del Pantera & Magia Blanca, P.J. Black & Volador Jr. won seeding Battle Royal, First round of Elite tournament: Bram b Zumbi, Lio Rush b David Tita, DJZ b Hip Hop Man, Tama Tonga b Chicano, Sabu b Veneno, Michael Elgin b Jinder Mahal, Kushida b Heddi Karaoui, Volador Jr. b P.J. Black

6/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Real Japan Pro Wrestling - 1,639 sellout): Super Rider & Kazuhiko Ogasawara & Hayato Ma****a b Nobuyuki Kurashima & Yamamato-san & Chikara (Chikara Momota), Taka Kuno b Leona, Ultimo Dragon & Heat b Nobuyuki Kurashima & Masato Shibata, Kendo Kashi & Hideki Suzuki & Shogun Okamoto b Super Tiger & Mitsuya Nagai & Alexander Otsuka, Legend championship: Masakatsu Funaki b Daisuke Sekimoto to win title

6/24 Winter Park, FL (WWE NXT TV tapings - 400 sellout): Tye Dillinger b Kai Katana, Bayley b Alexa Bliss, Blake & Murphy NC Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder, 2/3 falls: Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder b Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, Austin Aries b Patrick Clark, Andrade Cien Almas b Angelo Dawkins, Non-title: Asuka b Eva Marie, Non-title: Samoa Joe b Rhyno, Authors of Pain b Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, Bayley b Nia Jax, Shinsuke Nakamura b Finn Balor

6/24 St. Louis Savvis Center (Bellator Dynamite): Steven Mann b Mike Estus, Rashard Loveleace b Garrett Meueller, Matt Murphy b Justin Robbins, Guilherme Vascnocelos b Jordan Dowdy, Kickboxing: Tara Walker b Mimi Kutzin, Kickboxing: Darryl Cobb b Elmir Kulosman, Joaqui Buckley b Chris Heatherly Brad Jones b Tyler Claussen, Cheljean Erwin-Davis b Kevin Engel, Matt Mitrione b Carl Seumanutafa, Kickboxing: Gloria Peritore b Denis Kielhotz, Ilima Mac Farlane b Rebecca Ruth, Kickboxing: Kevin Ross b Justin Houghton, lightweight title: Michael Chandler b Patrick Pitbull Freire to win vacant title, Rampage Jackson b Satoshi Ishii, Kickboxing: Hisaki Kato b Joe Schilling

6/24 Toyohashi (New Japan - 750 sellout): Ryusuke Taguchi b David Finlay, Rocky Romero & Baretta b Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Matt Sydal b Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo, Chase Owens & Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi b Captain New Japan & Yo****atsu & Satoshi Kojima, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson b Katsuyori Shibata & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi, Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi b Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi

6/24 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 6,000): Mercurio & Pierrothito b Shockercito & Stukita, Bobby Z & Puma & Tiger b Fuego & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Titan, Mexican national women’s title: Zeuxis b Princesa Sugei, Rey Cometa & Brazo de Plata & Valiente b Cavernario & Felino & Mr. Niebla, Marco Corleone & Kushida & Mistico b La Mascara & Shocker & El Terrible-DQ, Sam Adonis & Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa b Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Volador Jr.

6/24 Monbetsu (All Japan - 660): Yutaka Yoshie b Naoya Nomura, Takao Omori won three-way over Masa Fuchi and Masao Inoue, Yohei Nakajima & Yuma Aoyagi b Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Black Tiger, Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Yoshihisa Uto & Kazumi Kikuta, Ultimo Dragon & Ryoji Sai b Zeus & Sushi, Jun Akiyama & The Bodyguard b Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee

6/25 Boston (WWE - 5,300): Usos b Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Baron Corbin b Zack Ryder, R-Truth & Goldust b Tyler Breeze & Fandango, Cesaro b Alberto Del Rio, Sami Zayn b Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch & Summer Rae b Charlotte & Natalya & Eva Marie, U.S. title: Rusev b Kalisto, WWE title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins

6/25 Cocoa Beach, FL (WWE NXT - 250): Liv Morgan b Nicole Glencross, Alexander Wolfe b Kishin Raftaar, Noah b Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake b Bronson Matthews, Andrade Cien Almas b Angelo Dawkins, Oney Lorcan b Tino Sabbatelli, Daria Berenato b Billie Kay, Nick Miller & Shane Thorn & Mojo Rawley b Authors of Pain & Bobby Roode

6/25 Mexico City Arena Mexico (Elite tournament finals - 2,000): Puma & Tiger b Emperador Azteca & Metaleon, Quarterfinals: Michael Elgin b Lio Rush, Kushida b DJZ, Volador Jr. b Tama Tonga, Bram b Sabu, Semifinals: Volador Jr. b Kushida, Michael Elgin b Bram, Finals: Michael Elgin b Volador Jr.

6/25 Concord, NC (ROH TV tapings - 500): Donovan Dijak b Jason Kincaid, Tag titles: Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian b Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser, Mark Briscoe b ACH, Jay White b Kamaitachi-DQ, Jay White & Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley b Christopher Daniels & Frankie kazarian & Kamaitachi, Keith Lee & Shane Taylor b Victor Andrews & James Anthony, Dalton Castle b Roderick Strong, Ray Rowe & Hanson b Tim Hughes & Brutal Bob Evans, Caprice Coleman & Rhett Titus & Kenny King b Moose & Cheeseburger & Will Ferrara, ROH title: Jay Lethal b Kyle O’Reilly, Moose b Mike Posey, Donovan Dijak b Moose, Jay Lethal & Mark & Jay Briscoe b Young Bucks & Adam Cole

6/25 Yokkaichi (New Japan - 1,127 sellout): Matt Sydal b David Finlay, Rocky Romero & Baretta b Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask, Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan, Satoshi Kojima & Ryusuke Taguchi & Yo****atsu b Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page & Chase Owens, Katsuyori Shibata & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson, Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi b Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo

6/25 Ishikawa (Dragon Gate - 800 sellout): Cima & Eita & Peter Kaasa b Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito & Jimmy Kanda, Naruki Doi b Kzy, Masato Yoshino & T-Hawk b Masaaki Mochizuki & Lindaman, Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora b Big R Shimizu & Shachihoko Boy, Shingo Takagi & Cyber Kong & Mondai Ryu b Yamato & BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria

6/25 Takaoka (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 425 sellout): Quiet Storm b Shiro Tomoyose, Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinari Ogawa b Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH, Mohammed Yone & Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge b Kenou & Hajime Ohara & Eclipse, Shelton Benjamin & Taichi & Desperado b Maybach Taniguchi & Taiji Ishimori & Kaito Kiyomiya, Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Naomichi Marufuji & Toru Yano & Hitoshi Kumano, Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya b Takashi Sugiura & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.

6/26 Orlando (WWE - 4,500): Usos b Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Baron Corbin b Zack Ryder, Shinsuke Nakamura & Finn Balor b Samoa Joe & Austin Aries, Jack Swagger b Viktor, Cesaro b Alberto Del Rio, Bayley & Sasha Banks & Summer Rae b Natalya & Dana Brooke & Eva Marie, Primo & Epico b Darren Young & Titus O’Neil, WWE title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins

6/26 Jacksonville (WWE - 4,000): Three-way for WWE title: Dean Ambrose won over Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, Enzo Amore & Big Cass b Dudleys, Goldust b Fandango, Big Show & Kane b Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman, Paige & Becky Lynch b Charlotte & Lana, U.S. title: Rusev b Apollo Crews, Tag titles: Big E & Kofi Kingston won three-way over Sin Cara & Kalisto and Aiden English & Simon Gotch

6/26 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Bengala & Leono b Artillero & Camorra, Hombre Bala Jr. & Magnus & Mr. Mexico Jr. b Black Scorpio & Canelo Casas & El Hijo del Signo, Misterioso Jr. & Okumura & Virus b Fuego & Pegasso & Triton, Pierroth & Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa b Maximo Sexy & Stuka Jr. & Volador Jr., Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero b Kushida & Marco Corleone & Michael Elgin-DQ

6/26 Kanazawa (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 508): Andy Dalton b Shiro Tomoyose, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Akitoshi Saito & Hitoshi Kumano, Yoshinari Ogawa & Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH b Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Shelton Benjamin b Katsuhiko Nakajima & Maybach Taniguchi & Masa Kitamiya, Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Naomichi Marufuji & Toru Yano & Kaito Kiyomiya, Go Shiozaki & Kenou & Hajime Ohara b Takashi Sugiura & Taichi & Desperado

6/26 Osaka (Dragon Gate - 1,200 sellout): Lindaman b Takehiro Yamamura, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito & Futa Nakamura b Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii & Kaito Ishida, T-Hawk b Hiroaki Moriya, Eita & Magnitude Kishiwada b BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria, Naruki Doi & Kotoka b Jimmy Susumu Jimmy Kagetora, Yamato & Kzy b Shingo Takagi & Cyber Kong, Cima & Dragon Kid & Gamma & Peter Kaasa b Masato Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & Big R Shimizu & Shachihoko Boy

6/26 Shikaoi-cho (All Japan): Yuma Aoyagi b Sushi, Yohei Nakajima won three-way over Masa Fuchi and Yutaka Yoshie, Ultimo Dragon & Ryoji Sai b Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Black Tiger, Takao Omori b Masao Inoue, Jun Akiyama & Yoshihisa Uto & Kazumi Kikuta b Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Naoya Nomura, Zeus & The Bodyguard b Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee

6/27 Tampa (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 8,000): R-Truth & Goldust b The Ascension, Baron Corbin b Jack Swagger, Sasha Banks & Paige b Charlotte & Dana Brooke, Non-title: Titus O’Neil b Rusev-COR, Seth Rollins b John Cena, Enzo Amore & Big Cass b Carlos Cochi & Mitch Waldie, IC title: Kane b The Miz-COR, Cesaro & Apollo Crews b Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio, Non-title: Dean Ambrose b A.J. Styles, Big Show & Enzo Amore & Big Cass & Dean Ambrose b A.J. Styles & Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows & Seth Rollins

6/27 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,648): Ryusuke Taguchi b David Finlay, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba & Rocky Romero & Baretta b Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan, Satoshi Kojima & Yo****atsu & Matt Sydal b Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page & Chase Owens, Katsuyori Shibata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuji Nagata b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson, Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi b Evil & Seiya Sanada, Tetsuya Naito & Bushi b Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay

6/28 Miami (WWE Smackdown/Main Event TV tapings): Sami Zayn b Oney Lorcan, Sin Cara & Kalisto b The Ascension, R-Truth & Goldust b Tyler Breeze & Fandango, Primo & Epico b Zack Ryder & Jack Swagger, Enzo Amore & Big Cass b Dudleys, Cesaro won four-way over Apollo Crews, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio, U.S. title: Rusev b Cesaro, Dana Brooke b Billie Kay, Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman b ?, Sasha Banks b Summer Rae, Non-title: Dean Ambrose b The Miz, Dean Ambrose & Sami Zayn & Cesaro b Bray Wyatt & Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman

6/28 Akkeshi-cho (All Japan - 311): Takao Omori b Masao Inoue, Yohei Nakajima b Masa Fuchi, Ryoji Sai & Yoshihisa Uto & Kazumi Kikuta b Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Naoya Nomura, Zeus b Jake Lee, Kento Miyahara b The Bodyguard, Jun Akiyama & Yuma Aoyagi & Ultimo Dragon b Yutaka Yoshie & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Black Tiger

6/28 Tochigi (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 176): Andy Dalton b Eclipse, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Akitoshi Saito & Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshinari Ogawa & Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH b Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge & Shiro Tomoyose, Maybach Taniguchi & Kenou & Hajime Ohara b Shelton Benjamin & Taichi & Desperado, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya & Taiji Ishimori b Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Taka Michinoku, Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji & Toru Yano & Hitoshi Kumano b Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Sugiura & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

6/29 Chino (New Japan - 545): Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask b Rocky Romero & Baretta, Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page b Yo****atsu & David Finlay, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Ryusuke Taguchi b Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson b Katsuyori Shibata & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & Matt Sydal b Young Bucks & Chase Owens, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi & Seiya Sanada b Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay

CMLL:

Daniel Lopez (El Satanico) posted on Facebook that Thunder is going through some major health problems which is why he hasn’t been wrestling. The Cubsfan site stated that Thunder is battling cancer and Satanico’s post translated said, “help us believe in miracles.” Satanico trained Thunder, who never took to pro wrestling. He was tall and had the bodybuilder physique so he physically stood out and got a big push. But he was so green that it didn’t take. His daughter, a former ring card girl, met Thunder while on vacation in Australia and they fell in love. She convinced him to move to Mexico and have her father train him to be a wrestler. He had wrestled briefly in Australia and even had a tour of Michinoku Pro Wrestling under the name Taipan but was never brought back, before coming to Mexico. In many ways he reminded me of Sid Vicious in the late 80s but he wasn’t even close to as effective in the sense even with his look, he didn’t get over. CMLL has never acknowledged his disappearance a few months ago

La Mascara will be taking the place of the injured Mephisto in the 7/1 Grand Prix tournament. Mephisto is out with a groin injury

The complete lineup for the iPPV show at www.cleeng.com will be the 16-man one night Grand Prix tournament plus three other matches. The tournament has Diamante Azul, La Mascara, Maximo Sexy (CMLL world heavyweight champion), Rey Escorpion, Rush, Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero, Volador Jr., Johnny Idol, Kushida, Marco Corleone, Michael Elgin (having a big month winning the IWGP IC title and the Elite tournament), Okumura, Sam Adonis, Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa. The other matches have Rey Cometa vs. Cavernario in a hair vs. hair match, Atlantis & Mistico & Stuka Jr. vs. Euforia & Mr. Niebla & El Terrible and Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Felino & Puma & Tiger. Cometa vs. Cavernario should be great. The Panther family vs. The Casas family usually have good matches

Adidas is sponsoring the tournament

On 6/24, Adonis & Tonga & Roa beat Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Volador Jr. in the main event. Tonga & Roa did their double team finish to pin Atlantis. Kushida made his CMLL debut teaming with Marco Corleone & Mistico to beat Mascara & Shocker & Terrible via DQ when Mascara unmasked Mistico. There was lots of heat when Mascara and Mistico were in. Zeuxis retained her Mexican national women’s title beating Princesa Sugei with a Spanish fly in what was said to be a great match with the crowd throwing money in after the finish. With the foreigners in, the crowd was up to 6,000. . Volador Jr., Puma and Tiger all worked this show and then rushed to Arena San Juan Pantitlan for the CaraLucha second anniversary show that night

New Japan talent was in the top two matches on 6/26 at Arena Mexico. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa teamed with Pierroth to beat Maximo Sexy & Stuka Jr & Volador Jr., while Euforia & Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero beat Kushida & Corleone & Elgin via DQ with a cheap finish as Euforia threw his mask to Corleone and the ref saw Corleone holding the mask and disqualified him. Debuting were Mr. Mexico Jr., who looked very good, as did Black Scorpio, who is the brother of Rey Escorpion

Mascara Dorada returned on 6/28 after appearing in the WWE tournament. He got permission to do the WWE show but the negative is that CMLL is probably not going to do much with him because their feeling is he will leave when WWE calls. There is nothing official, but he did well in his debut and so people are thinking WWE may call him for a September start date

There was a lot of controversy from the 6/27 show in Puebla. They drew a packed house in the 5,000 range for a Rush vs. Cibernetico match. For whatever reason, Cibernetico wasn’t there and Volador Jr. was sent as a replacement. There was no explanation given at the show that one of the main eventers wasn’t there. While Volador Jr. is the better wrestler, and really, right now, the bigger star, the original match was a bigger drawing match because of its uniqueness.

AAA:

They announced the 7/17 TV tapings in Oaxaca with La Parka & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown vs. Mesias & Brian Cage & Hernandez as the main event, a three-way tag match with Averno & Chessman defending the AAA tag titles against Aero Star & Drago and Jack Evans & Angelico, plus a Pentagon Jr. vs. Fenix match. Believe it or not, even though this match of the brothers has taken place all over the world, it has never taken place in AAA.

WRESTLE-1:

The promotion is clearly falling on hard times as on 6/28, it was announced that AKIRA, Minoru Tanaka, Tajiri, Ryota Hama and Yasufumi Nakanoue (who is half of the tag team champions) will not have their contracts renewed when they expire this week. Tanaka, Hama and Nakanoue have been with the promotion since it opened in 2013, and Nakanoue was the protégé of President Keiji Muto. All of their deals expire on 6/30. Tanaka, Tajiri and Nakanoue will continue to work Wrestle-1 shows after that point but on a per show free agent basis, so this sounds like the company couldn’t afford signing them to new deals

The final four in the Grand Prix tournament are Yuji Hino vs. Kaz Hayashi and Manabu Soya vs. Shotaro Ashino on 7/1 at Korakuen Hall, with the winners meeting later in the show. That show also has Nakanoue & Yuji Okabayashi defending the Wrestle-1 tag titles against Shuji Kondo & Brother Yasshi and Kotaro Suzuki defending the cruiserweight title against Andy Wu. Hayashi and Hino advanced on 6/26 in Ichihara when Hayashi pinned Masayuki Kono with the European clutch, and Hino pinned Nakanoue with a power bomb.

DRAGON GATE:

Announced so far for the company’s big show of the year on 7/24 in Kobe at the World Hall, are the previously announced Open the Dream Gate title match with Shingo Takagi defending against Yamato and Masaaki Mochizuki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Don Fujii & Masakatsu Funaki, plus added is a three-way for the Open the Triangle Gate titles with Masato Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & T-Hawk defending against Cima & Dragon Kid & Peter Kaasa and BxB Hulk & Kzy and a mystery partner, plus Yosuke Santa Maria defends the Open the Brave Gate title against Eita

There will be a Twin Gate title match on 7/2 in Kyoto with Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora defending against T-Hawk & Big R Shimizu

The 7/7 show at Korakuen Hall has a three-way trios main event with Yoshino & Tozawa & Shachihoko Boy vs. Yamato & Hulk & Kzy vs. Takagi & Naruki Doi & Brother Yasshi.

ALL JAPAN:

Tatsuhito Takaiwa has been in and will be challenging Hikaru Sato for the jr. title. Takaiwa had been issuing challenges that weren’t being accepted, but on the 6/25 show in Abashiri, Takaiwa pinned Sato in a tag match to set it up

On that same night, in the main event, Jun Akiyama & Zeus beat Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee when Akiyama pinned Triple Crown champion Lee with a running knee.

NEW JAPAN:

The big show of the current tour and last significant show before G-1 is on 7/3 in Iwate for a 3 a.m. Eastern (Late Saturday/early Sunday) show on New Japan World with a top three matches being Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomoaki Honma for the Never title, which, put in a big show main event spot, may be fantastic, plus an elimination match with Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, and a Never trios titles match with Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet & Satoshi Kojima

Taka Michinoku & Taichi promoted a show on 6/24 in Tokyo at the Shinkiba ring to determine the Suzuki-gun reps for the Super J Cup which starts on 7/20. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Taichi won, and join Kaji Tomato of K-Dojo and Gurukun Mask of the Ryukyu Dragon promotion as confirmed entrants. They did a weird tournament were the first match could only be won via count out, as Taichi beat Kanemaru. The next was a first bodyslam match, where Michinoku beat Desperado. Then came a ladder match where Desperado beat Taichi. Then came a regular match where Kanemaru pinned Michinoku after a brainbuster. Next was a chair match where Kanemaru pinned Desperado. And finally there was a two count pin match where Taichi pinned Michinoku

It is official that both Super J Cup shows will be live on New Japan World

Shibata has been teaming with the veteran group, most notably Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi, on this tour. The idea is that when Shibata beat Nagata on 6/18 at Dominion that everything was settled in the Shibata feud with Nagata, Nakanishi, Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan and he’s now with them. Kojima hasn’t been teaming with him since Kojima has been battling The Bullet Club to set up the trios title match

Lots of regulars have been missing as Omega was in Orlando at a game symposium and Kushida and Michael Elgin were in Mexico for the tournaments there, Ricochet was in Lucha Underground for their tapings and The Young Bucks were in ROH for their PPV and TV tapings. Kushida and Elgin are staying in Mexico but the others are all back in Japan now

The big show of the week was 6/27 at Korakuen Hall before 1,648 fans, which would be just shy of a sellout. It was a strong show overall, particularly the last three matches. They did an angle after Hangman Page & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi lost to Kojima & Yo****atsu & Sydal, that the Bullet Club and Page in particular hanged Yo****atsu over the ropes, with the heat being that everyone knows Yo****atsu is coming back from a broken neck. Nagata & Tenzan & Honma beat Juice Robinson & Togi Makabe & Shibata when Tenzan pinned Robinson after a moonsault. Tenzan was focused on with the storyline that he’s made he’s not in this year’s G-1. Shibata and Honma had a pull-apart to build their match. Goto & Yoshi-Hashi beat Evil & Sanada in 17:11 when Yoshi-Hashi rolled-up Sanada to score his second pin on him and keep their program going. These wins for Yoshi-Hashi do make sense because he needs some credibility going into G-1. This was a heated great match. Main event saw Naito & Bushi beat Okada & Ospreay in 17:21 another good match. Ospreay did all kinds of great moves including a twisting tornillo dive, a Spanish fly and it ended when Bushi pinned Ospreay after the codebreaker and Bushi cut a promo about the Super J Cup coming up

AXS will be replaying New Japan shows every Tuesday through Friday at 5 a.m. Eastern and 2 a.m. Pacific starting on 7/5.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES:

Masakatsu Funaki won the Legends championship of Real Japan Pro Wrestling from Daisuke Sekimoto in the main event of the 6/23 show at Korakuen Hall. The show drew a sellout of 1,639 fans. Funaki won in 13:12 after the hybrid blaster, regaining the title. The original Tiger Mask, who has been out of action due to health related issues, did a sparring exhibition with Minowa-man, to show people he’s about to return

FMW sold out Korakuen Hall on 6/21 with 1,600 fans, with built four different no rope barbed wire death matches. The first was a women’s match with Miss Mongol, the former FMW woman wrestler, beating 80s legend Dump Matsumoto. The rest were matches with stars of the 90s FMW promotion against shooters of the same era from RINGS, PWFG and UWFI. The main event saw FMW win with Atsushi Onita & Raijin Yaguchi & Hideki Hosaka & Nosawa beating Masakatsu Funaki & Yoshihiro Takayama & Mitsuya Nagai & Takuma Sano when Onita made Sano submit to the chicken wing crossface

DDT also sold out Korakuen Hall on 6/26 with 1,691 fans for the finals of the King of DDT tournament. In the semifinals, Shuji Ishikawa beat Shigehiro Irie in 15:50 after a running knee; and Tetsuya end pinned Harashima in 7:50 with a double leg cradle. Ishikawa then won the final in 23:52 with a slam. Ishikawa will now get a title match on the company’s biggest show of the year on 8/28 at Sumo Hall. He’ll face the winner of the 7/3 title match with champion Konosuke Take****a vs. Yuko Miyamoto.

HERE AND THERE:

Jimmy Snuka was booked for the WrestleCon convention in conjunction with WrestleMania in Orlando. Don’t know if words have been invented to properly categorize that. What are they thinking booking a guy who has been indicted on a murder charge and isn’t standing trial only because of the belief he is not mentally capable? The Lehigh Valley Prosecution office is looking into this

Jim Myers, 79, better known as George “The Animal” Steele, is scheduled for major kidney surgery on 6/29. He has started this surgery twice and they stopped. On 12/15, he was scheduled for the surgery to clean out his kidneys, but he flatlined while in surgery, so they dropped the operation and were able to bring him back. On 5/26, essentially the same thing happened. He didn’t flatline, but while doing surgery, it became clear if they continued he wouldn’t survive so they stopped and closed him up. He was essentially told if the same thing happened a third time, it would not be good

The 7/29 PWG show in Reseda sold out in about one minute to the point that most of the regulars I know couldn’t even get tickets. It’s gotten ridiculous, and this wasn’t even a major show, as demand for Battle of Los Angeles with people flying in for the three nights will be significantly higher

For the Battle of Los Angeles from 9/2 to 9/4, they’ve announced Cody Rhodes, Mark Haskins, Kamaitachi, Jeff Cobb, Dalton Castle, Pete Dunne, Sami Callihan, Tommy End, Trevor Lee, Adam Cole, John Hennigan (Johnny Mundo) and Jack Gallagher. Haskins, Dunne and Gallagher are U.K. wrestlers that would be making their PWG debuts

A memorial to Chyna, which will be part of the documentary that has been worked on for years, was held on 6/22 in Los Angeles. Sean Waltman spoke and said that even though they had a rocky relationship, “Until the day she died, I loved her very much. I really did.” He said he would do everything in his power too make sure she gets in the WWE Hall of Fame. Rob Van Dam also spoke live. I think at this point it’s pretty much a given that is going to happen. Hulk Hogan and Kurt Angle sent in taped tributes. Coolio performed

Bill Cardille, 87, the long-time local wrestling announcer from Pittsburgh, is battling cancer. Cardille has liver cancer, and Bruno Sammartino, who is good friends with him and did some media work this week on Pittsburgh television talking about him, noted that Cardille wasn’t a drinker. According to his daughter Lori Cardille, he just received “a cancer diagnosis that will be quite challenging to say the least. While His spirits are tremendous, which is not a surprise. I thought it would be nice for Dad to know how you enjoyed him during your childhood years or any years for that matter.” She asked for cards or letters at Chilly Billy c/o Century Communications, 313 E Carson St., Pittsburgh PA 15219. Cardille was the lead announcer of Studio Wrestling in Pittsburgh. During the early and mid-60s he worked with Pie Traynor, one of the greatest baseball stars of all-time. He was best known hosting Saturday night Chiller Theater airing horror and sci-fi moves besides being the voice of wrestling in the city. He was also the announcer for one of the WWWF syndicated shows when they taped out of Allentown before being replaced by Vince Sr. in 1971 when Vince dropped longtime favorite Ray Morgan (after a pay dispute) as well as Cardille and put the current Vince McMahon in both spots

Roderick Strong is finishing up with PWG shortly as well as having left ROH, so that’s a WWE future. If he was with TNA, he’s still be working PWG. Plus, the whole Austin Aries story about how he’s changed minds about who can get over in WWE was related to Roderick Strong who people were closed-minded about for years in WWE the same way they had been regarding Aries

Bill Goldberg will star in and produce a movie called “Bauer,” with Chasing Butterfly Pictures. Bauer follows the trail of a Special Forces soldier recruited to head a new black ops organization for the government, but he first has to save his daughter from a mysterious new group bent on revenge. The movie starts filming in September

Revolution Pro Wrestling announced Vader vs. Will Ospreay as the main event on 8/12 in London at York Hall. So they created an angle out of Vader originally watching a gif of Ricochet vs. Ospreay from Tokyo and making a comment negative about it. Ospreay, starting in Japan, started doing the Vader reverse splash, or Vader bomb, in his matches saying “It’s time, it’s Vader time” while doing it. It’ll be tough because Ospreay has a certain standard of match and Vader, at 61, isn’t going to be able to do that. But it’ll be easy heat

Tommy Dreamer brought his House of Hardcore promotion to Melbourne, Australia for a show on 6/24. Those brought in were Hurricane Helms, Mohamed Ali-Vaez, Bull James (Bull Dempsey), Mickie James, Victoria (Lisa Varon), Dreamer and Carlito. They worked with a lot of Australian talent from the OCW promotion. MVP and Magnus (Nick Aldis) were also scheduled for the tour but there were visa issues with both getting into Australia

The Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Canek & Sangre Chicana match we wrote about a few weeks ago nearly sold out Arena Coliseo in Monterrey, drawing more than 5,000 fans. As you would figure, the match was just terrible. Mascaras, who turns 77 in a few weeks, has no business wrestling any longer even though people will pay to see him in the right type of legends match. Once he clearly told Canek to go away while he tried to catch his breath while holding onto the ropes so he wouldn’t fall down. He was so blown up they went right to the finish doing a ridiculous using ref bump and a heel DQ

Damien Sandow, Ricardo Rodriguez and Torito worked the 6/25 Summer Madness show for WWC in Caguas. Because WWC has a working relationship with WWE, the guys are allowed to use their WWE names. Rodriguez faced Ray Gonzalez Jr. Mighty Ursus and manager J.M. Ortega attacked Gonzalez Jr., and went to cut his hair. Ray Sr. made the save, but the heels were beating him down as well under Thunder & Lightning made the save. This was to set up a swerve spot as Thunder & Lightning did another run-in later in the show as heels. Torito beat CMLL mini Demus 3:16. Sandow beat Gonzalez Sr. after a ref bump and then a low blow by Ortega. Sandow came in as a heel despite his WWE face tenure. He had worked for WWC for years as Aaron Stevens before becoming Sandow. Fans were chanting gay slurs at him. He also used “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” as his theme music, so clearly they were encouraging that response. Rey Mysterio Jr. returns for the next major show on 7/16, the Night of Champions, which will be headlined by a three-way with Carlito defending the Universal title against Mysterio and a wrestler to be named

Shimmer did a ton of taping over the weekend. Nicole Savoy got rave reviews, and Shayna Baszler debuted in the ring with a win over Solo Darling to set up a Heart of Shimmer title match with Savoy that Savoy retained in.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND:

Kevin Kross is believed to have signed a contract for season four. He’s been appearing pretty regularly at the tapings but only in dark matches and no character has been introduced

Notes from the 6/22 show. This was one of the weaker shows of the season. The entire show was to build up the Gift of the Gods match at Ultimate Lucha 2 with all the winners getting medallions. Actually the show opened with Dario Cueto with Night Claw, a newcomer who is Flamita. It’s weird because Cueto gave him a medallion without winning and he’s in the mach. He was pushed like he was going to be a star. But he only appeared in Ultima Lucha and then they barely used him in season three even though he’s the kind of guy tailor made to get over with this group. Daga beat Mascara Sagrada in 2:06 with a crossface in a match for a medallion. Kobra Moon was on the roof of Cueto’s office watching this. The storyline is she’s got the hots for Daga. The match sucked. It was no fault of the guys. The idea that beating up on Mascarita the way they do gets anyone over or gets him over is backwards thinking. You have a guy who could be special and he’s a comedy joke, although it’s been done for two seasons and at this point the damage is long done so it probably doesn’t matter. And Daga didn’t get over. I guess the idea is it was to help Famous B, who superkicked Mascarita after the match, and then took off his shoe and starting beating on him with it. B said he was getting a new client (Dr. Wagner Jr.) who he can make famous. Dario Cueto was with Dragon Azteca Jr. Black Lotus had told Dario that Dragon Azteca Jr. knows where he keeps Matanza and is coming to kill him for killing his mentor. Cueto told him that his brother didn’t kill his mentor. Azteca told him that he was a liar. He said he was a giver of opportunities. He said that Black Lotus believed that Dragon Azteca killed her parents and wants to take you out as well. Then he said when you step into the ring with her and look into her eyes, you will see who killed Dragon Azteca, basically blaming her. He said that then you can have vengeance for your master in front of the entire world, or least 100,000 people in the world. He said that’s what Dragon Azteca would have wanted. So Dario is selling out Black Lotus. Killshot & Siniestro de la Muerte & Marty the Moth beat Cortez Castro & Mr. Cisco & Joey Ryan in 8:03 of a match for three medallions. Marty told Killshot that tonight we have to be brothers-in-arms so to show his loyalty he was giving him back his dog tags. The match wasn’t good, although spots with Cisco and Siniestro were well done. It’s weird because Castro & Ryan arrested Cisco and Cisco is their informant to catch Cueto. And the announcers know none of this. Ryan started arguing with both Cisco and Castro and shoved Cisco. Marty then gave Cisco a curb stomp and Killshot used a double kneedrop off the top on Cisco for the pin. Marty, after getting his medallion, stole the dog tags back. The main event was a women’s tag match for two medallions. It was a parejas increibles match with Sexy Star & Mariposa beating Taya & Ivelisse in 9:48. Mariposa turned on Sexy first. Some cool dives. Match was okay. Taya spared Ivelisse and Mariposa threw Sexy on top for the pin. They built the show around Prince Puma’s first interview. He said that Konnan had already told him that one day he could be as good as Rey Mysterio Jr. He said in his mind, Rey was the best, but in the back of his mind, he wonders if he’s as good as or better than Rey. He said he has to know just how good he is, and challenged Mysterio. Mysterio came out and said he was one of the pioneers who paved the way for guys like Puma. He said he has mad respect for Puma. But he said you are a Prince and I’m still El Rey (The King). Mysterio said that he also needs to know if he’s still the best, so he accepts the challenge. This was well done and it elevated Puma and made it seem like it’s an epic match,.

ROH:

The situation with Moose changed in the past week as well. WWE backed off on signing him at this moment due to a 2009 domestic violence allegation which led to him being suspended for a game when he was in the NFL. He was actually told not to worry by WWE with the idea it’s just a timing situation (given the recent situations with Adam Rose and Jerry Lawler) and not a closed door. He was originally expected to be part of their September NXT introduction class with guys like Tommy End and Big Damo and most likely Roderick Strong, who did finish up here over the weekend. Moose has had offers from Lucha Underground, TNA, which offered the most money of anyone ($100,000 per year) and the door is open to staying here as well. Those at ROH view his future here as something that has changed a few times and it may or may not change again. Right now they are going with the idea it could go either way. But the plans aren’t booked right now with him as a key part of things. The impression we have is it is most likely he will be elsewhere soon which rules out WWE as well. He was beaten a few times on TV and the PPV because he may be gone and was expected to be gone when the shows were first laid out. But the door is open for him to stay. The TNA offer was always the best one money-wise, but there is the feeling that if you go to TNA, you fall off the radar. Plus, nobody knows the future of TNA

Some stuff for the remainder of the year will include new talent from New Japan, like Katsuyori Shibata, that have never appeared in ROH rings before, plus CMLL talent starting on the 7/16 show in Philadelphia, and more focus on the women

They taped four weeks of TV on 6/25 in Concord, NC, after the PPV. They drew 500 fans. The first show, which airs starting on 7/9, opened with Donovan Dijak beating Jason Kincaid. Kincaid looked good in losing. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian beat Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser in a strong match to retain the tag titles. This was the shot Young & Bruiser got from winning Tag Wars. There was a Fish Tank segment with Bobby Fish interviewing Mark Briscoe and ACH. The segment saw them both want a shot at Fish’s TV title. It build to the main event Mark Briscoe beat ACH to earn a shot at Fish’s title, which is the first match made for the 8/19 Death Before Dishonor PPV in Las Vegas. The 7/16 TV show opened with Jay White’s debut vs. Kamaitachi saw Daniels & Kazarian attack White. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley made the save. This led to a six-man tag match that White & The Machine Guns won. For the second week of television, Keith Lee & Shane Taylor, who are being groomed for matches with War Machine, won a squash over James Anthony & Victor Andrews. Dalton Castle pinned Roderick Strong in Strong’s last match with the company as the main event of the show. This was a good person for Strong to put over in his final match as Castle needed the credibility of that win. Fans were chanting “Thank You Roddy” and “You deserve it” after the match. Strong gave an emotional speech when it was over and said that he hoped to wrestle in ROH again some day. The show for 7/23, which was said to be the best one hour TV show they’ve done in a while, opened with the Jay Lethal vs. Kyle O’Reilly match for the ROH title. Before the match started, Adam Cole came out and complained that O’Reilly skipped in front of him in the line and that he deserves the title shot. He then said the match wouldn’t happen. Cole and the Young Bucks destroyed O’Reilly and pounded on his arm and shoulder with a chair and left him laying. War Machine beat Brutal Bob Evans & Tim Hughes. Cheeseburger vs. Will Ferrara was announced for next. The Cabinet (Rhett Titus & Kenny King & Caprice Coleman) came out. This led to a six-man where The Cabinet beat Cheeseburger & Ferrara & Moose. The TV main event saw O’Reilly come out with his arm and shoulder injured but still took his match with Lethal. This was said to be a great match, with the start-to-finish storyline being really good. After O’Reilly lost, The Young Bucks & Cole attacked both Lethal and O’Reilly and beat both down. Nigel McGuinness then came out and said that because of what happened, Adam Cole will never get another championship match as long as he’s in charge, the same words Dana White used on Ariel Helwani which was also immediately rescinded. The final show, airing the weekend of 7/30, opened with the announcement of a main event being the IWGP tag champs, Mark & Jay Briscoe, vs. junior tag champs, The Young Bucks. Lethal came out and said he demanded to get a shot at the Young Bucks, and McGuinness agreed and made it Bucks & Briscoes vs. Cole & Bucks as the main event. Moose pinned Mike Posey. Dijak came out to immediately challenge Moose. Dijak beat Moose, and also destroyed manager Stokley Hathaway. This was Hathaway’s farewell angle as he’s gone. Main event saw Lethal & Briscoes over Cole & Bucks. After the match, the Bucks tied Lethal up in the ropes and Cole shaved his head. The Bucks started leading the crowd in chants of “You deserve it” to Lethal

The next two shows are 7/8 in Baltimore and 7/16 in Philadelphia. Baltimore has a five match all-women’s show at 5 p.m. with Kelly Klein vs. Candice LeRae, Veda Scott vs. Jenny Rose, Deonna Purrazzo & Amber Gallows & Kennadi Brink vs. Sumie Sakai & Faye Jackson & Solo Darling, Mandy Leon vs. Hania the Huntress and Hendrix vs. Crazy Mary Dobson. Announced for the 7:30 p.m. main show is Titus & King vs. Ferrara & Cheeseburger, Mark Briscoe vs. Dijak vs. Sabin vs. Kazarian, Daniels vs. Moose, White vs. Lio Rush, Kamaitachi vs. Fish, Young vs. ACH last man standing and Colt Cabana & Jay Briscoe & Lethal vs. Cole & Adam Page & Nick Jackson. Philadelphia will be a TV taping with matches announced being White vs. Ferrara, Page vs. Castle, Young & Bruiser vs. Briscoes, Stuka Jr. (The CMLL rep instead of the injured Dragon Lee) vs. Kamaitachi, Rush vs. Dijak, a three-way for the tag titles with Daniels & Kazarian vs. Sabin & Shelley vs. Hanson & Rowe, and Lethal vs. Cabana for the ROH title, plus Young Bucks and Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta.

TNA:

There is a lot of unhappiness surrounding the 8/11 to 8/14 tapings date that is on the schedule although not announced. Abyss, Jade, Andrew Everett and Drew Galloway were all booked on a tour on the U.K. during that period. I think there may have been another person as well because five TNA talents were pulled from a series of events where they would have earned considerably more than at the tapings. But they all have deals where TNA tapings come first. The promoters were hoping something could be worked out but it didn’t happen

Not every contract signed of late has TNA in control of the talent’s bookings. The attempt has been made with the top guys that have been mentioned for that, but some talents have been given different deals. But that is the stip for the Hardys, Drew Galloway and Ethan Carter III, who have been offered new deals and at this point have not signed them

Josh Matthews got a job hosting a sports talk show on the Nashville ESPN radio station.

Vince Russo said on his podcast that he sent a text message to Bradley Schwartz of Pop TV after the first week ratings came out and told him that the TNA show was terrible. He also asked for a job as a consultant for the station regarding wrestling. He claimed he at one point did the same thing with Destination America. Neither station bit on the offer. He claimed that he could fix TNA’s problems. During the podcast sidekick Glen Gilbertti (Disco Inferno), Russo’s friend brought up Russo trying to get a job with Lucha Underground, which Russo admitted to. If you recall, we wrote that before and after he went to Los Angeles to attend some tapings and then Russo claimed it was a lie and he wasn’t there for that at all, even though people within the company had told us before what he was coming for, and that it would be denied, and then confirmed it after the fact. In the end they didn’t hire him for a consultant or writer job.

UFC:

Lorenzo Fertitta had quietly signed a five-year deal with Red Rock Resorts, the company his family controls, to be the new CEO. He actually signed the deal back on 4/28. That would seem to indicate he’s leaving UFC, where he has been CEO since June 2008 working full-time. Before that, while he was the owner, he was working mainly with Station Casinos and Dana White was in charge. Fertitta is also Vice President of Red Rock and on its Board of Directors

There is no news regarding the sale. With the exception of Jeremy Botter and Flo Wrestling, nobody has been able to confirm the story. There are indications we’ve got at press time based on things taking place behind the scenes and communications which would indicate the sale is not final and more than one company is still in the running

Campbell McLaren, who ran the UFC in its early years and currently runs the Combate Americas group on NBC Universo, said in an interview that earlier this year he tried to put together a package to buy UFC, although his offer was $2.8 billion, far short of the $4 billion range offers that came in recently. McLaren was on Submission Radio this past week and said, “I haven’t talked about this in the media and investment bankers and privately equity firms are notoriously press-shy, so I’m gonna avoid naming names, but we had what we thought was a tremendous offer. It was $2.8 billion. And that was sort of based on the investment bank arithmetic. The UFC did $200 million in earnings before tax and depreciation, so last year they had a great year. They had Conor. They had Ronda. Great year. And they did $200 million roughly in profits so that’s tremendous. And typically, bankers, private equity firms might look at earnings like that, and the range would be 12 to 14 times that, which gives you the value of the company, so $2.8 billion was on the higher side. But I think Lorenzo is very forward thinking and he says, `Look, I’m building this tremendous platform around the world and UFC is great in Australia, right? Great success in the U.S. We’re pretty good in Mexico, great in Canada, real traction in the U.K.’. But yet, they have built out a platform in Asia and Europe and the Middle East that hasn’t really come online yet. So I think Lorenzo looks at this and goes, we haven’t even seen the real value of the UFC, so I want a lot of freakin money. I don’t want some banker’s idea of what it’s worth. I’m a visionary. I know this is worth a lot of money. So I do think he has a super-high value on it. But when you get to that point, there’s only a few people that really can enter into that sort of purchase. Investors are typically very disciplined. Sometimes very well-to-do individuals get caught up in the glamour of something and will overbid, and that’s kind of where I think they are. I don’t think the UFC has been sold. It don’t think it’s gonna be on UFC 200. Now they may have sold off a portion at a very high valuation, but they can come back to it late on and say, `This is our valuation.’

The C.M. Punk vs. Mickey Gall fight will take place on 9/10 as part of UFC 203 in Cleveland. Punk confirmed the date on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, the same podcast where Dwayne Johnson claimed that in 2004, he was considering leaving WWE for UFC and giving a go of it

UFC got a few nominations for the Espy awards, which will be announced on 7/13 with John Cena as one of the co-hosts. With Ronda Rousey out of the running, after winning Best Female Athlete and Best Fighter last year, it’s going to be tough for UFC to have any winners. Conor McGregor is nominated for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Fighter, but his loss to Nate Diaz should kill him for the latter and not help him for the former. Holly Holm was also nominated for Biggest Upset over Ronda Rousey and best play (knockout of Rousey). The only other nominee was Robbie Lawler for Best Fighter, but he’s not close to mainstream enough to win a popularity contest. The best fighter nominees are McGregor, Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, Lawler and Roman Gonzalez. McGregor may have won had he not lost during the year. . Of the 2015 profit, $76,089,000 went to the shareholders as dividends or roughly $30,816,000 for both Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta and $6,848,000 to Dana White. The prior year and dividends paid to the stockholders totaled $44,329,000, and that was for what seemed to be the worst year possible. Unlike WWE, which has historically kept tens of millions in cash on hand and rarely taken out loans, the UFC has been built on debt. On December 31, 2015, they had $19,347,000 cash and cash equivalents on hand, far less than WWE. The company also owns 50 percent of the UFC branded gyms. The company last year spent $57,460,000 in advertising costs. Of the total revenue, the company took in $79.2 million in revenue in Brazil, its leading international market

Amar Suloev who fought from 1999 to 2008, passed away on 6/26 from stage four stomach cancer at the age of 40. Suloev was one of the early Russians to come into UFC, debuting on January 11, 2002, but lost decisions to Chuck Liddell and then to Phil Baroni. He later fought in Pride from 2003 to 2006, and then Bodog. He left fighting with a 24-7 record and had some unsavory connections

Dan Severn will be releasing an autobiography this coming week called “The Realest Guy in the Room: The Life and Times of Dan Severn.” Seven will be selling copies of the book at the UFC Fan Expo. Some day Enzo is stealing that title. Jim Cornette writes the foreword, so the book will combine his growing up on a form, his long career as an amateur wrestler, as well as his pro wrestling and MMA days

Michael Bisping, at 37, is saying he wants to do two or three more fights and then retire. The belief is if he could lay it out, he’d do Dan Henderson, GSP and maybe that would be it, or maybe he’d face one of the top contenders. He’s been vocal about not wanting to face anyone on PEDs, feeling he lost a number of key fights in his career to cheaters

The Anthony Rumble Johnson vs. Glover Teixeira fight for a light heavyweight title shot that was originally set for 7/23 in Chicago on FOX, has been put back on the schedule. It’s now on UFC 202 on 8/20 in Las Vegas. Johnson withdrew from the 7/23 date over personal reasons. Also added to that show is Carlos Condit vs. Demian Maia and Donald Cerrone vs Rick Story. Condit had previously talked about retiring unless he got a rematch with Robbie Lawler. Not sure why UFC went with Tyron Woodley, since most thought Condit beat Lawler. But in recent weeks Condit had been hinting he would fight again

The scheduled 7/13 main event from Sioux Falls of Michael Chiesa vs. Tony Ferguson is out. Chiesa said that while training, he suffered a pop and shift in his lower back followed by sharp pain. He found out he had a ruptured disc. He’ll need eight weeks of physical therapy and rehab, and is hopeful that will allow him to avoid surgery. UFC was looking for a new opponent for Ferguson, but at press time the plan was Michael McDonald vs. John Lineker as the new main event. That’s the show going head-up with the ESPYs, Ultima Lucha, the cruiserweight classic and Nakamura vs. Balor on NXT and will be UFC’s fourth show in seven days

B.J. Penn and USADA reached agreement that Penn would be suspended for six months for illegally using an IV. Penn put it down on the form when drug tested, not realizing that using an IV outside of competition was banned. He said he was aware it was banned in competition. According to USADA, what Penn was taking via IV was nothing illegal. The six month suspension will end on 9/25 since it’s retroactive to 3/25, when he admitted using the IV. Penn has said that when he comes back, he’d like to face Georges St-Pierre for a third time

Paige VanZant vs. Bec Rawlings was announced for the FOX show on 8/27 from Vancouver. VanZant turned down appearing in “Kickboxer: Retaliation,” a role written for her after those in charge of the movie saw her in “Dancing With The Stars,” because it would have conflicted with training for this fight. The date of the fight made it impossible to do SummerSlam

Anderson Silva has joined the cast of people issuing a challenge to Michael Bisping for the middleweight title. My belief is that’s still the biggest money fight for Bisping other than GSP

Stephen Thompson suffered torn ligaments in his win over Rory MacDonald on 6/18 in Ottawa. He believed he suffered the injury in the second round. He’s awaiting results of an MRI to see how badly the thumb is damaged and whether he’ll need surgery. . They announced a 10/15 date in The Philippines at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. That’s the same building that the ONE promotion runs regularly

Urijah Faber said this week that he’s definitely not retiring, but at 37, said he’s probably not going to stick around that much longer. He said he’s looking for interesting fights, but he was pretty negative about facing T.J. Dillashaw in what would be a grudge match, saying it’s now a weird deal

Neil Magny vs. Dong Hyun Kim is being worked on for 8/20 in Las Vegas (UFC 202) but not finalized

Sam Alvey vs. Eric Spicely has been added to the 7/13 show in Sioux Falls, SD. Also added to that show is the debut of unbeaten Karlyn Chookagian, who is 7-0 and a student of Renzo Gracie, facing Lauren Murphy

Rony Jason vs. Dennis Bermudez was added to the 8/6 show in Salt Lake City

Sultan Aliev vs. Hyun Gyu Lim has been added to the 8/20 show in Las Vegas.

BELLATOR:

The company had one of its major shows, the 2016 Dynamite show, on 6/24 at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, headlined by Rampage Jackson vs. Satoshi Ishii. The idea is that Dynamite, a show that combines MMA and kickboxing in the same arena, with a ring and a cage side-by-side, is the company’s biggest show of the year. But it didn’t seem to have that level of interest. From a big-time feel, particularly entrances, this was better than any promotion in the U.S. does with the exception of WWE at WrestleMania. It had the fell of a major event. Matt Mitrione (10-5) debuted and beat Carl Seumanutafa (10-7) in 3:22 of a wild fight. Mitrione’s mind didn’t appear to be in it for good reason. His five-year-old daughter suffered a horrible accident involving glass severing nerves in her arm just a few days earlier. Mitrione from a personality standpoint has the chance to be one of the biggest stars here. The problem in UFC is that he started so late and is already 37, and would never be title level there. He got a big offer here, and Seumanutafa dropped him in 30 seconds. Mitrione looked out of it, but then recovered. John McCarthy was right there. Mitrione ended up reversing to the top and knocked Seumanutafa out with a punch from the top. It got weird as they had planned an angle, as Oli Thompson got in the ring and challenged Mitrione to a match in three weeks in London. So I guess they figured Mitrione would run through this fight easily. But that didn’t happen. Then, in his interview when they asked Mitrione about the near knockout, he said he couldn’t remember it at all. So he’s got no business fighting in three weeks. Later, Scott Coker said that maybe they jumped the gun in announcing the London fight. But shortly after that, Mitrione was back doing commentary, said that everything checked out, he didn’t have a concussion and would be fighting in three weeks. Gloria Peritore (13-3-1) won a split decision over Denise Kielholtz (43-3) in a kickboxing match. This was a great action fight. The big thing that confuses everyone is that if you put boxing, MMA and kickboxing together, the sport that as a general rule will give you the most exciting fights at the high level is kickboxing. However, there is almost no interest in it in the U.S. Ilima MacFarlane (4-0) beat Rebecca Ruth (6-2) via choke at 3:00 of the second round. Kevin Ross, who I believe is the fiancé of Gina Carano (at least he was at one point and he’s the guy who actually got her into kickboxing before MMA) beat Justin Houghton (6-4) in a kickboxing match via decision in another good bout. Benson Henderson came out to challenge the winner of the lightweight title. Michael Chandler (15-3) beat Patricky Pitbull Freire (16-8) in a match to determine the lightweight champion. Will Brooks was released from the promotion, and is now in UFC, after beating Chandler twice. This was almost a perfect five minutes. Chandler came out to an elaborate entrance and the audience in St. Louis went nuts for him, since he’s from the area and wrestled at the University of Minnesota. His video package showed the famed golden arches in the background. Then he knocked Freire out with one of the best punches you will ever see. This punch would have stopped a charging buffalo and Freire was out at 2:14. The place went so nuts, one of the biggest reactions you’ll ever see. They showed a crowd shot and they were celebrating like the Cardinals had won the World Series and there were women crying. Unfortunately, after such a great undercard, the main event was a reason to cry. Rampage Jackson (37-11) beat Ishii (14-6-1) via decision. Jackson was 225 pounds or so, about 20 pounds heavier than usual and looked not fat, but soft and he looked like he hadn’t trained at all. He looked way out of shape, even figuring his age. He later admitted that he sat around and did nothing but play video games for a year before starting to train, and also said he’s got an underactive thyroid that he’s been dealing with for the last year. He said he now gains weight really fast. He said he was diagnosed with it a year ago but may have had it before that, but because of that, may not be able to make light heavyweight going forward. He said he’s going to try and change his lifestyle and the way he eats to try and get to 205 his next fight. He said it doesn’t affect his fighting. He said he wants to fight at light heavyweight because he went to slam Ishii, and in trying, felt he was too big to pick up. Ishii, also about 225 pounds, was the 2008 gold medalist in judo at super heavyweight. Since then, he’s been training in striking in Holland. The problem is, he’s still, after six-and-a-half years, nothing as a striker. All he has is his judo and it’s rusty. Still, he took Jackson down twice and worked for a few submissions in round one. In the second round, Ishii got another takedown into side control. The round was close. I had Ishii winning it but it was close. Jackson won the third round as Ishii’s takedown failed and Jackson was on top landing punches and elbows. The fight sucked. Jackson was announced as winning 29-28, 28-29 and 30-27. Robin Veale had the 30-27 score and should never be allowed to judge again. There is no possible way to score the first round for Jackson. Reporters were 50% for each, while fan voting was 52% for Ishii and 46% for Jackson and the others had it draw.

WWE:

Regarding the Kurt Angle talk, even though HHH called Angle and Angle spoke about it, WWE officials stated this week that Angle is not coming back. The company right now is extremely squeamish about anyone who may cause any bit of controversy after recent news stories regarding Reigns, Lawler and Adam Rose. Angle said after being asked about the statement, “In response to some of your questions today regarding the WWE, and all of the media fanfare about it the last few days. I want to, once again, say that our confidential conversation never discussed the brand split. A few wrestling sites seem to have put a spin on this by twisting some words around to fit their agenda, something that I have no control over. What I can control is my own life, and my life isn’t only wrestling. I do not expect to be in wrestling much longer. I am excited about my future. Thank you.” Angle did an interview with Sports Illustrated where he said, “I had a talk with WWE. It’s confidential. I will not be returning for the draft. Possibly in the future, most likely next year, but that is not a guarantee. It was a loose conversation but I will be in touch with HHH in the future.” In the story, Angle was very positive about Vince McMahon, saying McMahon encouraged him to beat his issues but at the time he didn’t. On TNA, he said: “I was at a company where everybody was drinking, and you were encouraged to drink with them. That’s where the alcohol came in. I didn’t go crazy with it, but when you mix it with pills, it can make you do some really crazy things. It can make you careless. When I traveled, I was drinking and driving, and I got nailed a bunch of times. I couldn’t believe TNA kept me after the second and third DUI. I continued to go with that behavior, and I was lucky to either get a reduced charge to have it thrown out. Dixie Carter played a big role in me going to rehab. She called me and said, `You need to go.’ I didn’t want to go, but when I got there, I realized I had a serious problem and I needed to fix this. Dixie made the right call, and I cleaned my *** up and I’ve been clean and sober for three years now.

If by some reason Angle does come back in July, then this would be a swerve by the office, but most likely, given other decisions that have been made about talent in recent weeks, the decision not to use Angle at this time is consistent with other decisions they’ve made

Regarding different names that have been reported that WWE has called to come back, the two names on lots of lists that we’ve gotten confirmation haven’t been called are Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio. WWE knows both are under contract elsewhere

Right now the new rule is the WWE title is no longer being called the WWE world title, just the WWE title. This likely is to set up the creation of the other brand belt as the world title, which is expected to go on Smackdown, although these things change weekly

Also the new plan is no longer to call the people running the brands “General Managers,” but either COO’s of the brand

WWE is aggressively scouting indies right now. The key thing they are looking for is people who they consider coachable. That’s the current key phrase. I guess that means athletic people who are good listeners. They are also going to be very strict when it comes to background checks. Prospective WWE talent should sure to clean out social media accounts of anything that could be embarrassing

They are also specifically targeting talent from Lucha Underground that can contractually leave

Lesnar will be on the cover of the WWE 2K 17 video game which comes out on 10/11. The idea is to have someone with crossover mainstream appeal and the decision on the cover is made jointly by 2K and Vince McMahon. In recent years, that has become a major decision. Since 2012, the cover wrestlers have been Orton, Punk, Rock, Cena and Austin. And yes, going to Austin was based on the feeling that the wrestlers on the roster full-time aside from Cena and Lesnar weren’t mainstream enough stars. With Lesnar, the key is getting him to agree to the promotional work, which he did. The two guys they look at for the promotional work as the “outside star”, the role Goldberg has this year and Sting, Warrior, Mike Tyson and Lesnar (when he was still in UFC) have had in recent years. Another factor is Heyman works very closely with 2K and Heyman is also close with Lesnar

Kota Ibushi said to Weekly Pro Wrestling that HHH and Shoichi Funaki called him before the tournament and they really wanted him to sign to come in. He had turned down the first offer but he told Weekly Pro Wrestling they pushed hard so he accepted the offer

The schedule listed in last week’s issue for PPVs is accurate as WWE has sent the same schedule to PPV carriers and cleared the listed dates. So the plan is 20 PPV shows per year in 2017, with two Sundays every month except for January, March, August and November which will be one show months. It also establishes Survivor Series as one of the big four, a category that show hasn’t really been in a decade. I wonder how long it’ll be before people only care about four shows a year. Other than doubling up on the PPVs, so much of this is copying exactly what failed before, because the end result of the last brand split was declining ratings on both shows, world titles that had the value of IC titles, declining PPV numbers, and Smackdown brand house shows that couldn’t draw. Granted, that doesn’t mean it’s doomed, but if they do exactly what they did before, yes, it is doomed. But every idea we’ve heard s far is just copying exactly what didn’t work before as opposed to being new ideas

For the brand split, the idea is a different crew on both shows, meaning different writing teams, different referees, different colored ropes and different sets

Based on the NXT tapings this past week, it appears Finn Balor, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable are coming up. After Balor lost to Shinsuke Nakamura in their dream match, which was said to be **** live (and will probably be better on TV because they have the ability to edit stuff out), Balor played it up like it was his goodbye. Then again, he’s been teasing leaving since February. But it’s already long past the time he should have been brought to the main roster. Jordan & Gable lost to both Dash & Dawson and lost clean to The Authors of Pain. Bayley, on the other hand, beat both Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax and it appears she’s being groomed for an Asuka rematch in Brooklyn. The situation with Bayley and whether to bring her up or not was going back-and-forth all week and the hints were that if they did Asuka vs. Bayley at the tapings and she lost, that she’d be called up, but if they didn’t do that match and she won her matches, they’d do the match in Brooklyn and she wasn’t coming up right away.

The update on Orton is that he’s about a month or so away from training for a return. The original time line was that he was going to be in Orlando in mid-June, train a few weeks and be ready right about now. His shoulder is still not 100% although it is improving. This was the third operation on the same shoulder and they did an extensive surgery with the hope it will fix the problem so it wasn’t as simple a recovery as in previous operations. There is still a neck issue but the doctors told him a few months ago he doesn’t need the neck surgery right now

With Lawler suspended, they used David Otunga in his spot on Smackdown with Mauro Ranallo and Byron Saxton thus far. It’s an interesting decision to go with Otunga over Corey Graves, although it may be Graves being held back to start on the show on 7/19 as had been hinted

For Battleground on 7/24 in Washington, DC, the official stuff is Ambrose vs. Reigns vs. Rollins for the WWE title and Owens vs. Zayn. It’s pretty clear it’s New Day vs. Wyatts for the tag title and Cena vs. Styles in some form of stipulation match. Charlotte vs. Banks will be happening soon, whether it’s this show or held off for SummerSlam (the original idea), not sure. Rusev vs. O’Neil is still being pushed as an issue so unless it’s blown off this week and they move to someone else, that would also be on the show along with Lynch vs. Natalya

There was a Donald Trump story going around this past week that involves Vince McMahon. Apparently Trump has given diamond cuff links to business friends as presents for years, only to have it come out they are fakes. Charlie Sheen went public saying Trump gave him a pair as a wedding present and told him he got them from one of the city’s leading jewelers. He said Trump gave them to him at a restaurant and said it was an early wedding present. Sheen said six months later he got them appraised and was told they were worthless and told they were bad zirconia. Where Vince comes in is that in 2007, when he and Vince were doing their WrestleMania angle, he allegedly, according to the New York Post, told Vince he lost a $50,000 cuff link. No word if Vince paid him something to replace them, but evidently he was swerving Vince and they were actually worth less than $100, and he’s get them made in China for $39.99. Vince McMahon commented to the New York Post this past week on the story through a WWE spokesperson and claimed it never happened

Next week’s Raw, on 7/4 from Columbus, OH, due to the holiday, is expected to be the lowest rated Raw in the history of the show. The record low is a 1.8 rating. Shane McMahon is expected to be back and they are locally advertising Cena & Ambrose vs. Rollins & Styles as the main event. Rusev vs. O’Neil in a U.S. title match is scheduled. The last two times July 4th came on a Monday were in 2005 and 2011. In 2005, Raw fell from a 4.4 rating on 6/27 to a 2.6, a 41 percent drop. In 2011, Raw fell from a 3.1 rating to a 2.4, a 23 percent drop. So we’re starting at a 2.21. Given that we’re down to a far more hardcore audience, the drop may be only 20 percent which would be a record low 1.77 rating. But it easily could be the first episode in history to hit a 1.7. A 23 percent drop would be 1.70, so unless today’s audience is die-hards that don’t leave the house on July 4th, that’s the probable range because there are no Cena returns like on Memorial Day to pull out. No matter what the number is, it’s not all that significant in the sense you’d worry about it. Really this week’s number was more significant more because it’s at this level without sports competition so where will it fall to against the NFL

There was an article in The Daily World, the newspaper in Aberdeen, WA, covering Bryan Danielson speaking to fourth and fifth graders at a school in Hoquiam (near Aberdeen). Even though his schedule is far less hectic, making that appearance at the school caused some conflicts. When he has confirmed speaking to the kids at school, and kids were told, he was told that he was needed in Las Vegas for two days of shooting “Total Divas.” His wife told the producers that he had made a commitment and talked them into shooting all of his scenes on the first day so he could fly back and do the speech for the kids. He said he and his wife go back and forth from Phoenix (where she is from) and Aberdeen. He said life has returned to normal, which means filming two different reality shows and doing more appearances with WWE. He said watching wrestling is “borderline painful” and he has to keep his mind away from it. He said that he does wake up with dreams of wrestling. He does have headaches and has accepted that he’s done in the ring. He noted once again that the decision to retire wasn’t his, that the Saturday before the show in Seattle that Vince McMahon called him up and said he wanted him to retire on Raw two days later. “I told him I didn’t know if I was ready. Then, I went to the gym and I talked to my wife and we realized the WWE is never going to allow me to wrestle again, even if I get a million doctors to clear me. So, if It was going to do it, my Mom would get to see it, as well as my family and friends.” Right now he’s taking college classes at Arizona State University. “Realistically, no one should feel bad for me. I am getting paid to figure out what I want to do. Who gets to do that?” He noted that the plan was always to move to Aberdeen after he and his wife were done with wrestling. He said he’s dropped 25 pounds since giving up the idea of returning to wrestling, even though he’s now competing in Olympic weightlifting, a sport that usually builds muscle. He said he doesn’t eat as much because when he was wrestling, being small, he always focused on eating a lot. He said he feels better at the new weight, and runs three or four miles a few days a week and at the lighter weight his knees no longer hurt. He said he would love to start a company in the area, like reopen the mill in town and create 300 jobs, but he didn’t make that kind of money where he could afford to do that

When Danielson spoke before the crowd on the first day of the cruiserweight classic, he said that he had no interest in doing anything related to pro wrestling, but when WWE called him and told him about this idea, he was down for it

The “Total Bellas” show, that he’s one of the stars of, will debut on 10/5 on E! in a Wednesday at 8 p.m. time slot. It will be a six-week series taped with the idea that Bryan and Brie Bella have moved to Land of Lakes, FL to live in Cena’s mansion and all the problems when you have the two sisters with different value structures living under the same roof. In reality, they just filmed segments of them living together. The idea is that Bryan & Brie are vegans (Bryan is no longer a vegan) and free-spirited while Nikki is super materialistic (not exactly untrue) and Cena is a neat freak (also not exactly untrue). The idea is that when this was filmed, Brie is the only healthy one as Nikki had neck surgery, Bryan had to retire due to concussions, Brie had just retired, Cena had shoulder surgery (I know Brie’s retirement and Cena’s being nearly recovered was at the same time but that’s the script)

Graves may also be appearing at least some during the cruiserweight shows. He’s at least on the first preview show on 7/9

Hideo Itami, who we’ve been told was close to coming back for some time after shoulder surgery (and he may have needed a second surgery because he had problems after the first one) wrote on Twitter “NXT Winter Haven,” which is a 6/30 show. We don’t know that’s his return, but as noted, he is expected back soon

Batista appeared on the MLW podcast and talked about his last run with WWE. He said his last run started out bad because they wanted him back to be the top babyface and he thought he should be a heel. He said that he wasn’t in his best shape as he had an Achilles tendon injury and wasn’t lifting heavy or training hard because he wanted to change his body for acting and didn’t want to be as thickly muscled. He said he argued with Vince and creative every day he was there. He said the return broke his heart because he’d been thinking about it for years. He said that he was interested in coming back in conjunction with the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” He said he talked to both HHH and Stephanie about returning when the movie was released. He told them it would be No. 1 at the box office and said they snickered at him and said “Yeah, we don’t even know if the movie is gonna be any good.” He said that the day after Mania when they told Bryan not to sell any of his injuries from the day before that it pissed him off. He also hated when they split up The Shield at the time they did, saying they had made The Shield hot by putting them over so strong and then they immediately split them instead of giving them the top run. He said they should have waited for The Shield to start to lose steam and then do the split. He said he and Ziggler had great matches but fans missed out because they were so intent on chanting for C.M. Punk and it hurt his feelings. He said it became trendy to boo him but it felt like a personal attack. He said the crowd confused him because he didn’t come back and ask for a lot of money, and was willing to do house shows and put over anyone they asked. He said when WWE started doing movies, he asked if there would be an opportunity for him but they showed no interest. Actually he was to star in one of the bad movies but his contract was running out and when he hadn’t signed a new contract, they gave the role to HHH

Sony Pictures Animation announced that “Surf’s Up 2: Wavemania,” will be released in the spring. It’ll be a remake of Surf’s Up, but using WWE characters including Cena, Undertaker, HHH, Paige and Vince McMahon

Since people have asked about WWE suspensions, when talent like Reigns is suspended, they don’t get paid any of their wrestling pay during the period of their suspension. So in his case, given what he earns, it likely cost him around $100,000 or more, since he was booked in the main event of every house show on his tour as the top guy. The one thing is his biggest payoffs would be for the PPVs and he’s not missing any PPV shows or else it would be significantly more. Wrestlers do get paid based on merchandise sold while they are suspended, and any royalties, but don’t get their wrestling checks, obviously aren’t paid on houses they aren’t working, and don’t get paid for 30 days (or 60 days) of their downside guarantees

WWE ordered Reigns to go into the locker room last week to apologize to everyone before he was flown home. There were mixed reactions to it. The person who first told me about it said that Mark Carrano ordered Reigns to do it, which means it came from Paul Levesque and not Vince McMahon’s side. They felt there was no need to humiliate him like that but others didn’t have the same reaction. I think it’s the group that likes him because he’s still one of the boys even though you can easily get a big head when they build everything around you vs. the people who have the natural issue of feeling he was lucky based on his look and that Vince and HHH loved him and pushed him early and kept doing it even when it wasn’t working

With Reigns suspended, new champ Ambrose had a busy weekend working every house show. He worked a Saturday night show in Boston beating Rollins in the main event. He flew in to Jacksonville, where the other tour started, and worked the opener, which may be the only time I can recall where a WWE title match was the open of a house show. He retained over Owens and Zayn, and then rushed to Orlando (141 miles) where he got in the ring for the main event beating Rollins again

Ryan Reeves (Ryback) underwent surgery on his right ear on 6/27. He was originally looking at getting surgery on his ear, nose and throat, which were all damaged by his years of wrestling. The hospital would only let him get one operation at a time. He’s still just waiting for his contract to expire. It appears WWE won’t release him ahead of time. There have issues between the sides in the past so it just makes sense to let the contract expire, which it does very shortly

Torito did an interview with Apolo Valdes in Mexico saying he enjoyed his three years in WWE even if he couldn’t fully show his talent. He said he knew going in that Americans see minis and clowns and not real wrestlers but hat he had did some chances, such as being put in the Royal Rumble and on PPV. He also thanked WWE for supporting him while he was injured, notably when he was out with knee surgery. He also noted that Del Rio was someone who spoke up for him

The updated 7/16 show in Madison Square Garden is Ambrose vs Rollins for the WWE title, Cena vs. Styles an a street fight with Jericho vs. Neville. This means Neville’s return is imminent

Wyatt has been removed from the Japan tour which kills his dream of a singles match with Nakamura. Originally he was getting two or three singles matches with Nakamura this week, then it was cut back to one, and now he’s off the tour. Well, he’ll get it in due time. Nakamura vs. Jericho is currently scheduled for the 7/1 show at Sumo Hall, which is a huge match for Japan. Jericho and Wyatt had both pushed hard to work with Nakamura in Japan and Jericho at first was shut out. The 7/2 Nakamura match will be with Owens. Jericho has never worked with Nakamura while Owens worked once with Nakamura in ROH

7/1 at Sumo Hall is Ambrose vs. Rollins vs. Owens for the WWE title, Cena vs. Styles, New Day vs. Usos vs. Gallows & Anderson vs. Vaudevillains for tag titles, Nakamura vs. Jericho (interesting the slotting as noted before since Nakamura is the big draw on the tour and it’s readily acknowledged his matches should be the main event, but WWE books the way it does), Charlotte vs. Natalya for the women’s title (booked before the switch and them teaming up but it’s the only thing they can do with four women on the tour and two different shows in the same building), Ziggler vs. Axel, O’Neil vs. Corbin and Asuka vs. Lynch for the NXT women’s title. 7/2 at Sumo Hall is Ambrose vs. Rollins vs. Jericho for the WWE title, Cena vs. Styles, New Day vs. Vaudevillains for tag titles, Usos vs. Anderson & Gallows, Nakamura vs. Owens, Charlotte vs. Lynch for the women’s title, Ziggler vs. Corbin, O’Neil vs. Axel and Asuka vs. Natalya for the NXT women’s title

Charly Arnolt was the WWE’s latest hire as a woman backstage interviewer. She had been the weekend sports anchor and a sports reporter for Fox59 out of Indianapolis since December 2013, and before that, worked for Fox 4 in Kansas City as a morning show reporter. They probably liked her because she was a background in beach volleyball (same as Canyon Ceman) and lifting weights and is even by WWE standards said to be gorgeous. She said she accepted a hosting job and will be doing a lot of personality-driven stuff for WWE

The WWE has bid $27 million for a bankruptcy sale for an office complex. They’ve bid for the building that houses their TV studio in Stamford, CT, which is now available due to the bankruptcy of Seaboard Realty. The building is the one on Hamilton Avenue where their TV studios are located in, which they don’t own. They do own their home offices building. The building also houses the AmeriCares home headquarters. There have been at least 100 bids put in for ownership of the property

Lesnar is scheduled to return for the 7/19 Smackdown draft show in Worcester, MA. That’s a change because originally he wasn’t supposed to be back until a few weeks later

Nakamura and Aries made their main roster debuts on the 6/26 house show in Orlando, the NXT home grounds. Nakamura and Asuka (who wasn’t on the show) are on the A tour this week since it’s running Honolulu and Tokyo. Aries to the best of my knowledge only worked that show. Joe and Balor have worked main roster shows before

Stephanie McMahon did a lengthy interview last week while in France for a speaking engagement. She talked about creative saying she was put on the creative team and two weeks later the head writer (Chris Kreski I think) quit so she was made head of creative. She said she grew the team from three people to 30 and developed a bunch of different innovations. Because of Lesnar, there were a number of questions about UFC and she did the party line about how we are entertainment and they are sports, and our audience is engaged in characters and storylines. She said that they are at an advantage because they can script their stores. “UFC, they can make a big star, but the second that person loses, they lose credibility, and how do you continue to make that star rise? So I think we have the best of both worlds and the opportunity to tell the stores in the way we want to tell them.” She said they are allowing Lesnar to participate in the one fight but says it’s not really a cross-promotional opportunity for them (even though part of the deal is Lesnar is referred to as “WWE Superstar”). It is notable that Lesnar vs. Hunt has not been mentioned once on WWE television, even though it has on the web site. What will be interesting is if UFC does ad buys during Raw and Smackdown the next two weeks. I’ve heard a ton of UFC 200 commercials on radio stations in this area, and you’d think it would be a far better audience to draw from advertising on WWE television with its wide audience base and low rates than local radio that probably reaches an older audience. “We are not supporting the fight necessarily, but again, it’s not a competitor to us, and the more that our superstars, that’s how we refer to our talent, the more they do outside of WWE, the more awareness it generates and the broader the audience can be that is then brought back into our properties. So we recognize the value of that.” It’s interesting about not being competition given WWE contracts during the non-compete periods if they let people go specifically bar UFC and MMA competition. And contracts also bar UFC & MMA competition while active as well. While it ended up being thrown out quickly because they’d lose in court, when Del Rio was fired, WWE tried to keep him from doing any MMA for one year as well as any U.S. pro wrestling. She also said there were seven people from tryouts in China they were looking to follow up on. This is one place where to a degree, they have an edge over real sports is that every real sport wants a Chinese superstar right now for obvious reasons, such as the proven value of Yao Ming to the NBA years ago. But UFC can’t make a Chinese champion fighter unless they can win. WWE can’t exactly either, but if the guy is halfway decent they can protect him better

The Balor Club idea seems to have been dropped with Balor’s impending move to the main roster. WWE had applied for a Balor Club trademark, which would be a group with Balor, Anderson and Gallows, playing off Bullet Club. Instead, it looks like they are just going to be The Club. The WWE dropped an attempt to register Balor Club for marketing purposes on 6/22. Evidently Baylor University had opposed the name. As noted before, they had also attempted to register Legion of Doom to be the name for an NXT group with Paul Ellering, Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa. They also dropped that and are staying with Authors of Pain

Mark Carrano called Cody Runnels for a legends deal. At this point no agreement has been reached but Runnels wasn’t happy because the conversation was supposed to be confidential, and the next thing you know, there were reports Rhodes had called WWE trying to return

Paige VanZant’s taking the fight with Bec Rawlings on 8/27 in Vancouver took her out of SummerSlam. “Right now I’m 100 percent fight-focused and I would love to participate in anything WWE has to offer when the timing’s right as long as it works with my fight schedule. I love WWE and if they ever reached out to me again, I think I would definitely love to work with them, but right now I’m focused on Bec Rawlings.

The New Day vs. Elite program that both sides have been teasing but can’t happen at this time due to contracts, ended up having a match of sorts on 6/25 in Orlando. There was a gamers convention at the Wyndham Orlando Resort and Kenny Omega of The Elite was a guest. Unannounced, Woods, who is considered probably the best game player in WWE, showed up. They played Street Fighter V and Omega won. Both sides have been working an angle as they want to do a program across promotional lines with New Day vs. Young Bucks & Omega. Both have taunted the other teams with the idea of getting a groundswell, and both sides have managed to sneak references to the other on TV. Michael Cole even fell for one of them last week

Tubular Labs released a May ranking of all video publishers across every social media platform and the No. 1 sports property was WWE, slightly head of Turner Sports. Nobody else was close. The NBA wasn’t even top five during the month, which I guess tells you the actual value of those rankings

As of 6/23, the most watched shows on the network was Money in the Bank first, of course, followed by the NXT show on 6/22, the Stone Cold podcast with Styles and the Swerved episodes all released at once, even third week out, all ranked from No. 4 to No. 13, followed by WrestleMania, the 6/8 NXT Takeover show, and the Royal Rumble

WWE stock fell this week to $17.75 per share, giving the company a $1.35 billion market value

For this past weekend, “Central Intelligence” with Dwayne Johnson was No. 3 at the box office at $18,241,416 putting it at $69,173,874 after two weeks. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, with Sheamus, was No. 9 at $2,464,351 giving it $77,181,906 after four weeks domestic and another $77 million overseas

For 6/23Tucker Knight (real name Levi Cooper, 25) of NXT, was married over the weekend

Notes from the 6/27 Raw tapings in Tampa. Not a lot to the show and it started dragging badly in the third hour. The crowd died for the return of Miz and Kane in the IC title match, and never came back, not even for a good Styles vs. Ambrose TV main event. A lot of fans in the building were disappointed about Kane being the mystery guy since word spread around the arena that both Nakamura and Balor were backstage. The show drew 8,000 fans, a little light for a Raw taping. The Superstars announcing team was Tom Phillips, Otunga and Ziggler. R-Truth & Goldust beat The Ascension in 5:00 when Goldust pinned Viktor after the final cut. Corbin beat Swagger with the End of Days in 7:00.

Raw opened with Rollins out. He said he’s not supposed to talk about Reigns and then did the deal where it’s live and he has a mic and they can’t stop him. Then he said nothing that people didn’t already know. Rollins said it embarrassed him and the mistake Reigns made, which he never identified, soiled his own good name. This was fascinating because this was clearly scripted to have Rollins the heel try and turn Reigns’ suspension into a way to make fans cheer him. We won’t know if it’ll work until the PPV, but given it’s a PPV crowd in D.C., I don’t like Reigns’ chances of being cheered.

They showed Reigns' public explanation and Rollins talked about how he doesn’t deserve a second chance, he doesn’t deserve forgiveness and that he should be taken out of the match in Battleground and it should be he and Ambrose in a singles match for the title. Rollins had to catch himself when talking about the title because his reflex actions are to say WWE world title and they don’t want it called world because I guess the other title they’ll be introducing is the world title. Ambrose came out and backed up Reigns. He said Reigns made a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes. “I was friends with you. That was a mistake.” Ambrose said that Reigns apologized and that’s all he can do, and that the Triple Threat match is still on. He made a remark about Rollins wearing skinny jeans.

Styles came out and he wanted to be added to the title match given he just beat Cena. Fans cheered for that suggestion, which wasn’t exactly designed for that reaction. Styles said to take out Reigns and put him in. Fans cheered that as well. Ambrose said he didn’t care. Cena came out. He was mostly cheered. He endorsed Ambrose as champion but said he was the franchise. He noted that today was 14 years since his first match in WWE, and also got the local pop by saying that he’s been living in Tampa for 12 years. Well, a half hour from Tampa. Weird he’s point out the 14 years when this just two weeks ago they were pushing that it’s been a fans dream match for 15 years to see Cena vs. Styles. Cena noted that the last time he wrestled Ambrose, that he won so he wanted in and it should be a five-way. Ambrose said he was fine with that. Rollins played party pooper and said it should be a singles match. Stephanie came out. She said that Reigns was an absolute embarrassment, but even worse is Ambrose as champion. She said she’s not just embarrassed he’s champion, she’s mortified. She said that Shane wasn’t there (he was advertised) and was on vacation again. Shane next week will explain that she’s making things up. She announced Cena vs. Rollins and Styles vs. Ambrose. If either Cena or Styles win, they’re added to the title match. She said, “Good luck gentlemen, except Dean Ambrose.”

Banks & Paige beat Charlotte & Brooke in 8:39. The story here is that Charlotte was avoiding working with Banks. Paige superkicked Charlotte out of the ring and Banks used the back stabber and bank statement on Brooke for the submission. They pushed Banks had in commentary regarding getting the next title shot. They then did this absolutely weird segment welcoming all the fans in China and pushing Wang Bin. The problem is that this didn’t air in China, because their commentary is in Mandarin and they don’t get the American announcers. I guess they just figured it made them look global to welcome a group of people who couldn’t hear a word they were saying. O’Neil beat Rusev via count out in 4:09. This feud is being booked backwards. They started with the babyface tapping in the first match, the blow-off, and then started the feud after that. O’Neil just isn’t very good. Rusev charged on the floor and O’Neil side stepped and hip tossed him into the timekeeper’s area. O’Neil then got in the ring to win via count out. Stephanie was on the phone and Kane was there. He was again pushing getting to run Smackdown live. Kane said that Shane doesn’t seem to have gotten over some issues they’ve had in the past. Miz & Maryse showed up. Stephanie said that nobody was running Smackdown but her. Miz, Maryse, Slater, Axel and Dallas, who were all in Marine 5, returned this week. Not sure what happened to Naomi, who was also in that movie, but they right now don’t have a spot for her. Miz said he was being considered for Wars and Trek. Kane pushed that he had been in movies and pushed his latest DVD offering. Miz called Kane “The Devil’s Favorite Insurance Agent,” which was a great line. He also was appalled Kane would try to compare the movies he was in with the movies Miz was in. Kane brought up the rule book and said that a champion must defend the title once every 30 days or risk relinquishing of the title. Kane said that if he was in charge, he’d book Miz in a title match tonight. Stephanie said it was a great idea, and said Miz’s opponent would be a surprise. Kane told Miz that they should “do lunch.” Rollins pinned Cena in 15:58. Good match. Not at the level of their best matches. The crowd was really hot, which wasn’t the case later in the show. The crowd was more behind Rollins by a decent margin. Rollins got a lt f near falls. Rollins did a Frankensteiner and John Layfield talked about how Bob Orton Jr. brought the superplex to prominence. I thought Super Destroyer did, but Super D, Frank Dusek (who managed Super D) and Orton were the earliest users. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment but Rollins got his foot on the ropes. He tried a second one, but Rollins landed on his feet. Rollins tried a pedigree but Cena reversed into an STF. Styles, Gallows and Anderson came out. Cena was distracted and Rollins was able to hit the pedigree for the pin. The problem is that almost everyone at that moment figured out that Cena was going to cost Styles the match with Ambrose.

Enzo & Cass came out. Enzo wanted people to do the wave. That was kind of pathetic because they’re over so people did it like one time around, but you could tell they didn’t want to and stopped right away. Enzo & Cass beat guys who went by the name Carlos Cochi & Mitch Waldie. The finish was a rocket launcher in :31. After the match, the Social Outcasts, Slater & Axel & Dallas returned. They noted they were back from Marine 5. They teased a fight but Cass kicked Slater in the face and the other two backed off. There was another segment with Backlund and Darren Young. Young said his goal was to win a singles title and main event at WrestleMania. He noted he’s already held the tag title. Backlund screamed that he was a partner of Pedro Morales. The two teamed for a few weeks in 1980 and held the tag title for one day and then relinquished it. Backlund said his era was called the Backlund Era and he wants to make this the Darren Young era. They did some Special Olympics stuff talking about their involvement in it worldwide with some of the athletes on stage with Show and Renee Young. Lynch vs. Summer Rae was scheduled for next. Natalya was at ringside doing commentary. Lynch jumped out of the ring and attacked Natalya. Lynch was pulled away and held back by officials. And that was the end of the segment.

Next was the Highlight Reel with Jericho. Jericho told the crowd to be quiet. That was supposed to get them to make a lot of noise. But instead, they didn’t make much noise. Owens and Zayn came out. Jericho noted that the two of them used to be best friends. He pointed out Zayn was the best man at Owens’ wedding. Zayn said he wanted to put an end to this. They really pushed the idea that the upcoming Battleground match ends the feud, which sounds like they’re headed to different brands and the decision was just made, since this came out of nowhere. Zayn said it’s costing both of them their careers. He said his career is going nowhere until this feud is over and Owens’ is the same. There will come a day very soon where he realizes he just wished his was still working with Owens. Zayn said the reason Owens didn’t win the Rumble was because of him, the reason he lost the IC title was because of him, and the reason he didn’t win Money in the Bank was because of him. He said the real Kevin Owens is a coward who hides behind lies including the lie behind why he stabbed him in the back and the lie that it was never personal, only business. He said Owens knows the truth, and that it’s because he resents him because he got signed first. Owens said that he told the truth many times, and that while Zayn may not like to hear it, it doesn’t make it not true. He said everything he did was because it was the right move for his career. He said that from the start both of their goals were to make it to WWE. He said that when Zayn signed a year-and-a-half before he did, “Was I upset that you made the right move? I was happy for you, just like you should have been happy for me when I won the NXT title (it wasn’t mentioned he won the title from Zayn). Because my success came at your expense, what kind of a friend does that make you? I was always a better friend to you than you were to me?” Jericho then told Zayn he was a terrible friend. He said that even though Owens will never be as great as he is, at least Owens is still trying to follow his lead. He told Zayn that he still has his head stuck up his rear end because he think it still matters what the mutton heads in the crowd think. Jericho went on-and-on about how great he was until both Zayn and Owens together kicked him in the face.

Kane beat Miz via count out in 3:28 in an IC title match. The crowd pretty much died here. The problem was that inside the arena, most of the audience was well aware that both Nakamura and Balor were there so they expected them as the surprise. When it turned out to be Kane, the place died. Plus it was the third hour blues anyway. The announcers, they way they screamed about Corporate Kane and Demon Kane really comes across so fake, even by WWE standards. The match was nothing and then had a messed up finish. Maryse fell off the apron and started screaming that her ankle was hurt. Miz couldn’t decide what to do, but eventually took care of his wife and carried her to the back and was counted out. Before he did that, he snapped Kane’s head on the top rope. So the ref counted to ten. The problem is Kane sold the neck snap for the entire ten count, so he should have been counted down as a knockout at the same time Miz was counted out. Plus, besides this finish being flat and overall sucking, what did anyone gain by it? If anything, the idea is Miz used the fake injury to swerve everyone and get out of losing his title, which should be how it was played, and to set up a rematch. Kane shouldn’t have been down and out selling like he was knocked out by Miz like ever. They’d better have a good long-term follow-up because this was really bad.

Backstage, Miz was thinking Maryse was hurt and she just started laughing at him, got up on her own and started hopping around. So the idea is that Maryse fooled Miz and Miz got all excited thinking she was a great actress. He said she should win an Oscar, but she told him this was TV, so Miz said she should win an Emmy. Cesaro & Crews beat Sheamus & Del Rio in 4:58. So a few weeks after Sheamus & Del Rio split up, they are back as a team with no explanation. And what happens? They split up again. The crowd was dead. Del Rio turned on Sheamus, led the crowd in chanting “Si” at him and walked out on his partner. Sheamus was left alone and Crews pinned him with a power bomb.

Ambrose did an interview. Stephanie came out. Stephanie started brow beating him about how appalled she was that he was the face of the company. He at least did get the last word in, saying, “I think she likes me,” so he didn’t come across like the usual spineless pathetic face or heel after Stephanie gets done with them.

The New Day came out with the idea they were spoofing the Wyatts. Kingston had a goat mask on. Woods I guess was Bray, although looked nothing like him. Big E didn’t look like Strowman either, but put on a fake beard. This segment wasn’t good at all. They made fun of the Wyatts hygiene. Big E said that they smell like a rotten piece of cabbage on Dale Mabry Highway (a famous road in Tampa). E then brought up that he was born in Tampa and lived there longer than Cena, mentioning Tampa General Hospital. The Wyatts came out and mocked New Day back. Wyatt was good but this kind of went nowhere. The New Day talked about how Finding Dory was good movie.

Main event saw Ambrose beat Styles in a non-title match in 15:32. They had a good match, but the crowd wasn’t too hot for it. They went to near falls. Ambrose used a double-arm superplex. Ambrose was selling his left leg and Styles used the calf crusher but Ambrose made the ropes. Ambrose hit a body. They traded big moves until Anderson & Gallows came out. Styles hit the Bloody Sunday DDT for a near fall. Cena came out and attacked Gallows & Anderson. Styles was distracted by all this and Ambrose did a schoolboy into Dirty Deeds for the pin. So Styles is out of the title match. Anderson & Gallows then pulled Cena off the apron. Rollins ran in and laid out Ambrose with a pedigree. Anderson & Gallows were fighting with Cena and Styles jumped in to make it three-on-one. Styles ordered them to give Cena a magic killer on the stage while Rollins gave Ambrose a second pedigree. After Raw ended, Anderson, Gallows, Styles and Rollins all surrounded Ambrose in the ring. Show, Enzo and Cass came out. This turned into an eight-man dark match. Everyone traded their finishers until Show pinned Anderson after a choke slam

Notes from the 6/28 tapings in Miami. Not too eventful of tapings. Most of the top stars left after Raw to Hawaii on the way to Japan. They opened with a dark match as Zayn pinned Oney Lorcan (Biff Busick/Chris Girard) with the Helluva kick.

Main Event opened with the Lucha Dragons beating The Ascension. R-Truth & Goldust beat Breeze & Fandango. The Shining Stars beat Ryder & Swagger. After all those weeks of build-up, these guys get like two television matches and are already forgotten about. Enzo & Cass beat The Dudleys. This may have been on Main Event and may have been a dark match. Smackdown opened with a four-way for a shot at Rusev’s U.S. title later in the show. Cesaro won over Crews, Sheamus and Del Rio. After the match Sheamus attacked Cesaro and beat him down. Rusev came out and said that the title match would be next. So Cesaro was injured and Rusev beat him. It was then announced that Rusev vs. O’Neil for the title would take place on Raw this week. They pushed the 7/4 aspect of it, so maybe they’ll give O’Neil the title because of the holiday and have him lose it back at Battleground. If they want to have this not killed before Battleground, they need a screw job finish at this point or an O’Neil win.

Brooke pinned Billie Kay in a squash. There was a Miz TV segment with Ambrose as guest. Ambrose came out eating a sandwich. This wound up with Miz attacking Ambrose and setting up the WWE champion vs. IC champion as the main event. There was a time when that would be considered a hotshot match, but as Ambrose vs. Miz, I think it’s going to do the same sub 1.6 number. Rowan & Strowman beat two wrestlers whose names weren’t announced to the crowd. Banks beat Summer Rae with the Bank Statement. Ambrose pinned Miz in the champion vs. champion match. They had a dark match after the taping with Ambrose & Cesaro & Zayn beating The Wyatt Family when Rowan was pinned

Notes from the 6/22 NXT TV show. An easy show to watch, with Austin Aries and Shinsuke Nakamura being the clear stars. It opened with Oney Lorcan, the new name for Biff Busick, in a debut match on television against Tye Dillinger. This was tough. What they were going for was introducing a new babyface in Lorcan without the big fanfare and then giving him the win to surprise people when they think he’s a job guy, that underdog babyface deal. Anyway, it didn’t work at all. They have to completely re-evaluate Dillinger. His role has always been here to be a good working veteran whose role it is to put the younger guys over. The problem is that even though slotted as a heel, the fans love him, and his star power is so overwhelming that nobody can get over as a face working with him. Lorcan worked as the face but all his offense was getting booed. Lorcan kicked out of a superkick and won with a blockbuster in 5:56. The crowd didn’t like this at all. It’s pretty clear Dillinger has to be a face here.

Aries did an interview. Basically the gist of the interview was him saying he’s a man and offers no excuses for losing to Nakamura, and then over-and-over gave excuses which was to start his heel turn. The key excuses were that he had bruised ribs and he had the home field advantage, “but he was the better man and beat me.” Aries noted that Muhammad Ali was the greatest of all-time and he lost some matches. No Way Jose showed up. You don’t notice this as much in the ring, but Jose is like twice his size. Jose told him that he needed to stay positive and when life tells you “No,” you respond “No way.”

Bayley announced she was returning tonight from her knee injury. Having Bayley work the fake angle that their audience all knows is the fake angle does her no good. Jose beat Josh Woods in 1:57 with a punch and cobra slam. The whole thing was to build to a really good angle. Aries came back out and kept talking about his bruised ribs and how a real man makes no excuses. He said when Jose came up to him earlier, he thought, “What can a guy like me learn from No Way Jose.” He delivered the line great and then said he could learn, because Jose reminded him of something he forget, that away from titles and main events, NXT is all about having fun. They shook hands. Jose wanted to dance with him. He didn’t want to, but eventually they danced all over the building. You knew it was an angle but he kept dancing for so long that you’d given up on the idea it was an angle until Aries nailed him. The long timing of Aries dancing made the turn far more impactful than if they’d have some it the traditional way here. Aries used a double foot stomp off the announcers table and beat him down. Then he gave him a last chancery on the ramp. The negative is this heel turn from Aries only led to people cheering him and chanting his name as he was destroying Jose.

Regal was backstage with Nakamura and they announced the Balor match would air on the 7/13 TV show. Murphy walked into the room and acted like a big star, noting of the three people there, he’s the only one who had held an NXT title. He complained that Regal isn’t treating him like a top star. Nakamura looked at him and said, “Your request will be honored by King of Strong Style.” Regal then told him, “Be careful what you wish for.” Bayley pinned Deonna Purrazzo in 2:44 with the Bayley-to-belly. Crowd was into Bayley’s intro but not the match. Carmella did an interview saying she wants to be women’s champion. Alexa Bliss showed up and said that without Enzo & Cass, nobody even knows who she is. Carmella said that “My boys are doing big things and your boys are pathetic.” Bliss said that she left them because she was the star of the team, while Carmella was only an accessory and an afterthought. This built to them having a singles match on next week’s show. Nia Jax pinned Liv Morgan with a power bomb in 2:09. The main event saw Nakamura beat Murphy with the Kinshasa in 4:35. Nothing much to the match but the crowd was going nuts most of the way including singing Nakamura’s theme song

Notes from the 6/24 NXT tapings. Tye Dillinger pinned Kai Katana with the Ushigoroshi. For the 7/6 TV show, it opened with Bayley pinning Bliss with the Bayley-to-belly. There were some fans cheering Bliss. They did a spot where they played up that Bayley could have been injured. Really good match. Bayley did a promo and Nia Jax came out. They did a deal where they talked off mic and Bayley asked for a rematch and Jax walked away. Blake & Murphy, who were back together after their second break-up, were to face Ryder & Mojo Rawley. Rhyno interfered and gave all four gores to get him back up and running. Before he did the run-in, Blake & Murphy were teasing not getting along.

The TV main event saw Dash & Dawson retain the titles in a 2/3 fall match over Jason Jordan & Chad Gable. Was told this was a ***½ live and probably with editing will come across better than that on television. The first fall went 18:00 when Jordan beat Dawson with the ankle lock. Dash & Dawson came back to even it up immediately and Dawson beat Jordan with an Indian deathlock. Lots of good near falls before Gable was pinned by the shatter machine.

For 7/13, they opened with Joe doing an interview, saying he’s here to see Nakamura vs Balor. Joe said that both believe that the winner gets a shot at his title, but he said that he’s already beaten Balor twice. Fans were chanting his name and he called them hypocrites trying to stay heel, because he said the fans chanting for him want Nakamura to beat him for the title. Joe said that he was the one who brought strong style to the U.S., and if Nakamura was the King of Strong Style, that he’s the Emperor. I wonder who is the head of the Supreme Court. Rhyno came out and said he wanted a match with Joe and he’ll beat Joe and go to the top. Joe blew him off. Based on how everything was being taped, it appears the Nakamura vs. Balor match will air on this show even though it was taped later, since the interview implied Nakamura vs Balor. Tom Phillips & Corey Graves left the desk at this point. When they came back, they were wearing new outfits which includes they were taping the next show.

So it appears for 7/20, it opened with Austin Aries beating Patrick Clark with the last chancery. Interesting that he’s on TV using his real name. No Way Jose attacked Aries after the match and they brawled all over until Aries bailed out. Andrade Cien Almas pinned Angelo Dawkins with a split legged moonsault. Asuka beat Eva Marie. Eva made Dasha Fuentes read a written up introduction for her. That was said to be hilarious. There were people chanting for Eva even though they were the minority. Asuka won with the Asuka lock.

Joe beat Rhyno via choke. The Authors of Pain attacked American Alpha and laid them out. The idea is Jordan & Gable were both injured in the attack. But they shoved away the doctors. This led to a match. They had the match. Gable used an Angle slam, which was interesting. Jordan suplexed the big guys all over the place but they ended up beating Gable with their double-team lariat. Bayley beat Jax with the Bayley-to-Belly off the middle rope after Jax missed a leg drop off the top. Said to be better than their Takeover match. Nakamura beat Balor in 19:04 in an excellent match. Balor did the too sweet and poked Nakamura in the eyes. Nakamura won clean with the Kinshasa off the middle rope followed with a second Kinshasa. The two congratulated each other after the match. Balor was thanking the fans for their support on the way out. Balor was doing the Too sweet all over the place during the match. What was a surprise is that there was nothing said or done to directly build to the Brooklyn show. They still have four more TVs, so the angles will come then but it looks like Joe vs. Nakamura as the main event

There was an NXT house show on 6/23 in Largo, FL, before 350 fans. Mojo Rawley pinned Josh

Woods with a punch as a finisher. Steve Cutler beat Kishan Raftar via submission. Raftar looked very green. Nick Miller & Shane Thorn beat Patrick Clark & Angelo Dawkins. Dawkins got a big reaction. Hugo Knox pinned Tino Sabbatelli. Camellia & Bayley & Asuka beat Mandy Rose & Alexa Bliss & Nix Jax when Asuka used the Asuka lock on Rose. All three face women got good reactions but Asuka got he biggest.

Andrade Cien Almas pinned Oney Lorcan (Biff Busick/Chris Girard). Almas wrestled well but didn’t get over that big with the crowd. Although from a technical standpoint they wrestled better than any other match. Ember Moon beat Daria Berenato. Main event was Jason Jordan & Chad Gable & Shinsuke Nakamura over The Authors of Pain (no Paul Ellering) & Tye Dillinger when Gable used the ankle lock submission on one of the Authors of Pain. The Authors of Pain were doing an anti-American heel gimmick, running down the U.S. Dillinger was great in the main event, particularly with Nakamura

The other NXT show this week was 6/25 in Cocoa Beach, FL, before 250 fans. Liv Morgan beat Nicole Glencross with a standing moonsault in a good opener. Both have potential. Alexander Wolfe pinned Kishin Raftaar. Crowd didn’t know either guy and led to “USA” chants, as both are foreigners. Noah beat Steve Cutler with a power bomb. Blake pinned Bronson Matthews (Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl). Blake won with a splash. Almas beat Angelo Dawkins with the running knees. Oney Lorcan beat Tino Sabbatelli with a running blockbuster. Blinky Blair came out for an interview. This was her debut. She’s an African American crossfit competitor who claimed she is going to be the prettiest and baddest and every other “ist.” Daria Benetaro beat Billie Kaye with a triangle. Daria, who has an MMA background, is doing an MMA fighter gimmick. Main event saw Nick Miller& Shane Thorn & Rawley beat Authors of Pain & Roode. This was Roode’s first match on the Florida circuit. Roode played chicken**** heel, hiding behind his partners. Roode ended up being the one pinned as Miller & Thorn did their press slam spinebuster finish with Thorn pinning him, since they are protecting the Authors of Pain. No Paul Ellering at this show

Final actuals for 6/4 in Tulsa for a house show were 2,652 paying $117,060

The Ambrose tour opened 6/25 in Boston before 5,300 fans, which is weak for the Boston market. 6/26 in Orlando drew 4,500. The other crew on 6/26 in Jacksonville drew 4,000

For Boston, Usos beat Gallows & Anderson in a good opener with the superkick. Fans cheered both at first but as it went on were more for the Usos. Corbin pinned Ryder in a short match with the End of Days. R-Truth & Goldust beat Breeze & Fandango. Cesaro beat Del Rio in a good match using the neutralizer. They brawled in the stands which is rare for a WWE house show match. Zayn pinned Owens in a good match with the Helluva kick. Banks & Lynch & Summer Rae beat Charlotte & Natalya & Eva Marie when Banks beat Eva with the bank statement. Brooke was there but only as a manager. Banks got a monster reaction since she’s from Boston. Fans chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Eva. Rusev beat Kalisto to retain the U.S. title with the accolade. Ambrose pinned Rollins to keep the title in the main event using the Dirty Deeds as the finisher. Crowd was quiet most of the way but picked up great at the end for the near falls

In Orlando, they opened with a moment of silence for the shooting victims and also promoted that part of the proceeds from the show would go to the One Orlando Fund. They encouraged fans to text a $10 donation. The show was similar to Boston but there were changes. Usos beat Anderson & Gallows in 12:00 with Anderson being pinned after a splash off the top rope. Corbin pinned Ryder with the End of Days. Balor & Nakamura beat Joe & Aries in 11:29 when Aries was pinned after the Kinshasa by Nakamura and the double foot stomp by Balor. Fans were chanting before Nakamura before he was announced and throughout the match. I was told this was good and the second best match on the show, was told ***1/4. Swagger beat Viktor with the ankle lock. Rollins was shown on the screen and he got a bigger reaction than anyone thus far. Cesaro pinned Del Rio in another good match with the Neutralizer, which I was told was the best match at ***½. Banks & Summer Rae & Bayley beat Natalya & Brooke & Eva Marie. Bayley wasn’t advertised for the show and got a huge pop. Fans were into Bayley and Banks the most. Banks beat Eva Marie again with the bank statement. Primo & Epico beat O’Neil & Darren Young being put back together. Primo & Epico asked where their Boricuas were and got a big response and “Puerto Rico” chants. Ambrose pinned Rollins in the main event in 18:06 to keep the title using Dirty Deeds

Jacksonville opened with the Ambrose title defense over Zayn and Owens. Ambrose pinned Owens clean with Dirty Deeds, and then rushed out to get to Orlando. Enzo & Cass beat The Dudleys in a good match. Goldust pinned Fandango with R-Truth distracting Fandango. Show & Kane beat Rowan & Strowman with a double choke slam on Rowan. Paige & Lynch beat Charlotte & Lana when Lynch made Lana submit to the disarmer. Rusev beat Crews to retain the U.S. title. Main event saw Big E & Kingston won a three-way tag title match over The Vaudevillains and The Lucha Dragons. Gotch took a kick to the face that knocked him silly. He stumbled and fell out of the ring and never got back up. The doctor came out after the match and he was helped to the bac/SPOILER]
 
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Some interesting stuff in that Observer

BTW WARNING IF YOU READ THE SPOILER: There are CWC results in it, just a heads up.
 
DC I can't lie, Sanada was pretty trash in TNA :lol: the most notable stuff he did was be James Storm's henchman in his stable, and kick Great Mootoo's ***. Him an Aries had a good match around that time too.
 
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PodcastOne, the nation’s largest advertiser-supported podcast network, has entered into a multi-faceted agreement with podcast host Chris Jericho for production, distribution and product marketing for the newly created The Jericho Network. Jericho, also an actor, author and frontman for the band Fozzy, presents multi-talented Latino Lucha Libre legend Charles Ashenoff, known to wrestling fans worldwide as Konnan, as the first host to debut on the network. Future podcasts will take full advantage of Jericho’s involvement and interest in wrestling, music, paranormal activity and pop-culture in general. All podcasts on The Jericho Network will be available exclusively at PodcastOne.com, the PodcastOne app and iTunes. “I'm stoked to bring some of the most talented, interesting and hilariously ridiculous hosts to PodcastOne via The Jericho Network!” said Jericho. “My overall plan is for TJN to be an extension of the diverse array of subjects and guests I already feature on Talk Is Jericho twice a week. Get ready to be amazed, amused and entertained by ALL of the hosts and programs that will be added to TJN over the upcoming months...and don't forget to wear a helmet!” PodcastOne Founder and Executive Chairman Norm Pattiz said, “Chris’ podcasts continue to be among the most successful on PodcastOne’s lineup. There are a lot more things that we can do together, and the Jericho network will give us the vehicle and time necessary with which to do that.” For more information, visit PodcastOne.com or contact [email protected].
Click to expand...
 
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DCAllAmerican said:
Dudes have to be joking.
Click to expand...
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Can't stand Jerichos podcast anymore. I prefer review a wai or austins podcast over jerichos.
 
Does Carmella have a chance getting real time on the main roster with how much female talent they have that's better than her
 
In a new interview with Kayfabe Commentaries, former WWE star Hornswoggle talks about the incident that apparently ruined his friendship with ** ****.

When asked about why his friendship with **** ended, Swoggle says it was all over a phone number. Swoggle says he lost his phone and asked **** for a mutual friend’s number, and it set off ****. He says **** took it as Swoggle “using” him, and that was the end of the relationship.
 
There's talk of having 1 or 2 guys work with heyman as his new Paul heyman guys after the brand split
 
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