PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 June 4, 2018
The Hollywood Reporter ran a story this week detailing the negotiations that ended up with WWE getting an average of $470 million annual television rights deal between Raw remaining on the USA Network and Smackdown moving to Friday’s on FOX for the next five years.
The figures listed were, over the five years of the deal, an average of $265 million for the three hour Raw and $205 million from FOX. At this point these deals are just about finalized, but haven’t been signed.
The UFC’s deal with ESPN was signed on 5/23, and the press release was reported sent out “as the ink was drying” and the story on the deal that broke on 5/22 was actually before the deal was finalized.
With the WWE contracts having annual price escalators, that means those actual numbers would hit in the third year of the two deals, with it being a little lower the first two years, about that level in year three, well above in years four and five. Both deals expire on September 30, 2024.
Both deals were put together by CAA’s Nick Khan and Alan Gold.
According to the story, the USA Network had made an offer of a $360 million average price to keep Raw on Monday and Smackdown for a ten-year deal, meaning the actual $360 million figure wouldn’t be reached until year six, or late 2025, if that deal had gone into play. That deal would have expired at the end of September 2029.
Sources with full knowledge of the negotiations confirmed the expected, that Smackdown will be live, airing from 8-10 p.m. on Friday nights, meaning a likely change of that crew’s road schedule. It rarely figured into things, but in the past there have been those who had teenage sons who played high school football who had asked to be on the Smackdown crew because they didn’t work on Friday nights. Another aspect of the first night of the tour, rather than the last, being a TV taping with an early on-call time, it means that most Smackdown talent would have to use Thursday as a travel day to make sure to get to the building by early Friday, as opposed to Friday night if it was a house show. So that would mean a schedule of leaving Thursday and getting home on Tuesday. It would be more convenient to do a Thursday through Sunday schedule because talent wouldn’t have to be there until Thursday night, and they’d already be on the road for early Friday, and then could fly home Monday. It would also avoid the Smackdown Monday night house show that is hard to draw since it goes against Raw. These type of decisions don’t have to be made for a long time.
NBC Universal was stunned at losing Smackdown, never believing the bidding for the “B” show would reach $200 million, a level the show got because of the multiple suitors. As noted last week, because of their own ratings situation, USA simply could not afford to lose Raw and used their contractual right to match any existing offer to keep the show, which FOX had hoped to put on its main network on Monday nights. They declined to do the same for Smackdown when the bidding came into the $200 million range.
So as late as early May, based on the time frame and escalators, the WWE deal would have been almost identical to that of UFC’s eventual deal with ESPN, since that deal would probably hit around $350 million or more by that point if FOX kept its offer on the table, and perhaps go well above that figure in negotiations for a new contract.
The story also noted that the FOX deal is not final, but is expected to be very shortly. The key to the deal wasn’t so much the popularity of wrestling but timing.
FOX is selling its studios to either Disney or Comcast in a deal that shocked the industry. The plan is to do a new FOX series of networks which rely heavily on live sports. Given the timing of the key meeting, on 5/17, and FOX’s pulling a similar money offer from UFC, which led to UFC then quickly making its television deal with ESPN (it had already made a streaming deal with ESPN), it would give the impression that all things being equal, FOX chose a weekly Friday night Smackdown show on the network above the continuation of its deal with UFC, where rival ESPN would have a substantial percentage of the future shows for streaming content.
The handshake aspect of the WWE deal with FOX was on 5/17, and UFC then was informed the FOX offer was off the table. UFC quickly made its deal for its television rights with ESPN, which closed just one week later.
There had been hints for months that this would happen, including business stories of the negotiations that outright said FOX would choose WWE over UFC, but at the time, the belief was FOX was looking for the entire package, Raw on FOX on Mondays and Smackdown to bolster FS 1. As noted here, the recent cancellation of some of FOX’s lower rated shows that had cult popularity was directly said to be clearing the prime time inventory to make room for WWE, although at the time that was thought to be Raw.
The issue is that NBC Universal had a right of first refusal in its deal, in that it could match any outside offer, and with the bidding with FOX, they believed the $360 million offer had matched what FOX was putting together. NBC Universal also pushed for the ten-year aspect to avoid another situation like this coming up any time soon.
According to the Reporter story, FOX actually couldn’t make a real offer until 5/17, as the USA Network had an exclusive period of negotiations in its contract that didn’t end until 5/16.
The next morning, a meeting was held. Stephanie McMahon, Paul Levesque, Michelle Wilson, George Barrios (the latter two being the co-Presidents of WWE) and reps Khan and Gold represented WWE. It’s notable that in the biggest deal in the history of the company, the person who wasn’t there was Vince McMahon. Khan and Gold were the negotiators and basically cut the deal. FOX was represented by Peter Rice, the Chairman and CEO of Fox Network Groups, along with Erik Shanks, Larry Jones, the legendary Rupert Murdoch. FOX CEO Lachlan Murdoch was on the phone. When the WWE contingent walked into the meeting room, there was a photo of Ronda Rousey and HHH from their WrestleMania match, the spot where Rousey had him in the fireman’s carry, with a Fox Sports and FS 1 logo on it, notable because it was FS 1's logo.
The fact they had Rousey as the centerpiece on their screens at the meeting tells you all you need to know about her value. Make no mistake about it, if Rousey didn’t mentally crash as a fighter and was still on top, and not had the love of pro wrestling instilled in her from being best friends with pro wrestling nut Shayna Baszler, both of these stories would have played out very differently.
Rice had called Khan weeks earlier. Apparently the understanding in the conversation was that NBC Universal would not match a $200 million offer for Smackdown. That’s when FOX made the offer for an average of $205 million per year.
At the meeting, Rupert Murdoch said that the difference was that NBC Universal was “embarrassed by your product.” That’s a weird thing to say given the USA Network has run WWE programming for most of the last 34 years (except for a five year break when it was on TNN/Spike) and NBC aired network specials at various times. Rupert Murdoch promised to promote Smackdown on all of its live sports programming on a network that is going to use live sports as its cornerstone, something WWE never got from NBC. They also promised a weekly studio show on FS 1, similar to UFC Tonight, so that would be the WWE content on the station. It also said Lachlan Murdoch called Vince McMahon after the meeting and pushed it as a marriage of the Murdoch and McMahon families. The families had already been doing business for decades since the Murdochs owned Sky, which has had the WWE programming rights in the U.K. dating back to the late 80s.
There was a quote from someone at FOX saying that they couldn’t sell UFC, but with wrestling, they can find cash and called it a big win and a great trade-off.
Both the Raw and Smackdown deals had the same current clauses in regarding streaming rights and the time delay between airing on television and streaming on the WWE Network will remain identical through the end of 2024.
But it is notable how this all went down and in the end, it was FOX choosing WWE over UFC that made all the difference in WWE’s five year deal averaging $470 million and UFC’s averaging $300 million.
Even as late as a month ago, UFC was looking at $350 million between FOX and ESPN, over five years, and WWE was looking at $360 million, but over ten years, from NBC Universal, meaning in reality the UFC deal would be viewed as significantly better over the long run because it would get to the peak number earlier and would have a shorter time before the next negotiations.
This deal is the opposite. Not only is WWE back in negotiating business five years earlier, but its base is so much higher than UFC’s that its perceived rights value is as well.
Plus, over the next five years, WWE will have network exposure, which UFC has lost, and 264 hours of live television per year compared to 54 hours for UFC. Granted, WWE would probably be better off in the long run as far as keeping fans by having less hours, but the cash from those hours is now ridiculous so financially, this is no longer about maximizing fans as much as getting paid for content hours. The entire mentality is different. UFC would be better off with more hours on television, most notably because they will still be promoting shows every week, including the ones being streamed, so it’s not like a cutback to 22 shows per year (the number on television and PPV) will mean a longer build time and more focus on shows because there are less of them. And again, while less shows would make them bigger and decrease viewer burnout, the dynamic is so much different today where it’s not about growing ratings or interest to the public as much as creating as many hours of live programming, and for UFC, it’s about building a streaming network, which gets them ridiculous money while decreasing exposure and accessibility to the general public and average sports fan.
The point is, and you can never predict five years into the future because there are so many variables, but what went down over the last few weeks has changed the balance of power between the UFC and WWE businesses. While not direct competition, these negotiations themselves and how they went down tell you that in the real world battlefield, in fact, they were direct competition. In that world, even with fewer viewers, UFC promoted bigger shows, created bigger stars and was far more profitable. With these deals, WWE has far more money and can meet or exceed UFC money offers if they choose to, particularly if there is another Brock Lesnar who can be a star in either, even though it’s unlikely somebody like that would come along. Still, it’s not like there isn’t a kid right out of high school right now that maybe in five years could be that guy and that at least some people aren’t aware of him.
With the exception of WrestleMania, UFC still right now has the ability to produce bigger shows, but WWE has all the advantages over UFC when it comes to creating the next round of bigger stars, and WWE will be financially more profitable starting in 2020, something that hasn’t been the case at least since 2006.
Perhaps the ESPN/UFC synergy will lead to a big increase in popularity. Perhaps some guy will walk through the door in UFC (and it could happen in WWE as well) like another Steve Austin, Dwayne Johnson, Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey who is the game changer for whichever company they are with.
Perhaps ESPN+ will take off, and perhaps Smackdown on Friday night won’t do the numbers expected (although that is probably not going to happen as wrestling numbers are usually pretty predictable). Of course history has shown us that pro wrestling companies can creatively implode. WWE creative right now is far from at its best. However, it’s too big a company with too much money to die, or even be hurt, like a territorial company would do if it lost talent or had bad creative, because serving the live customers is a very minor part of the game now. The reality is that a number of wrestling companies that struggled or went under historically did television numbers that people would die for today. But this WWE has stable minds, is far more open minded when it comes to talent than ever before, and has no competition is a wrestling marketplace which while not more popular, is the strongest it has ever been financially. Even when WCW was at its peak in 1998, I told people within the company and felt the were on the verge of hitting the iceberg, which they ended up hitting in 1999 and drowned shortly after. This is so far from that it isn’t funny. And if that WCW had this television deal and no competition, they could have produced the worst television ever and they’d still be ridiculously profitable. And given the building for the future that WWE has done, and its far better fingers on the pulse of what fans want and also, as funny as this sounds, far more respect for its audience, there will not be a WCW repeat on the creative end.
At this point there is no talk about trying to negotiate television deals to move the PPVs from the network into monthly Sunday specials on television. While there are plans for a UFC Tonight-like weekly talk show on FS 1 for WWE, there were no negotiations for additional wrestling television shows like 205 Live or NXT with FOX or USA.
WWE stock closed at press time at $58.96 per share giving the company a $4.549 billion market value.
The latest increase was fueled by an analysis from Brandon Ross where he targeted the value of the stock’s future at $75 per share based on the new NBC Universal and FOX deals.
That $75 per share figure would be 13.5 times what he believes EBITDA for the company will be in 2020. He feels other analysts aren’t seeing that the new television contract in India (the current deal expires at the end of 2019) will also have a huge increase. He noted that the value for content in India has skyrocketed since the last contract WWE signed.
He also believes WWE can sell a digital rights package for $25 million by that time.
With those numbers he expects revenue to increase by $283 million in 2020 over current levels, which would be in the $1.1 billion per year range. Most of that new $283 million would be profit, since they are already spending the money to tape those shows.
In addition, starting in 2018, due to President Trump’s cutting back on taxes for big corporations, the tax rate will drop from around 35 percent to around 22 percent, which makes another very substantial difference.
The other big market is the U.K., which has its deal expire at the end of 2019. For Sky, it’s very different because ratings have plummeted in recent years.
Ross is estimating free cash flow of $371 million in 2020 and OIBDA of $247 million in 2019 and $501.8 million in 2020. Most analysts right now are pegging EBITDA numbers at $155 million this year, $190 million in 2019 and $308.9 million in 2020.
For a comparison, UFC was projecting $300 million this year, although with PPV still a key revenue stream and the lack of any big drawing shows so far, it’s more likely to end up a little under that. Still, for this year, it would still be nearly double that of WWE, but that changes in 2020.
Ross also expects annual increases of that number from 2020 to 2023 at $40 million per year given the escalators in the television deals
For UFC, this is still a positive, and only looks like a negative when compared to WWE.
If the right guy comes along, with ESPN as partners, their rise won’t be hurt by not having as many hours of regular live television. They are in a lull right now because they don’t have that star, and the ones they have are both self-destructive. Still, even with that, the ratings so far this year have stabilized. PPV shows have done pretty much exactly what they would have been predicted to do. And if Conor McGregor was to fight Georges St-Pierre or Khabib Nurmagomedov this year, it is likely, if not probable, it would be the biggest PPV event in the genre’s history. There is more and better talent than ever before, in all sizes and shapes. Television rights fees change the fight business from one where it’s heavily reliant on those every so often stars, to one more stable. Those stars are huge revenue difference makers, but UFC is tremendously profitable already. And from now until the midpoint of the deal, in 2021, this adds $140 million in added revenue above and beyond, with probably minimal new expense.
The story quoted ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro as saying that his top priority was expanding the audience of ESPN, and becoming more relevant to the younger generation, pushing that the median age for a UFC viewer is 35, although ratings indicate that figure is higher than that, but UFC does skew younger than any other sport except soccer, and perhaps, the NBA. But with the new boxing deal with Bob Arum’s Top Rank, ESPN wants to push itself as the home for combat sports in general. HBO and Showtime still generally have bigger fights than ESPN, but with the UFC deal, they are a lock to having the most high profile MMA fights with the exception of what is on PPV, and ESPN will be involved with that, selling the PPV’s through their own ESPN+ site and getting a cut off those sales.
Regarding the future of negotiations, Mark Shapiro, the co-President of WME IMG told the Reporter, the owners of UFC, noted, “I think that the theory that live entertainment and live sports rights have a ceiling is something media companies want to believe. They want to believe it’s getting under control, that the leagues are going to get a comeuppance and things are going to level off. It’s not happening. Live sports and entertainment are more important than ever before. Other television fare just doesn’t offer the same engagement.”
Still, aside from the NFL, and perhaps the last rounds of the NBA and MLB playoffs, and a few other selected events, the reality is most of today’s television programming that draws the biggest audience is the traditional non-sports scripted fare. It is declining due to more options, and sports is declining at a slower rate. But things are changing rapidly and predictions of anything more than a year or two into the future are at best shots in the dark.
WWE’s Money in the Bank show on 6/17 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago is largely finalized with nine matches announced for the scheduled four hour show.
With this week’s television, the two MITB ladder match competitors have been finalized.
On the men’s side, it’s Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Bobby Roode and Kevin Owens from Raw and The Miz, Rusev, Samoa Joe and a member of the New Day from Smackdown.
Joe won a three-way over Daniel Bryan and Big Cass (whose second knee injury was not legit, and was just playing off a storyline at the London tapings) to take the final spot. It’s just as well that Bryan isn’t in that match because ladder matches increase both the chances for neck injuries and for concussions.
The women’s side has Ember Moon, Alexa Bliss, Natalya and Sasha Banks from Raw and Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Lana and Becky Lynch from Smackdown.
Banks got the final slot winning a gauntlet match on Raw.
The rest of the show has A.J. Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura in a last man standing match for the WWE title, Nia Jax vs. Ronda Rousey for the Raw women’s title, Carmella vs. Asuka for the Smackdown women’s title, Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal, Sami Zayn vs. Bobby Lashley, a Raw tag team title match with Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt defending against the winner of a Battle Royal this coming week (the team getting the most focused push is the new B Team of Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel), and a Smackdown tag team title match with Luke Harper & Erick Rowan vs. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. With nine matches, including two ladder matches and a last man standing match that all would figure to need time, it doesn’t feel like it needs another match. But on Raw, there was an angle shot that would appear to set up Seth Rollins vs. Elias for the IC title.
After this PPV will be Extreme Rules on 7/15 in Pittsburgh at the PPG Paints Arena. The key note is that they are promoting two matches for that show, although it’s hard to believe that they would main event a PPV show with Reigns & Strowman & Lashley vs. Owens & Zayn & Mahal as is being advertised. The other match advertised is Bryan vs. Joe, plus matches with Styles, Nakamura, Rollins, Balor, Jeff Hardy, New Day, Charlotte, Carmella, Jax, Bliss, Banks and Asuka. It’s notable that Rousey is not announced for this show, nor is John Cena or Brock Lesnar.
As of right now, the plan for Lesnar’s next Universal title match is SummerSlam, on 8/19 in Brooklyn. We’re told that Lesnar is tentatively headlining that show but that is not locked in stone. For Lesnar-watch, the key is whether he applies to be put back in the USADA testing pool for UFC by 6/30. If he does not, then he’s staying with WWE. If he does, there is a better chance he would be leaving and starting back in UFC on the New Year’s weekend show. Of course, with both companies cash rich, his timing of being about to be a free agent once again, while still holding the title, and the ability to play one side off the other is the best it has ever been.
After the second week of the New Japan Best of the Super Juniors tournament, a few things are notable.
The first is that they are back to parity booking. With both blocks having completed five of their seven matches, every wrestler in the tournament has either a 3-2 or 2-3 record. While that keeps everybody alive in the quest to reach the finals, it’s the epitome of a tournament where match results don’t mean much. Nobody is getting over just exchanging wins and losses.
The second is that while the lineup looked strong, and there hasn’t been a bad match, this tournament can’t compare at this point with last year’s best tournament ever. While the bottom level is stronger, you can’t lose talent like Ricochet and Volador Jr., and take away the intangible of last year’s finale tournament ever of Jushin Liger, and repeat.
Another issue is that with the top stars, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega not on tour, the crowds are down and the heat in the smaller markets hasn’t been good. Granted, Japanese crowds are quieter and more studious at times, and quiet isn’t considered a negative like in the U.S., but it doesn’t help. There have been technically excellent matches marred because of the crowds.
There have been great standout performances, with Will Ospreay, Dragon Lee and Hiromu Takahashi in particular, and guys like Marty Scurll and Kushida are complete workers. Sho has also helped his stock with good performances.
The B block shows, as expected, have been the better events with mostly great matches while the A block is a little hit and miss, but Ospreay has been the tournament’s best all-around performer to pace that block.
As of 5/31, here are the standings:
A block–1. Flip Gordon, Taiji Ishimori, Will Ospreay and Tiger Mask 3-2; 5. Yoh, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, ACH and Bushi 2-3.
B block–1. Dragon Lee, Hiromu Takahashi, Kushida and Marty Scurll 3-2; 5. Desperado, Sho, Chris Sabin and Ryusuke Taguchi 2-3.
With this booking, no result feels like an upset because everybody is a 50/50 guy. The tournament has been pretty much devoid of stories. It’s just guys going into buildings with small and medium crowds, wrestling really well, and in some cases tremendously well. But it’s like watching a bunch of TJP and Cedric Alexander matches on 205 Live, where everything is really good and the crowd is taking everything down. But nothing feels like it is going to have any meaning until the 6/3 show at Korakuen Hall.
The next-to-last A block show is 5/31 in Hachinohe with Gordon vs.; Bushi, ACH vs. Ishimori, Ospreay vs. Tiger Mask and Kanemaru vs. Yoh.
The next-to-last B block show is 6/2 in Takasaki, with Desperado vs.; Sabin, Scurll vs. Taguchi, Takahashi vs. Sho and Kushida vs. Lee.
The last round-robin night is 6/3, a 5:30 a.m. Eastern time live show on New Japan World, with eight singles matches to determine both block winners. The A block has Gordon vs. Ospreay, Ishimori vs. Yoh, ACH vs. Tiger Mask and Kanemaru vs. Bushi. The B block has Taguchi vs. Sabin, Lee vs. Desperado, Sho vs. Scurll and Takahashi vs. Kushida.
The A block winner faces the B block winner on 6/4 at Korakuen Hall, in another 5:30 a.m. Eastern time start. The winner of that match is likely to face Ospreay for the IWGP jr. title at Dominion on 6/9 in Osaka.
MAY 24 - SHIBA UKAR CHAN ARENA - 1,224
1. Kushida & Shota Umino beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Yota Tsuji in 10:55 when Umino made Tsuji submit to the Boston crab.
2. Chase Owens & Marty Scurll beat Chris Sabin & Tomoyuki Oka in 9:30 when Owens pinned Oka after a package piledriver.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado beat Yoshi-Hashi & Sho in 8:26 when Desperado pinned Sho.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi beat Dragon Lee & Toa Henare in 8:04 when Naito pinned Henare after a destino.
5. Tiger Mask pinned Bushi in 11:16. Crowd was dad. People did get into the finish with Tiger Mask winning clean after a double-arm superplex and Tiger suplex. **
6. Yoshinobu Kanemaru pinned ACH in 14:04. ACH is all taped up and acted like he hurt his shoulder on the first roll. It was clearly part of he match since Kanemaru worked on the shoulder the entire match, including throwing him into the past. There was a count out tease, but I think it was mandatory in this tournament that every match had a double count out tease. I’d say it’s so overdone, and it feels it, but the crowd always reacts to it, and not much was getting a reaction. ACH was doing a lot of moves with one arm to sell the injury. He’s really talented and as far as working old school psychology, he’s better than ever. I would note his matches aren’t getting anywhere near the reaction they got when he was doing flying around, but since they were quiet for everyone, you can’t blame the style. Kanemaru spit alcohol in his face and hit a brainbuster, but ACH kicked out. Kanemaru then came off the top rope with a DDT for the pin. **3/4
7. Flip Gordon pinned Taiji Ishimori in 9:27. Gordon did a moonsault to the floor. Ishimori did the cool looking sliding German suplex. Ishimori came across here like a master worker. Ishimori went for the 450 but Gordon got his knees up. Gordon then pinned him with an O’Connor rolling reverse cradle. ***1/4
8. Will Ospreay pinned Yoh in 16:29. This match was great. Crowd was much hotter for this. Good fast paced old school opening spots. Ospreay went for a space flying tiger drop, but for some reason, he veered a little too far to the right. Yoh had to quickly jump to the side to catch him. To get this kind of a reaction with a crowd that had been that dad was surreal. One of the better matches. Yoh did a dragon suplex but Ospreay landed on his feet, and hit te storm breaker for the pin. ****1/4
MAY 25 - OSAKA CITY CENTRAL GYM - 1,465 SELLOUT
1. Tiger Mask & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino beat Flip Gordon & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura in 8:19 when Umino beat Uemura with a Boston crab.
2. Yoh & Yoshi-Hashi beat ACH & Toa Henare in 9:40 when Yoshi-Hashi beat Henare by submission with the butterfly lock.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens in 8:4 when Suzuki pinned Owens after a Gotch piledriver.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi beat Will Ospreay & Gedo in 8:36 when Bushi pinned Gedo after the MX.
5. Marty Scurll beat Chris Sabin in 13:56. The opening segment was great. Scurll is a complete wrestler in that he can do comedy, brawling, technical wrestling, flying, has the great facial expressions, looks like a star, walks and talks like a star. He did some comedy that enhances his wrestling as opposed to some where it’s a crutch because you can’t wrestle. They kept doing each getting a single leg spot, where both wanted to break but were wary the other person won’t break. Scurll kept swearing. It felt more like a Scurll live entertainment performance than a back-and-forth match. Sabin was spot on in everything he did and this would be considered a fantastic match in a different setting. Scurll won with a reverse suplex, called the black plague. ***1/4
6. Ryusuke Taguchi pinned Kushida in 1:34. Kushida went for an armbar and Taguchi got the pin with an inside cradle. I wouldn’t call it a great match, since it never got started. And these two could have torn the house down, but it was absolutely great for what it was, which is telling fans the pin can come at any time. **
7. Sho pinned Desperado in 12:48. Desperado worked on the left knee with a chair. The crowd wasn’t as into this match as the prior two. Sho got the pin with a package piledriver. Disappointing. **½
8. Dragon Lee beat Hiromu Takahashi in 20:48. This was phenomenal. Most thought it was the best match of the tournament although I’d say second best behind Lee vs. Sho. They went through this at breakneck pace but went too fast. I liked their Arena Mexico matches better and their other NJPW matches better as well. But a lot of people gave this *****. Both kept popping up after German suplexes. Lee tried to move where he jumps over the top rope to do the huracanrana to the floor, but Takahashi blocked the huracanrana and power bombed him on the apron,. Takahashi went for his running dropkick off the apron but Lee, on the floor, jumped up and dropkicked him. Lee did a running flip dive, and then mocked Los Ingobernables. They traded more German suplexes and no selling, with five more in a row. Takahashi leap frogged over the ropes but got hit with a dropkick by Lee, who was on the floor. Takahashi used a German suplex on Lee on the floor at a dangerous angle. To their credit, while they rushed through back-and-forth German suplexes much to fast to the point it wasn’t dynamic, this was safer than their previous bouts. I didn’t say safe. After the German suplex on the floor, Lee would have gotten counted out but Takahashi broke the count because he didn’t want a count out win. But in tournament format, that made no sense. But the crowd loved it. Takahashi did a senton off the top rope to the floor. They traded chops. Lee did a reverse Frankensteiner and Takahashi bounced right up and hit a Canadian Destroyer. After more near falls, Lee won after a standing Spanish fly and a Phoenix plex. ****½
MAY 26 - NAGOYA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HALL - 1,831 SELLOUT
1. Chris Sabin & Shota Umino beat Dragon Lee & Yuya Uemura in 10:28 when Umino beat Uemura with a Boston crab.
2. Yoshi-Hashi & Sho beat Kushida & Tomoyuki Oka in 10:52 when Yoshi-Hashi beat Oka with the butterfly lock.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado beat Marty Scurll & Chase Owens in 9:58 when Suzuki pinned Owens after a Gotch piledriver.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare in 8:10 when Naito pinned Henare after destino.
5. Flip Gordon beat Tiger Mask in 11:15. This was a dead crowd. Even though this was sold out, lots of people, including in front row center in all over the building weren’t watching this match. The empty seats right in front was eerie. Tiger Mask’s matches are getting repetitive. He went for a German suplex but Gordon landed on his feet and hit a superkick, followed by a springboard superkick, springboard knees and then a 450 for the pin. **½
6. ACH beat Yoh in 12:04. ACH showed great athleticism. Aside from young girls, people didn’t seem to respond to Yoh. ACH did the John Cena spot with the crossbody roll through and hoisting Yoh on his shoulders for a Death Valley bomb. Then ACH sold his shoulder like the lift hurt it. He tried a German suplex and the arm went out. ACH did a great job of selling here. ACH won with a DDT called the Soul buster. ***1/4
7. Yoshinobu Kanemaru pinned Taiji Ishimori in14:56. Kanemaru threw him over four rows of chairs. He used a DDT off the apron. Ishimori did an Ibushi running across the ring into a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor. Ishimori is such a good wrestlers, but they struggled with a dead crowd. Ishimori did a superplex off the top rope and airwaves DDT. Ishimori did a tombstone into a codebreaker but Kanemaru kicked out. Ishimori used the crossface and Kanemaru teased tapping. But no heat for even the rope break after the hold was on forever. Kanemaru won with an inside cradle. **½
8. Bushi pinned Will Ospreay in 14:47. Great opening high spot. Bush did a sick DDDt on the apron. Ospreay did a space flying Tiger drop. Ospreay also suplexed him on the Daron. Bushi blew mist and got a near fall with a backslide. Bushi tired to MX but Ospreay hit him with a kick. Ospreay went fr the Cutter, but Bushi turned it into a back stabber. Bushi got a near fall with a Canadian Destroyer. Kanemaru got the pin with the MX. ***½
MAY 27 - NAGOYA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HALL - 1,841 SELLOUT
1. Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens beat Tiger Mask & Tomoyuki Oka in 8:16 when Owens pinned Oka after a package piledriver.
2. Yoshi-Hashi & Yoh beat Flip Gordon & Shota Umino in 8:50 when Yoshi-Hashi beat Umino with the butterfly lock.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Will Ospreay & Gedo in 9:17 when Kanemaru pinned Gedo.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi beat ACH & Toa Henare in 9:28 when Naito pinned Henare after Destino.
5. Marty Scurll beat Desperado in 14:40. They brawled all over, all the way to the top row of the building. Scurll delivered a top rope superplex. Desperado came back with a chari. Scurll got the chair and ref Marty Asami took it from him. With the ref distracted, Desperado went for a low blow. Later, after a ref bump, Scurll went for a chicken wing and Desperado tapped, but no ref. Later, Scurll did the breaking of the fingers spot and then used a chicken wing submission. ***1/4
6. Chris Sabin pinned Dragon Lee in 13:39. Sabin did a missile dropkick that was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Sabin did a top rope superplex. Lee did a Frankensteiner and followed with a running flip dive. Even with all that the crowd was dead. Sabin came of the apron with a Thesz press, but Lee caught him and went for a power bomb, but Sabin turned that into a huracanrana on the floor. Really good stuff ending with Sabin winning with two superkicks and the cradle shock. ***½
7. Kushida pinned Sho in 19:24. This was a great technical bout. Kushida used a short arm scissors and Sho powered out and used a Gotch lift into a back suplex. Kushida kept going for hoverboard locks. Sho did a gut wrench into a dominator. He also did a triple power bomb spot on Kushida. Sho used two German suplexes and got the armbar. Kushida made the ropes. Technically great but not much reaction until 16:00 in. Kushida for the pin after back to the future. ****
8. Hiromu Takahashi beat Ryusuke Taguchi in 14:49. Takahashi tried his sunset flip power bomb but Taguchi blocked it. Taguchi missed a hip attack and crashed to the floor. Taguchi suplexed him on the floor. There was a totally goofy spot where Taguchi did a windsprint clothesline and Takahashi moved and Taguchi ran face-first into a wall. Taguchi did a Silver King dive and running flip dive. Taguchi got lots of near falls and Takahashi even kicked out of the dodon. That got a big pop. Lots of near falls. Takahashi did a Frankensteiner into a triangle and Taguchi tapped out. Everyone was shocked at that finish. They didn’t see a triangle putting out Taguchi, especially coming from Takahashi who never uses the move as a finisher. ****1/4
MAY 29 - TOCHIGI ATHLETIC PARK GYM - 683
1. Chase Owens & Marty Scurll beat Dragon Lee & Yota Tsuji in 9:40 when Owens pinned Tsuji with a package piledriver.
2. Yoshi-Hashi & Yoh beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoyuki Oka in 9:30 when Yoshi-Hashi beat Oka with the butterfly lock.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado beat Kushida & Shota Umino in 8:54 when Suzuki pinned Umino after a Gotch piledriver.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi beat Chris Sabin & Toa Henare in 8:42 when Naito pinned Henare after a destino.
5. Taiji Ishimori pinned Tiger Mask in 11:18. This was an empty building and a bad house, the weakest of the tour. Still they reacted better than some of the bigger crowds. Ishimori looked really good in this match. Ishimori won with a head-and-arm suplex dropped into a knee, which is his bloody cross move, and got the pin. ***
6. Bushi beat ACH in 11:57. ACH blocked a codebreaker but Bushi hit a backstabber for a near fall, and then got the pin after the MX. **½
7. Yoh pinned Flip Gordon in 11:08. Gordon did a springboard dropkick and a ropewalk plancha right away. Yoh did a superplex and went for the follow-up falcon arrow, but Gordon reversed into his own falcon arrow. Gordon got a near fall with a 450 splash. Gordon came off the ropes into a superkick and Yoh did a bridging pin called the five star clutch. ***1/4
8. Will Ospreay pinned Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 14:03. Ospreay did a plancha right away. Ospreay was on the floor and told the crowd to move. Literally the entire section at ringside moved. It was crazy. Ospreay went for a windsprint spot but as he was coming for the clothesline, Kanemaru threw a chair at his head. Kanemaru then threw him through several rows of chairs. Kanemaru hit a DDT on the floor and teased a count out but Ospreay got back in. There was a ref bump by Red Shoes Unno and Ospreay used an O’Connor role but no ref to count. Kanemaru used a low blow with Unno down. He went for a chair but Ospreay got the chair. Before he could use it, Unno got up and took it away. Kanemaru went for a low blow but it was blocked and Ospreay used a superkick and Paul Robinson kick. Ospreay went for the Oscutter but Kanemaru dropkicked him and hit the brainbuster for a near fall. Kanemaru came off the ropes with a DDT for anther near fall. He came off the top again but Ospreay kicked him, did a shooting star press as Kanemaru was draped over the ropes, a Phoenix splash and finally the storm breaker for the pin. ***3/4
MAY 30 - FUKUSHIMA BIG PALETTE - 1,670
1. Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi beat Tiger Mask & Shota Umino in 9:10 when Yoshi-Hashi beat Umino with the butterfly lock.
2. Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens beat ACH & Tomoyuki Oka in 8:40 when Owens pinned Oka after a package piledriver.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Yoh & Gedo in 8:58 when Kanemaru pinned Gedo after deep impact.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi beat Flip Gordon & Toa Henare in 9:31 when Naito pinned Henare after destino.
5. Marty Scurll beat Dragon Lee in 16:01 with a chicken wing.
6. Ryusuke Taguchi beat Sho in 13:08 with a Koriyama suplex.
7. Hiromu Takahashi pinned Chris Sabin in 13:35.
8. Kushida pinned Desperado in 18:33 with back to the future.
In different generations and eras there are different legendary wrestling arenas. Obviously places like Madison Square Garden, Arena Mexico, Boston Gardens, The Forum in Montreal, Budokan Hall, The Omni in Atlanta, the Cow Palace, Kiel Auditorium and the Amphitheater in Chicago are from one generation.
With the advent of the ECW Arena, now the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, to go along with Korakuen Hall, which has clearly seen far more good and divergent styles of great wrestling than any arena in the world, a lot of mentality on special places regards smaller and more intimate settings. When it comes to high quality talent performing regularly and smaller and more intimate, there is no place that quite exemplifies this more than the American Legion Hall Post 308 in Reseda, CA, where every month is black women’s history month, every week is shark week, and they recycle.
For the past decade has been the home of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, the American promotion that books some of the best talent, and the consistent highest quality matches in the world.
That decade-plus era may have ended on 5/25, with a show that over delivered most all reports based on the lineup. It is not clear if this will be the last show. The building is waiting for a sale to close. PWG has already announced shows for 7/13, as well as BOLA on 9/14 through 9/16 for the Globe Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. PWG ran the Globe before. It’s different, more high class, but the fan base was the same and in no way was it a negative on the show. The only difference is the drinks were high caliber and more expensive. At PWG, there is this weird tradition that every show, some fan or fans, because of the cramped quarters, will accidentally spill beer on people in the front row, since beer is sold for a low price in filled-to-the-rim pitchers and in cramped quarters, people bump into each other and the beer goes flying.
Last time in the building it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, and then, after Brody King and Walter tore it up in a tag team match, a fan sitting by me after the match tried to give his pitcher of beer to King, not knowing King doesn’t drink. King, literally in the heat of the moment of the match, swatted the pitcher away and, well, the streak continued. The Globe is far less cramped and that isn’t going to happen. Some complained on one side of the ring that the lights got in people’s eyes. It is like going from an armory to an opulent ballroom, it can hold more people (although they only really increased from about 450 to a little over 600) but it’s not like getting tickets is any easier as PWG is the hardest ticket to get in wrestling with the regular five minute sellouts even with prices continually escalating. The feeling was this was the last show.
This was said to be not an all-time classic PWG show, but one that was very good. When the show started, Excalibur said that he didn’t know any more than a month ago. He said it could be their last show but he didn’t know. There were a few boos at the mention of the Globe Theater. Thanks to Ruby Flores, Brian Reznick, John Carey and Guillermo Monti for the reports and Carey for the consensus star ratings.
There is a story regarding Reznick that several passed on and obviously he never told us. Lee had auctioned off his entrance hoodie from the show and Reznick won the bidding for what was said to be a significant amount of money. Lee went to give it to him after the match. Lee got on the mic, asked for someone to bring the hoodie out and gave his farewell to PWG speech. He asked where Reznick was and went to give it to him. There was also a young girl at the show, who someone described as like Izzy but more expressive (it was an Orlando NXT regular who also attends these shows) and she was really into Lee’s match in particular. Reznick, according to the story we heard, tried to message Lee during the match to give the hoodie to her. Lee called Reznick out of the crowd but then Reznick told him he should give it to the girl, and he did.
The second show at the Globe Theater on 7/13 is looking like it’ll be the toughest ticket since Kenny Omega came. The lineup has Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz defending the PWG tag titles against the Young Bucks, Walter vs. Brody King in a non-title match (they tore down the house two shows back in a tag team match), Matt Riddle vs. Marty Scurll, Dalton Castle vs. David Starr, Rey Fenix vs. Trevor Lee, Penta 0M vs. Rey Horus and Joey Janela vs. Jeff Cobb.
1. Tyler Bateman pinned Uptown Andy Brown in 13:17 with a spinning tombstone. They traded hard chops. Both did nothing wrong and the crowd was hot for them. Still, the crowd could see they were green and not of the usual caliber here and they did lose the crowd at times. Brown was a late replacement for Trevor Lee. Excalibur announced Lee was hurt and wished he could have made it, but still hated each and every fan. Still, Brown did get a “please come back” chant, and it’s not like they do that for everyone. I was told this would be considered a good match on most shows but here it was tougher because expectations of the talent level is so high. **½
2. Rey Horus pinned Jake Atlas in 14:05. It was clear early on the crowd was for Horus, who has had some great matches here. So Atlas played heel. Atlas in his debut at the Globe was in a match where everyone tried to do everything in the world to get over, and the result was a lot of missed stuff and he dislocated his hip. They did move after move early and got the crowd on fire with some nasty bumps. The reaction was that Horus was carrying things but Atlas showed here he’s good enough to have a really good match with a good opponent. There were homophobic chants (Atlas has come out) which surprised people in a negative way. It was only by a few, but you don’t expect that here. Lots of Lucha Libre segments. Atlas did a springboard to the floor that looked like twisted bliss. Horus did a running dive over the corner like Ricochet. The finishing spinning DDT off the ropes looked great. ***½
3. Bandido pinned Robbie Eagles in 13:39. From all accounts, this stole the show. Bandido came across like he’s one of the future superstars of the business. Eagles got over better here than when he faced Will Ospreay. Bandido won with a finish so phenomenal looking. Lots of dives and Lucha spots. The crowd just loved Bandido. They exchanged reverse huracanranas and exchanged chops like a Dragon Lee vs. Takahashi match. It was just a crazy chop exchange. They did it in the ring. Then they went to the floor. Then they were back in the ring. The finish was Bandido sitting on the top rope, he had Eagles in the torture back, and then gave him an inverted Michinoku driver. The crowd threw so many bills that they stuffed two pitchers and one baseball hat with bills. ****1/4
4. Adam Brooks beat Keith Lee in 20:38. The show was called “Bask in his Glory” and was the farewell for Lee. Really good. Lee no sold offense and did power spots. Lee sat up his jackhammer, but Brooks grabbed the ref to distract him, gave Lee and low blow and pinned him after a swanton. ***3/4
5. Jonah Rock pinned Timothy Thatcher in 13:06. Crowd was into the face vs. heel thing here with Rock as the heel. Rock won clean with a frog splash. He played big monster and got tons of heat. Thatcher used hard strikes and submissions. Rock hit Thatcher with a chair to the back so hard that Thatcher’s back was said to have looked gross. They had a great fight over a superplex until Thatcher finally got it for a great near fall. ***½
6. Matt Riddle pinned David Starr in 18:21. The crowd was more into taunting before the match than the stuff in the match, but hard hitting chops and lariats and knees. Said to be a great technical match where every move and reversal made sense in building the match. This was easily Starr’s best PWG showing. Riddle’s chest was bleeding from the chops. There was a great strike exchange. Riddle did his tombstone, where he drops the guy more like a front slam rather than on his head. Riddle won with a Gotch piledriver off the middle rope, but turned him to it was more like a slam and Starr took it entirely on his back. The move looked great but didn’t at least appear to be unsafe. The crowd reacted big to both guys after the match. ****
7. Walter retained the PWG title over Sammy Guevara in 17:13. The match saw Walter just destroy Guevara with chops to the right side of the chest. Every chop went to roughly the same spot and Guevara’s chest was brutalized. Even by normal Walter standards, Guevara’s chest looked as bad as almost anything you’d see. Guevara played heel as he’d take a chop and bail, but the story was he was running, and then Walter would catch him and go back to chopping him. It was a simple match of Walter using chops and Guevara attacking Walter’s knee. Walter ended up with an ugly bruise on his knee. Guevara did get his high flying offense. The finish saw Walter borrow a page out of the Okada play book with the wrist control, and throwing chop after chop, until finally hitting a clothesline for the pin. After the match, Walter gave Guevara respect for taking it and went to shake his hand, but Guevara flipped him off and walked out. Said to have great selling and psychology. ****
Io Shirai, who was considered the biggest star in Japanese women’s wrestling, looks to be leaving Stardom for WWE.
The promotion announced her final match on 6/17 at Korakuen Hall, although this same thing happened last year, she didn’t pass medicals, and she ended up returning.
The plan is for a 6/10 show at Shinkiba in Tokyo where Shirai will do a series of one minute matches where she will face everyone on the roster. Her final show will see her reunite with Mayu Iwatani, and face Kagetsu & Hazuki.
She is expected, if she passes medicals, to start in Orlando on or around 7/16, which is the same time frame as several other name wrestlers are scheduled to start, including Keith Lee.
Shirai, real name Masami Odate, 28 had made a similar decision last year to go to WWE, but after going back-and-forth for months and finally agreeing, the offer by WWE was rescinded due to a heart issue found in company medicals.
However, she was examined in Japan and given full clearance and returned to Stardom in August, after she had done an injury angle to leave the promotion in May 2017, to explain her going to WWE. But then, after WWE pulled the offer, she returned.
It was a given for the past year that she would go as soon as another offer came, and with her health issue believed to be cleared up, and her generally being considered to be one of the two best woman wrestlers in the world (the other being Meiko Satomura), and her being very pretty by American standards, it was a lock she’d get another chance.
Shirai had won Japan’s Women’s Wrestler of the year award in 2017 for the third straight year.
Shirai had lost her Wonder of Stardom title to Momo Watanabe on 5/23 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. This result had been planned for several weeks, and while the timing looks suspicious and it did lead to rumors that she lost and was leaving, it was a planned title change. Shirai didn’t inform the promotion she was leaving until 5/27 and the word got to Tokyo Sports, which reported her leaving in their issue the next day.
It is unclear if she will be debuting in the Mae Young Classic, but other Stardom wrestlers had been contacted and were doing those shows and pulling out of Stardom’s annual Five-Star tournament, the women’s equivalent of G-1.
Shirai and Kairi Hojo (Kairi Sane) were both contacted in October 2016 and both went back-and-forth for months on whether to stay or go. Shirai actually made the decision to go first, and even went to Orlando in March for a tryout that was supposed to be kept confidential, but WWE’s web site leaked it out before taking the article down. She didn’t enjoy the tryout, which was as much her trying them out as the opposite, but she was offered a contract and she made the decision to accept in May. In June, her contract was rescinded by the WWE because of the heart issue and she returned to Stardom in August.
On June 30, 2017, she attended the WWE live event at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. During the show, a video played and it was Kairi Sane saying hello to the live fans. In Stardom, Shirai and Kairi Hojo (Sane) were the two top stars in the group, but Shirai was the ace and Hojo was the clear No. 2.
According to someone close to her, she was somewhat devastated watching it. She wasn’t expecting the moment to hit her so hard as she saw it and started thinking that should have been her. She was very hurt emotionally by that moment and became completely focused to do whatever it would take to prove that she was the wrestler who would have been on the video.
Odate started wrestling 11 years ago, at the age of 16, with her older sister, who used the name Mio Shirai (she retired in 2015). The wrestled in a number of promotions, and in 2010, the sisters and Kana (now Asuka in WWE) were together in a group called Triple Tails. In real life, the two did not get along.
They group was together for more than a year, but Shirai left for Stardom as her main promotion in 2011. She gained mainstream attention for an arrest for smuggling marijuana to Japan from Mexico. That would be a career death sentence, but she was absolved of charges, but she stopped working in Mexico for two years.
Both Odate and then-boyfriend Kazuhige Nosawa were arrested on May 23, 2012 at Narita Airport, charged with smuggling 75 grams of marijuana inside of two paintings. Both claimed they knew nothing of it and the paintings were gifts from fans. Odate was held for three weeks in prison and it appeared her career was over. She also broke up with Nosawa during that period. The decision was made not to prosecute her and Takuya Sugi, a Japanese wrestler who was living in Mexico, held a press conference and claimed he planted the drugs on the two of them, saying that the liaison between AAA and Japan, Masahiro Hayashi, had a personal grudge with Nosawa, and had promised him a contract with AAA in exchange for planting drugs on Nosawa, and that Odate was just an innocent victim of circumstances.
She defeated Alpha Female (Jazzy Gabert) in 2013 to win the Wonder of Stardom title for the first time, holding the title for 15 months, and since then, held every championship in the promotion, including the trios title six times, the tag team title once, and the two main singles titles twice each. Her matches with Meiko Satomura in 2015 and Mayu Iwatani in 2016 were names women’s match of the year.
Shirai had a very nice place in Tokyo and got rid of it last year when she decided to leave for the U.S. She never got a new place of her own and was living in a shared house so she never put back down roots and was always looking to go to WWE. She had totally changed her style over the last several months. She wasn’t working at the fast-pace that Japanese women are known for and cut back on the big moves. She would do all that in her big matches and worked at a high level there, but was already in most cities working what was described as a more American style except on the big shows.
She was leaving for less money because her deal in Stardom included her keeping all of her merchandise money.
Because of WWE getting more aggressive in looking for new women’s wrestlers, Stardom is taking a hit. This past week Bea Priestly canceled her July through September dates. In her case, she said she and boyfriend Will Ospreay are looking for a home in New Zealand. That coincides with Ospreay looking at getting work in Australia and New Zealand for much of the summer. Ospreay has talked about his goal of trying to elevate wrestling in Australia and New Zealand to U.K. levels.
However, Xia Brookside canceled her summer tour after previously asking for more dates. The belief is she’s either going to WWE or the Mae Young Classic, or both because she told the promotion she can’t give a reason for canceling, past saying she has a big opportunity this summer, which sounded like a code for WWE. WWE has made it clear they don’t want people telling anyone anything about coming in. Her father, Robbie Brookside, is a WWE trainer. Deonna Purrazzo is another name on that list, since she just cut short her next planned Stardom tour and she looks to be NXT bound, whether it be the next start date or for the Mae Young Classic and after.
Raw on 5/28 drew 2,487,000 viewers, which would be the second lowest number of the modern era, trailing only the September 26, 2016 episode of the show which did a 1.74 rating and 2,464,000 viewers.
The total audience was down 6.5 percent from last week, which most of the declines coming with viewers 35 to 49.
We don’t have a rating for the show, but it is possible it would be the all-time lowest. However this is far worse in one sense, because that show went against the Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump debate that did 80.9 million viewers. It was also during football season, when Raw ratings are traditionally lower.
This show set the non-football season all-time record low, but looking at the total landscape, wouldn’t even view the number negatively.
The key was game seven of the Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets NBA semifinal on TNT, which drew 14,810,000 viewers. In addition, NBC aired game one of the Las Vegas Golden Knights vs. Washington Capitals Stanley Cup final, which did 5,195,000 viewers.
Really you can throw this number out for anything meaningful, because Raw was still the fourth highest rated show on cable, and the three shows that beat it were the NBA game, the NBA pregame show and NBA postgame show, all on TNT. The news shows that usually beat Raw got hammered far harder, as Rachel Maddow did 1,532,000 viewers, Tucker Carlson did 1,634,000 viewers and Hannity did 1,476,000 viewers.
Raw will surely bounce back on 6/4, as it is an off-day for the NBA playoffs, as is 6/5. The only show that may be impacted going forward is the 6/11 show, which would go against game five of the Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers final, and could break the record low. After that it would be smooth sailing, at least unless there is a huge football game in the fall.
The three hours were 2,593,000 in the first hour, 2,591,000 in the second hour and 2,300,000 in the third hour.
Even though the game started at 9 p.m., the major tune out period was 10 p.m., and the first hour, which went against the NHL game but not the NBA game, did surprisingly low. Essentially people had already decided to skip Raw for the night to watch the NBA as opposed to check out the first hour and switch.
NEW JAPAN: It was officially announced that the 7/7 Cow Palace show will air live on AXS TV at 8 p.m. Eastern that night, meaning it goes head-to-head with UFC 226
I was told that they would start running commercials for live tickets to the Cow Palace in a few weeks. For what it’s worth, the AXS press release wrote in more than one place about seeing New Japan before 10,000 fans, so they apparently expect to get close to that number. It just feels to me that between this and All In, that we’ve learned that New Japan is a show that has an audience that will fly in, but you can’t get them to do so for obvious reasons every few months. And for this summer, those fans felt All In was a bigger deal than the Cow Palace show, perhaps because nothing was pushed for the Cow Palace and All In was pushed so hard in Young Bucks & Cody’s social media
If you haven’t seen them, a DVR treat is that AXS TV will be doing a two plus week Kazuchika Okada promotion. They will air his record breaking title defense run daily at 5 a.m. weekdays from 5/30 to 6/14, with the title win over Tetsuya Naito on 5/30, the 2016 Naomichi Marufuji match on 5/31, the first Kenny Omega match on 6/1, the Minoru Suzuki match on 6/4, the legendary Katsuyori Shibata match on 6/5, the Bad Luck Fale match on 6/6, the 60:00 draw with Omega on 6/7, the Cody match on 6/8, the Evil match on 6/11, the Naito match from WrestleKingdom on 6/12, the Sanada match on 6/13 and the Zack Sabre Jr. match on 6/14. This leads to the 6/15 premiere of the Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match from 5/4 in the regular 8 p.m. Friday night time slot
CEO Naoki Sugabayashi heavily praised Will Ospreay. He said that Ospreay was the best junior heavyweight in the world and the role model for other non-Japanese wrestlers who wasn’t to work in the promotion. “Ospreay is professional and a hard worker,” he said. “I also love his spirit in his matches. I know that he is working with minor injuries in his shoulder and neck but he always plays in top performance. Although he’s known as a wrestler who does a lot of aerial moves, he also adopted the NJPW style lately and the fans and I personally love it. Gaijin such as Ospreay and Hangman Page are what I need in this business. Since they joined New Japan, from their first day, they learned and try to be better and better.”
OTHER JAPAN NOTES: In the subject of the highest rated wrestling television show of all-time, the belief was always that the 1957 Lou Thesz NWA world title defense against Rikidozan, that did an 87.5 rating, was the highest. It should be noted that television was big in Tokyo, but not so much the rest of Japan so even with that rating, the viewer numbers were a lot lower than Ali vs. Inoki, Rikidozan vs. Destroyer, some of the big Akebono sumo matches and Akebono vs. Bob Sapp. However, historian Matt Farmer unearthed that on South Korean television on November 7, 1977, an International tag team title match with Kintaro Oki (also called Kim Ill) & Kim Duk winning the titles in Seoul, South Korea over Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta did an 88.0 television rating. The total viewership of that match would have been 31.7 million, which is basically almost every single person in the country at that time. Oki was the national wrestling hero of South Korea in the 60s and 70s. He was also a bit crazy, as he tried to shoot with Bruno Sammartino in Japan and with Lou Thesz in Houston. He was a tough guy, particularly in the gym, although Thesz really hurt him in that Houston match. Notably, because Thesz liked him so much, he never talked about it or bragged about it, nor mentioned it in his autobiography. They ended so close after the fact that in 1995, when there was an event at the Tokyo Dome to honor Oki, who by that point was wheelchair bound and his memory had faded, Thesz was brought to Japan to wheel him to the ring and give a speech about how much guts he had and what a legit guy he was. Sammartino, on the other hand, did talk at times about Oki coming after him in the middle of working match in Japan
Hideki Suzuki’s next defense of the Big Japan strong title will be against Takuya Nomura on 6/20 at Korakuen Hall
Hana Kimura, who is under contract to Wrestle-1 but works for all the different women’s groups, is leaving for three months in Mexico. Kimura, who is the daughter of former woman star Kyoko Kimura (who retired earlier this year), holds the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles with Kagetsu. The feeling is that Kimura, who has only been wrestling for two years and is said to have the best dropkick since Manami Toyota by those in Japan, could be among the best in world in a few years and she also has the right look for WWE. Kagetsu & Kimura defend the titles on 6/3 in Sapporo against Mayu Iwatani & Saki Kashima
They held a tournament over two shows on 5/27 in Osaka for the vacant Artist of Stardom six-woman titles. The Jungle Assault Nation team of Jungle Kyona & Kaori Yoneyama & Natsuko Tora beat Kagetsu & Hazuki & Kimura in the finals when Kyona pinned Hazuki.
HERE AND THERE: Jeff Jarrett is looking at getting back into the promotional and television business with his Global Force Entertainment brand. During the week, FITE TV, which has worked with Jarrett in Impact in the past, announced a partnership with GlobalForce to develop sports and entertainment programming. Global Force will be developing as well as acquiring wrestling events and other wrestling programs for the Fight Network. They are also working to develop non-wrestling programming for an as yet unannounced digital platform
Will Ospreay is looking at basing himself out of Australia and New Zealand from 7/14 to 8/18 and taking as many bookings in those countries as possible
Bobby Fulton (James Hines), 57, had his retirement match on 5/26 in Circleville, OH on his own World Class Professional Big Time Wrestling show. Fulton was best known as half of the Fantastics with the late Tommy Rogers (Thomas Couch), and later Jackie Fulton (George Hines). Rogers & Bobby Fulton may have been the most underrated great tag team of the last 50 years, best known for their feuds with the Midnight Express in Mid South, Dallas and Jim Crockett Promotions in the 80s. Jerry Jarrett put the two of them together after Fulton & Terry Taylor were the original Fantastic Ones, as copies of the Fabulous Ones, in Georgia for a brief period of time. They also teamed up during the heyday of All Japan Pro Wrestling. The Midnight Express vs. Fantastics rivalry for Crockett produced so many great matches that it wont he 1988 Feud of the Year. A number of names from the past were there including Bill Dundee, Kevin Sullivan, Flying Fred Curry, Jim Cornette, Bobby Eaton, Ron Garvin, The Barbarian, J.J. Dillon, Tommy Rich, Tracy Smothers, Shane Douglas and Pitbull Gary Wolfe. Fulton was trained in Ohio early on by Fred Curry and his father, Wild Bull Curry, along with Lord Zoltan. They had a ceremony to induct Fred & Bull Curry into a Hall of Fame. There was another ceremony during the show with Cornette, Fred Curry, Eaton and Dillon where Fulton was given retirement gifts. The main event was supposed to be Bobby Fulton and his son, Fargo Fulton (named after Jackie Fargo, as the Fantastics were one of many teams who really copied the dress and struts and mannerisms of Jackie Fargo and the Fabulous Fargos tag team) as a team. Instead, it started as Bobby, with his son in the corner, facing Nick Curry, the son of Fred and grandson of Wild Bull. Pitbull Gary Wolfe and Robby Starr attacked both of them, so Bobby & Nick faced Wolfe & Starr, and Nick pinned Starr. Fulton then took off his boots and left them in the ring
Former wrestling personality Stacy Keibler, 38, is expecting her second child. She’s a big enough name due to her relationship with George Clooney for years, and her run on Dancing with the Stars, that this got a good deal of US Weekly and People coverage. Keibler and husband Jared Pobre, 43, were out on 5/25 and she was showing signs of pregnancy and the next day those close to her confirmed it with US Weekly. The two were married in March of 2014 and had a daughter five months later. This would be their second child
Eric Arndt, 31, the former and possible future Enzo Amore, resurfaced on 5/28 for the first time since the rape accusation that led to his being fired by WWE. He released an awful rap song with lines about consensual penis and lying ho and in trying to decipher what he said into English, it appears he’s looking to sue TMZ and accuser Philomena Shaheen, or at least teased it with terms like getting restitution from them, and was apparently mad at some wrestling fans who he portrayed in unflattering terms. Suing Shaheen makes no logical sense since she has no money, but TMZ theoretically would. It would be very difficult to prove a winning case given he’s a celebrity and they would have needed proof that she was lying in her interview and still aired it to have a strong case. He also praised the fans in an interview that day saying his fan base stalked his accuser for her missteps and that he really didn’t even need a lawyer because his fans did all the work. He’s claimed he was entertainment’s hottest free agent. His situation is interesting. You never know how modern crowds will react if he does work outside WWE. Rich Swann’s return saw him get a thunderous reaction, meanwhile everyone in the U.S. is still shy on booking Michael Elgin including a number of promoters who very much want to because of the bad crowd reaction when he last worked AAW. He was cleared and no charges were ever filed in the first place, and anyone who followed the case could see that no charges would be filed. He also claimed that his being fired for not letting WWE know about a police investigation and the company being blind sided is BS because he said he found out he was being investigated the same time as everyone else as the police never contacted him before the story got out. But all charges were dropped against Swann and he was still fired. With Arndt, part of the issue was that he didn’t inform the company of the investigation and they found out at the same time everyone else did, and then had to figure out what tact to take on the fly, plus rebook the entire 205 Live since it had been all booked around him. When talking about his future, he didn’t really talk wrestling. My gut says he’d be able to do very well on autograph shows in conjunction with wrestling shows since enough fans see him as a real TV star and wouldn’t care about anything else. He could get indie work but I’m not sure if he’d want it. He made a lot of money on merchandise but you never know how people spend. Even when he was in WWE, he had talked of leaving wrestling to become a rapper, although that first song was terrible. “I’ve been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing and making music, man,” he said in an interview with Adam Glyn. “On the low, I’ve been in Kanye’ studio No Name out in L.A. And I’m about to drop a ton of content on the world.
Dave Bautista has reached a deal to star in an action/comedy film called “Dogtown” for Bold Films. The movie is based on the comic book series “Body Bags,” by Jason Pearson. Bautista will play Mack Delgado, a professional bounty hunter, who finds out he’s got a teenage daughter that he never knew about. The plan is for it to go into production in the fall
Bret Hart, 60, will be receiving an honorary B.A. in Physical Literacy from Mount Royal University in Calgary on 6/1. Hart enrolled in that college in 1977 to learn film, but after one year, ended up doing exactly what he at first he was trying to avoid doing, which was become a pro wrestler. He got good at it fast and was soon a headliner, and he never left until the concussion that ended his career
Regarding the notes last week about the death of Eddie “Buddha Khan” Carter, he had a lot of claims about his music career and we confirmed he was part of the late 50s group “The Medallions,” but couldn’t confirm his other claims about his musical career. Regarding Roller Games, according to those in the business, he was not in the movie “Kansas City Bomber,” as he had always claimed, but was in a couple of pro wrestling movies in the 80s that he claimed. Historians of that genre said there is no record of him ever skating, but he was around briefly in 1977 in Southern California as the infield manager of the New York Bombers, a heel team that skated against the Los Angeles T-Birds after the glory years were over. The year 1977 would indicate he probably did pro wrestling and Roller Games at the same time, since he was enhancement talent in the Los Angeles circuit in the late 70s, and at that time, both the T-Birds and the LeBell pro wrestling promotion ran out of the Olympic Auditorium. John Hall, who was the right-hand man of owner Bill Griffiths Jr., and was one of the iconic figures in Roller Games, said that he did remember him, that he never skated nor was around when the movie was being made and was not in the movie, which was filmed in 1972
The JPW company in Chicago has partnered with Bameroo Productions to run wrestling out of Villa Park, IL with a first show on 6/23 using a lot of big name talent
Thomas “Wild Bull” Miller, a longtime promoter and wrestler out of Columbus, OH, passed away on 5/24 after a series of health issues. He was 56. Miller started promoting under the IWA name in 1988, after starting his career in 1981, after his high school graduation. He was trained by Flying Fred Curry, Wild Bull Curry and Bobby Pico, and started wrestling in late 1981 as Aaron Lee Star. He did some early enhancement work for Georgia Championship Wrestling in that era. After Bull Curry passed away in 1985, he used the Wild Bull Miller name to honor him. He worked in the dying days of Dick the Bruiser’s IWA in the 80s. He had heart issues from diabetes, including a massive heart attack several years ago. He also suffered a bad infection in his leg that went to the bone and he needed part of his leg amputated. Later he went into renal failure and had to be on dialysis three times a week
Josh Briggs, Anthony Henry and James Drake have all signed WWN contracts. Because there is another James Drake in wrestling from the U.K., he’s changing his name to J.D. Drake, the Blue Collar badass
AAW drew 475 fans, a near sellout, on 5/25, although they were advertising $10 off tickets the last week so there must have been some concern. We’re told it was their best show since November. They put the women’s title on top, with Kimber Lee using Brass Knux to knock out Jessicka Havok to win the title. After the match, Brody King attacked Havok which led to Sami Callihan (Havok’s boyfriend) going after King. The locker room emptied to separate them and they brawled into the crowd and even into the balcony. The angle was said to be excellent. Rey Fenix & Penta 0M beat Myron Reed & AR Fox in a hot match. The Besties in the World, Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega, kept the tag titles beating Colt Cabana & Juice Robinson. Callihan & The Crist Brothers best Shane Strickland & Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz. Darby Allin debuted, losing to King, in a great match. Jimmy Jacobs also came out. He wasn’t advertised. He cut a heel promo with a bunch of inside stuff. He said he gave everything he had for AAW but would rather be working for Vince McMahon, and then started swearing about his friends like Chris Jericho and the Young Bucks for not taking care of him and getting him bookings and said that Ruby Riott and Seth Rollins needed to thank him because he’s the one who got them their jobs. AAW is running shows at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago on 8/30 and 8/31, which is the Thursday night and Friday night prior to All In. They have about 150 tickets left for each night. The 8/30 show will have Flamita & Bandido vs. Penta 0M & Rey Fenix
Joey Janela won the Chandler Biggins and J.T. Lightning Memorial tournament that AAW put on, beating Tracy Williams and Matt Justice in the finals on 5/27 in Cleveland. The two were two of the key people in the forming of the promotion and the Cleveland area independent scene
Danielle Moinet, formerly Summer Rae, who has been doing modeling work in an ad campaign that Paul Heyman’s Looking 4 Larry agency has put together, did what was supposed to be her first match in almost two years (she suffered injuries over the summer of 2016 and her last match was Aug. 14 that year) for the BCW promotion in Melbourne, Australia on 5/25. She was to wrestle Arya Reign in the first round of a tournament for the company’s women’s title. Moinet came out and did a heel promo. She did some stalling. Then the bell rang. Then she left the ring and the referee counted her out. The fans were stunned and when the bell rang, the fans in the building thought it was the bell to start the match. Then they played the music of another woman wrestler, but then played Reign’s music. This was the second time BCW had booked a former WWE women star to wrestle, as a few years ago they had Melina Perez, who came in, said she was injured and then refereed matches instead of wrestled.
EUROPE: Mark Dallas’ ICW has reached a deal with BBC to air a reality show about novices attempting to become wrestlers for his promotion. He said it would be like Tough Enough
I saw the OTT match with Will Ospreay vs. Matt Riddle that everyone was raving about. I’d go ****3/4. It was a brilliant match, not an epic like Tanahashi vs. Okada but you get the impression watching it that there are just two ridiculously talented guys wrestling in a fantastic atmosphere (Dublin National Stadium, which between this and other stuff I’ve seen from that venue makes it one of the places I really want to see a live show in some day). It was right up there with the best stuff in PWG. It was a totally different match than their WrestleMania match, which was really perfect for that crowd on that night since everyone knew Ospreay was hurt so you work for maximum emotion. The story I heard is that at first they were planning on doing a similar match, and then the feeling was that enough of the fans there had seen the Mania week match so they went in a completely different direction. The other thing about the match is that unlike some of Ospreay’s matches in Japan where I find myself scared for him (and granted, a lot of that is the intent he’s trying to make you feel and the WrestleMania week match was 100 percent about that), this was dramatic in front of a great crowd and I was just completely entertained and in awe but not scared. They went 16:10 and it’s very rare a match that length feels like it was barely half that time. Ospreay didn’t do nearly the amount of crazy flying I’ve seen in other matches, but had what I’d call a perfect match to do on a show when you’re not the main event, in that it was brilliant but not in a way where you do everything in the world you can think of and make it impossible for the people following you. When it was over, it was very clear that these are two of the best performers in the business today, and when you consider how long both have been doing it, that’s an amazing accomplishment. When Okada was in Long Beach, he did an interview where he said that by the time he’s 30, Ospreay will be better than he is. Then again, when Dynamite Kid was 30, his career was almost over and Ospreay is the modern equivalent
Bill Ross, 74, was announced this week as the fourth member of the Scotland Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. The first three were George Kidd, generally considered Scotland’s best wrestler ever and arguably the best technical wrestler ever in the U.K., Andy Robin and Frank “Chic” Cullen. Ross started his career doing legitimate shoot matches. He wrestled as a lightweight and middleweight. He was a two-time Scottish lightweight champion, a two-time European lightweight champion, a three-time British Commonwealth champion and a one-time world middleweight champion. He started out in track training for the Highland games in events like the high jump, pole vault and hill running. He had started training with local wrestlers Andy Robin and Willie Bell and was looking to compete in wrestling at the Highland Games by that point. He was at a show in 1961 when someone was injured, and other wrestlers who knew of his talents, told promoter Max Crabtree (Big Daddy’s brother) that he was advanced enough to fill-in. He did s well Crabtree wanted too use him regularly. He continued to compete in a legitimate matches and won the Thornton Cup tournament and the Scottish amateur title as a middleweight in 1969. In November 1969 he won the pro wrestling Scottish lightweight title from Jim McKenzie. He also debuted that month on ITV’s World of Sport. On March 27, 1970, he defeated Jim Breaks at The Albert Halls in Stirling to win the European lightweight title. Ross and Breaks continued to battle in singles matches over the title over the next four years, including one match that went 67:00. His win over Terry Jowett at the Perth City Hall for the British commonwealth lightweight title increased his stardom and later he and McKenzie became a tag team called The Flying Scots (what is funny is that George & Sandy Scott were known in North America in the 50s and 60s as the Flying Scotts). Ross eventually defeated Adrian Street on April 25, 1978 in a match that was supposed to be for the World middleweight title, but Street missed weight by four pounds so it was ruled a non-title match. It wasn’t until December 11, 1979, that Ross won the title from Street in a rematch before a sellout crowd at the Music Hall in Aberdeen, Scotland. He retired as champion in 1980. After wrestling, he was part of the organizational team for the Highland Games
Progress ran a weekend show in London with the idea that it was a throwback to 1978. The fans dressed up in 1978 clothes and styles. The wrestlers dressed up like they were 70s guys and worked that European style from that era. The show was produced like it was a 70s house show
Zack Sabre Jr. on Walter: “There’s no one that I enjoy watching as a fan more than him and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have wrestled him as many times as I have. Overjoyed that the rest of the world is now finding out how remarkable he is.”
ROH: They had a U.K. swing this past week and it must have gone well enough because they’ve already announced return dates in all three cities, with an 8/16 show in Edinburgh, 8/17 in Doncaster and 8/18 in London. We don’t have the numbers yet for the three shows but obviously in going back so soon they were considered a big success. Edinburgh was estimated at 950 in a building set up for 1,000
For All In, the storyline is that Nick Aldis, the NWA champion, said he would only defend his title against Cody at All In if it was a title for title match, meaning Cody has to win the ROH title for the match to take place. The main event of the 6/29 ROH PPV show in Baltimore, where they are running a 5,000-seat building, is Dalton Castle defending the title against both Cody and Marty Scurll in a three-way plus Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Young Bucks for the tag titles. There was a tease of Jay Lethal vs. Kushida, since Lethal had los several matches and now he’s beating everyone that beat him and the next guy he’s looking for is Kushida, who is booked for the show. Actually it’s pretty much a lock that match will happen on the show as well
WWE: The slander lawsuit by Dr. Christopher Amann against Phil Brooks (C.M. Punk) and Scott Colton (Colt Cabana) kicked off on 5/29 in Chicago. The timing feels like it couldn’t be worse. One thing notable is that neither defendant moved to settle the case. It’s hard to know what that means, but if the evidence in discovery worked against them, the logical thing to do is settle. As noted before, I see this as an open-and-shut case in the sense Punk either told the truth about his medical condition and his treatment, or he lied. If he lied, then he’d be up for damages. If he told the truth, the case should have been thrown out a long time ago and never gotten this far, let alone all the way to a trial. After the first full day, the gist of the arguments appear too be that Amann, who couldn’t prove any loss of income because he admitted his job status wasn’t affected, claimed emotional distress due to negative signs and catcalls from pro wrestling crowds and negative social media tweets and posts. That would be a landmark case if it goes anywhere that crazy tweets from unknown people and catcalling from pro wrestling fans is used as evidence for distress in a slander case. The Brooks and Colton case is based on the idea that what was said on the podcast is true, and truth is a total complete defense when it comes to a slander or defamation case. But the timing of the trial going on right now while he has his UFC fight with Mike Jackson on 6/9 couldn’t be worse. He has to be in court in Chicago while he should be 100 percent concentrating on the last significant week of fight training in Milwaukee. Amann was the first witness called for the plaintiff’s side. The first thing the jury heard was the complete podcast in question. One report noted to us that the jury members seem to lose interest during the podcast because of how long it was. Amann claimed that after the podcast he has been harassed in social media and at shows. He got emotional during testimony. Some felt it came off as rehearsed. They then showed mean tweets toward Amann in social media. Boy, when the insane people on Twitter (not saying people on Twitter are insane, but there is no denying there is a small percentage who are) become part of a real-life trial, that’s sad in a lot of ways. That is very interesting as far as a legal defamation strategy goes, as they highlighted twitter responses to show that Amann’s reputation was damaged based on Brooks’ comments. Normally you’d have to show damage in other ways, mostly financially, or loss of clients, and that likely didn’t happen at all. He claimed people were chanting “Z-Pack” at him at shows, which I’m sure happened somewhere at some point. The jury appeared frustrated with constant objections from the plaintiff lawyers. On day two, according to Wrestle Zone, which covered it live, Brooks and Colton never spoke before the proceedings began even though both arrived before the trial started. Brooks’s right eye looked red, possibly from sparring. Amann claimed on the stand he had been harassed and ridiculed by Punk fans on social media and they showed more screen shots of tweets and Instagram posts negative to him, pushing a tweet that called him “Z Pak retard.” They also showed a fan sign that read “Can someone check my staph infection?” Unreal this gets brought up in a court room. Amann claimed that the signs in the crowd and social media response made him angry, embarrassed and humiliated. Amann then spoke about the 2014 Royal Rumble. He said he was sitting at ringside with Mark Yeaton (who rang the bell), Timothy Gang (a tech) and Justin Frazen (better known as Justin Roberts, the ring announcer) when photographer John Giamondo told him Punk wanted to talk with him. He said he went to Punk, who said “I got rocked” and said he was from a clothesline by Kingston. He claimed Punk told him he was seeing zig zags and squiggly lies and Amann told him he probably had a concussion and told him that he should eliminate himself from the match. He said Punk then told him that he was going to continue and get back in the match. Amann said he told Yeaton to inform the people at Gorilla that Punk had a concussion and needed to be eliminated. Amann said he heard Michael Seitz (Michael Hayes), who was producing the match, to order Punk to roll out of the ring. Amann said that the referees told Punk this a few times over the next one or two minutes. Seitz kept telling Punk to eliminate himself, which he didn’t do. Then he told Kane to go to the ring and eliminate Punk, which did happen. What makes this so weird is that after Kane eliminated Punk he gave him a choke slam through a table. Why would you do that if you believed that the guy in question had just suffered a concussion? Amann said the only medical stuff he did for Punk was giving him antibiotics for a sinus infection. There was also a January 26, 2014, medical report saying “Phil says his shoulder has been bothering him since last Monday. No specific injury.” He said he ordered X-rays of the shoulder. He said on December 17, 2013, Punk sustained an elbow injury and gave him ice and an anti-inflammatory but no antibiotics. He said he never noticed any cyst on his back or buttocks. They showed some text messages between the two. Neither text message talked about a lump, although on December 4, 2013, Punk told Amann that he was coughing like a maniac and his ribs hurt. Amann said he didn’t do anything as he was waiting for lab results on testing. In what is a key point, Amann said that Punk’s comments on the show did not affect his job with WWE, but he felt humiliated and embarrassed since the podcast. He said he and Punk talked after the Rumble and Punk was mad about the script changing mid-match. Amann said that he felt that Punk had a concussion and needed to get out of the match. He said Punk then talked about having an eye injury. They showed photos from the Rumble which didn’t show any cyst of lump on his back. WWE sent out photos to the media of this shortly after Punk was on Cabana’s podcast. Amann was cross-examined. Punk’s attorneys noted Amann prescribing him antibiotics for pharyngitis. They also showed an e-mail from Dr. Michael Samson (the former WWE doctor who saved Jerry Lawler’s life in Montreal) that said, “We’re talking to Punk about a medical dose pack but we have to let AJ think about it.” A November 5, 2013, e-mail from Amann to Samson noted Punk has been nauseated and has a headache. A November 14, 2013, e-mail from Stacy Depolo, a staff medical assistant, sent, to Amann said that Punk has been fatigued, nauseated and vomiting for days. The next day Samson e-mailed Depolo and Amann saying he had talked with Punk, who said he had no energy, fatigue, no appetite, mild diarrhea and headaches. He was working a full schedule at this time. Samson on November 16, 2013, said Punk was complaining of fatigue and headaches after taking bumps. Amann, on November 18, sent an e-mail to Samson saying he feels Punk is okay to wrestle. The next day Samson sent an e-mail saying he’s ordering an MRI on Punk’s head and blood work, and also they discussed possible depression issues. Samson wrote an e-mail on November 21, 2013, saying Punk still had headaches and fatigue. On November 27, 2013, Samson wrote to Amann that Punk has lower back pain and a rib contusion. Trainer Larry Heck on December 1, 2013, wrote to Samson and Amann that Punk feels horrible and has been in bed for three days. Punk sent Amann a text on December 2, 2013, saying his head was killing him and wondering why he has such bad headaches. Amann wrote back about how they were looking for a diagnosis and Punk asked for antibiotics and Amann agreed to them. They set up a meeting, but Amann denied the meeting was about giving Punk antibiotics. Punk said he couldn’t sleep, was coughing like a maniac and his ribs were killing him. Amann asked if they could talk and Punk said he can’t, but finds this all ridiculous and wanted to get checked out at the hospital. Amann testified that Punk asked him for a Z-Pack (antibiotics) and he phoned in a prescription for him. However, they noted that in Punk’s medical history with WWE it never states he was prescribed a Z-pack. Amann said he gave Punk them without recording it. He said it would give wrestlers medications in an envelope with the name of the drug and the dosage to use. They talked about how Amann had given wrestlers a slide show presentation regarding MSRA staph, noting one could lose their limbs if it isn’t treated fast enough. He said that he never treated Punk after February 2014. Amann said that even though he was never named by Punk or Colt Cabana on the Art of Wrestling podcast, that fans knew it was him because they could see footage of him talking to Punk while the Royal Rumble in 2014 was going on. Punk and Cabana during the questioning ended up sitting together as Punk moved to a seat next to Cabana and they started talking. Amann said he was not looking for compensation for emotional damages and that he has not seen a doctor for any depression or emotional issues nor taken any medication to deal with it, or undergone counseling. Amann said that he’s had no damage in the workplace based on the podcast, nor did he believe the views of the wrestlers changed regarding him. Essentially this establishes no emotional damages or monetary damages, but is still not a defense for Punk if he was lying. He also said that nobody in his immediate life has changed their opinion of him due to the podcast. But he said after the podcast, he was concerned, angry and couldn’t focus on Thanksgiving with his family. Amann said that he can’t say the line Punk said about how WWE “Z-pack’d me to death” was about him. Cabana’s lawyer then said by Punk using the word “they” instead of “he,” the comments couldn’t be construed to be about one person. Amann said that he doesn’t know if Cabana knew that what Punk was saying on the podcast was false. Amann said he never received harassing tweets or catcalls from the audience prior to the podcast. He said Punk was diagnosed with sinusitis on December 2, 2013 and that is what he prescribed Punk a Z pack for. A text was shown from November 27, 2014, between Amann and Chris Irvine (Chris Jericho) where Amann told Irvine that Punk’s health issues were not what he described. Punk’s lawyer then got on Amann for violation of HIPA laws by discussing Punk’s medical situation without Punk’s knowledge. They also showed a text from Amann to Justin Frazen (Roberts) where he said that Punk’s comments on that show were a fabrication of the truth and that there were extensive records of everything Punk has been diagnosed with and prescribed in WWE, and wrote that Punk had tarnished his professional reputation whether his claims were true or false. An interview with Mark Yeaton, who was sitting with Amann during the Rumble, saw Yeaton say he couldn’t remember the Rumble incident in particular saying his memory is foggy “because I thought I’d put the whole company out of my mind,” which caused Punk to laugh when it was played. But he did recall Amann telling him once that he thought Punk had a concussion and needed to be removed from a match. He believed Vince McMahon ordered Punk out of the match, and him telling Punk to leave the ring and Punk laid on the mat
The Mauro Ranallo documentary, “Bipolar Rock & Roller,” aired on 5/25 on Showtime. It was very different from any piece ever done on someone in wrestling. Ranallo had himself filmed on-and-off since 2013, and used family footage going back long before that, to document his life, both the highs and the lows. Ranallo, 48, has always attempted to push himself as a mental health advocate and someone who can relate to people who battle constant depression and bipolar symptoms. A number of people in wrestling who quietly suffer from that fate. My feeling is that live event performers, whether they are wrestlers or live touring performers or music stars suffer from this at a very significant percentage because of the combination of the high’s of performing and the low’s that come after a performance. But most are normal people otherwise, who largely have to hide it because of the stigma. You really got a very real look at Ranallo, from his savant-like brilliance, memory and ability to recite facts, play music, or read at a level far above most people, as well as his mental anguish when he’s not in front of people. The documentary was a must-see, because it is gripping and real, and in that sense blows away the ESPN documentary on Ric Flair, which was fascinating but with far less depth, or the HBO documentary on Andre, which suffered from constantly trying to figure out what was fiction and fact and the feeling so many on screen were working to get themselves over and steal the show. With Ranallo, you had the people who knew him best, his parents, his brothers, Jenny Neidhart (Jim’s daughter, Natalya’s sister) who was his most serious girlfriend in a relationship that was took place nearly two decades ago), his business manager and close friend Frank Shamrock, and his former broadcast partner Bas Rutten, who really was the key in taking him from what could have been a terrible battle running through job-after-job, whether it be at clubs or small radio stations, and getting him a national platform as the voice of the Pride Fighting Championships. That job springboarded him to Showtime when they cut the deal to regularly broadcast MMA from the old Elite XC group. Showtime got behind him, as they marveled in his quick wit while on the air, and backed him up through a number of incidents over the years when depression took over. She brought him over to boxing, where he became the lead play-by-play voice just as Showtime was getting in bed with Floyd Mayweather Jr., meaning he called three of the four biggest PPV events (Mayweather’s bouts with Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor) in history. His career in wrestling was also showcased, dating back to being a 16-year-old heel manager for Al Tomko’s local All-Star Wrestling promotion, with clips of him as Jim Cornette-like character, who was so good so quickly that when he was still a teenager, there was talk of bringing him to WCW to play a relative of Cornette. But after the death of his best friend at 19 from a sudden heart attack, the depression that lived within him that he didn’t fully grasp, took control of him for the next decade, where he also heavily drank and the months turned into years. He did announcing of practically every sport imaginable, but pro wrestling was his childhood love, and he got another break around 2001 working with Badnews Allen doing a remake of Stampede Wrestling. He worked on a movie set with Rutten, and Rutten was intrigued by him. Years later, Rutten called him and recommended he try out for the play-by-play voice of Pride, since Rutten had been doing the color. They showed clips of his career, as well as his strange behavior, self-destructive and borderline suicidal moments, and more. The stories of him doing a broadcast, and then, after it’s over, always feeling like he didn’t do a good job and battling depression in his hotel room are not a secret in MMA, nor has he ever hid that from anyone. The WWE was a minor part, although they talked about him getting his dream job when Paul Levesque and Michael Cole called him to do Smackdown when it moved to the USA Network and they were looking for a change. His departure from Pride and his episode that led to him quitting WWE for a time were not delved into, past saying that he was in the Chicago Airport en route to Pittsburgh when an attack hit and that was it. Levesque and Cole, the two he works under at NXT, were also part of the piece. WWE was involved with this but WWE did not publicize it beforehand on television like they did with the Flair and the Andre documentaries. During interviews about the piece, when talking about his career highlights, he brought up the first Mirko Cro Cop vs. Kevin Randleman fight, as well as his biggest boxing events like Mayweather and Anthony Joshua fights, and also brought up calling the most recent Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano match
The first round matches and bracketing was announced for the UK tournament that takes place over the next few weeks. The left side of the bracket, in order, has Zack Gibson vs. Amir Jordan, Drew Gulak vs. Jack Gallagher, Flash Morgan Webster vs. James Drake and Tyson T-Bone vs. Jordan Devlin. The right side has Tucker vs. Joe Coffey, Dave Mastiff vs. Kenny Williams, Travis Banks vs. El Ligero and Joseph Conners vs. Ashton Smith. With the exception of Gulak vs. Gallagher, which Gallagher already won, the other seven matches will take place between 6/8 and 6/10 at the Download Festival in Derby, UK. The final eight will have a one-night tournament on 6/18 at Royal Albert Hall. The winner of that tournament faces Pete Dunne for the U.K. title on 6/19 at Royal Albert Hall. Both Royal Albert Hall shows will air on the WWE Network. They may be live, but that would be sensory overload since it’s a Monday and a Tuesday, hours before Raw and Smackdown, coming right after a Takeover in Chicago and Money in the Bank. However the WWE Network has announced a preview show on 6/7, which would indicate the shows would be airing shortly after that. WWE announced appearances by Michaels and HHH at the Albert Hall shows, with Michaels appearing on 6/18. The reason is, much to my surprise, that the shows aren’t close to sold out. I was shocked on that because the U.K. is so hot and the capacity for an NXT set up would be about 3,500 seats and figured a WWE network taping would be an instant sellout, especially when the key smaller groups always sellout London, but then again, there’s a difference of running 1,100 and 700 seats and running 3,500, but it’s also WWE in the U.K. which is probably their hottest market. Michaels works at the Performance Center and is at some of the shows backstage, but with the exception of a San Antonio show that went head-to-head with ROH in the same city, he’s never been specifically advertised. Also added to 6/18 besides the final eight in the men’s tournament, is a four-way women’s match with Toni Storm vs. Jinny vs. Isla Dawn vs. Killer Kelly with the winner facing Shayna Baszler for the NXT title on the 6/19 show
Cena talked with Sports Illustrated about his WrestleMania match, basically saying that you have to sacrifice yourself sometimes for the good of the team. “I did not do well in this match. My WrestleMania moment was to spend the time in the crowd and not do well in a very short performance, but I loved it because it got the job done. The focus was not me, the focus was someone else. Often times, we look at things so selfishly, asking, `What’s in it for me?’ Well, what it was for me was the chance to reintroduce a WWE icon. I had to stretch the suspension of disbelief to its breaking point to do it, but it was awesome. Every single week, the crowd would chant at the top of its lungs and no one thought I would be sitting in the crowd at WrestleMania, but I was able to do that. I was able to go out and be handily defeated in three minutes and bring back an icon. That is a message for any performer who is complaining about their spot or that, creatively, they have nothing going for them. I’ve been first. I’ve been in the middle. I’ve been last. I just want to go out there and do something. There are a few performers who share my ideology, with The Miz being one of them. That’s why he is skyrocketing into a new bracket as we speak, and I can’t wait to see what he does next week. But there is also a lot of disdain and complacency. You should be happy with any sort of role, even if it is getting your tail kicked in.” Cena has two movie projects that will be out next year, “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and Bumblebee.
Gerald Brisco is heavily praising Duke heavyweight Jacob Kasper, who is graduating this year after finishing fourth at the NCAA tournament in March in Cleveland. Kasper came into the NCAA tournament with a 34-2 record and won the ACC tournament. He went 4-2 in the tournament, ending up in fourth, including a 10-5 loss to eventual champion Kyle Snyder, despite battling Crohn’s Disease all season that led to his weight dropping to 212 for the tournament, making him the lightest heavyweight in the competition. “In my 50- years in the wrestling business, I have seen only a few wrestlers who have such powerful personalities that when they come into a room everyone there knows that person has arrived,” Brisco said to ESPN. “ Jacob Kasper has that type of personality, and he reminds me in many ways of a young John Cena.” Kasper is 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, and also placed sixth in the 2017 NCAA tournament and had a career record of 107-38. “Jacob making it to the semifinals despite his Crohn’s flare-up shows just how much character he has.” Kasper is a lifelong fan and got into amateur wrestling because he was such a big fan of pro wrestling. Kasper’s goal is to become a global spokesperson for people with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. In a trivia note, Kasper trained with Daniel Cormier in 2017 in San Jose prior to Cormier’s fight with Jon Jones. This actually came from Twitter when Kasper wrote, “You can think Jones is going to win. That’s fine. But if you’re rooting for him to win, you really need to evaluate your morals and who you are.” Cormier knew who he was from college wrestling and brought him in as a training partner. He may not go right to WWE, as he’s thinking trying out for the 2020 Olympics, although he’d either have to cut to 211 and beat Snyder, or beat Nick Gwiazdowski (who is also expected to come to WWE after the 2020 Olympics) as a 285-pounder. He’ll be coming in for the June camp. Brisco said that if Kasper signs with WWE, “I will spend more time helping develop him than I have with any other prospect I have ever signed.
.WWE was honored by the Cynopsis group in its Social Good Awards for their Be A Star campaign, winning the award for Top Anti-Bullying Campaign of Initiative
The company announced for 6/29 at Sumo Hall in Japan the main event would be Styles vs. Nakamura for the WWE title. The rest of the show is Harper & Rowan vs. Usos vs. Gallows & Anderson vs. Rusev & English for the tag titles, Carmella vs. Charlotte for the women’s title, Bryan vs. Cass, New Day vs. Sheamus & Cesaro, Asuka & Lynch & Naomi vs. Royce & Kay & Lana and Almas vs. Sin Cara. For 6/30 in the same building they announced Styles vs. Nakamura vs. Joe vs. Bryan for the WWE title, which led to the show selling out the first day tickets were put on sale. I believe this is the first time WWE has instantly sold out the building and New Japan only does that for the G-1 finals (and last year, because they had greatly raised the ticket prices and they don’t have the sophisticated secondary market system we have here, they didn’t sell out the finals until maybe the last week). That was the bout that sold the building out. They also had announced Carmella vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte for the women’s title. The rest of the show as scheduled right now is Harper & Rowan vs New Day vs. Gallows & Anderson vs. Sheamus & Cesaro for the tag titles, Usos vs. Rusev & English, Sin Cara vs. Miz and Lynch & Naomi vs. Kay & Royce & Lana in a two on three match
William Regal hasn’t been around of late due to a health issue prior to WrestleMania. It’s why at TV of late there has been talk of Mr. Regal and even the one segment with Ricochet and Dream both going to Regal’s office, but you never saw Regal because he wasn’t actually at the tapings
The Mae Young Classic dates may be 8/8 to 8/10 and not 8/7 starting given that 8/7 is a Tuesday and not only would they have to be taping Smackdown, but Smackdown on 8/7 is in Orlando, and I can’t see them doing two shows in Orlando on the same night
There have been photos of Natalya and Lana training at the Performance Center together. Well, that and dancing, but Lana has been doing extra training trying to get ready for the ladder match
Reigns and Styles are both off this coming weekend’s road shows. Reigns has been off for a week already. Styles is scheduled for the 6/4 house show in Laredo, and both are scheduled for TV next week
TV this coming week has Raw in Houston on 6/4 and Smackdown in Corpus Christi the next day. Announced for Houston is Strowman vs. Roode, Balor vs. Owens, Jax vs. Natalya and a tag team Battle Royal with the winning team likely facing Matt Hardy & Wyatt for the titles at Money in the Bank. Smackdown has announced Charlotte vs. Lynch and Jimmy Uso & Naomi vs. English & Lana
The Rollins vs. Mahal match on TV this week was the first time the two had faced each other in a televised match since both were in FCW in December 2012
The top ten most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. NXT on 5/23; 2. Table for 3 with Edge, Christian and the Hardys; 3. This Week in WWE (which usually doesn’t make the top 15); 4. Something Else to Wrestle With; 5. Backlash; 6. 205 Live from 5/22; 7. Greatest Royal Rumble; 8. Camp WWE Episode 3; 9. WrestleMania 2018; 10. NXT on 5/16
Notes from the 5/28 Raw tapings in Richmond, VA. Not much to the show. A few solid matches and some bad segments as well. Main Event opened with Tony Nese pinning Akira Tozawa with double knees in the corner. Rawley, who was something of a babyface since some fans knew he is from Alexandria, VA, pinned Jose with the running punch into the corner. The extra in the Nia Jax segment called Michelle Webb is a Texas based independent wrestler who uses the name Madi Maxx, and once held the OVW title. Raw opened with Strowman out. Fans were chanting “Get these hands,” so they were able to get that over. He said he was going to win MITB and then become Mr. Monster in the Bank, and beat Lesnar for the title. Balor came out and said he was the first Universal champion, and never lost the title, and that eats away at him every single day. Strowman said that last week Balor put up a very good fight for a little guy. Balor then slapped him in the face. Strowman threw Balor out of the ring. He just heaved him and Balor jumped and flipped making it look great. Angle came out and said that he sees intensity, which is one of his favorite i’s, and was making a rematch. This left like backwards booking. You do a match where one guy wins clean. Then you do a segment where the same guy manhandles the guy. You build that to a rematch which ends in a DQ. Balor beat Strowman via DQ in 11:18. Owens was out doing commentary. Owens was taunting Strowman. When Balor got the advantage, Owens started telling Balor to finish him up. Balor threw Strowman into the post and hit a flip dive. Strowman, immediately after taking it, no sold it and threw Balor into the ring. Like the monster isn’t going to do long sells but at least don’t take a bump and get up like you didn’t take a bump. Balor came back with a sling blade, a Woo dropkick to the back, a double foot stomp to the back and another coup de grace. He went to the top for a second coup de grace when Owens attacked him for the DQ. I was surprised even with the even-Steven booking that they’d come this close to portraying that Balor was about to beat Strowman. Owens hit Balor with a ladder. Strowman got up and Owens ran away and Strowman got the ladder and threw it pretty far, almost to where Owens had run at the entrance. Owens was then leaving the building and Angle saw him. Owens said he wanted to go to a Memorial Day parade. Angle told him he was Canadian and that he had a match with Roode tonight. While this was going on, in the background, somebody was being taken out on a stretcher. In theory this was a tease that almost nobody picked up on, and was never referred to by the announcers. It obviously was put there with the idea it would be talked about on the Internet. Banks did a promo. Elias did a promo and said to turn down the house lights because the crowd in Virginia was particularly disgusting. They cut in the middle of his segment. When they came back 4:00 later, he was still there yelling at the crowd. Rollins came out. Mahal beat Rollins via DQ in an IC title match in 12:10. Rollins did a great job here and continues to be the in-ring star of the brand. It was a fun match with Rollins doing his 00s ROH style match with the non-stop moves and dives. Sunil Singh went to interfere but ref John Cone kicked him out. With Cone’s back turned, Mahal hit Rollins in the gut with a chair, but Rollins still kicked out. Singh came back out. Shouldn’t that have been an immediate DQ. Well, they did all kinds of stuff with Singh in the ring. Rollins power bombed Singh into Mahal, but then Rollins hit Mahal for a chair shot for the DQ. Rollins was celebrating on the announcers table when Elias broke a guitar over his head and they teased him doing a stretcher job, but he got up and left on his own. This was Rollins’ 32nd birthday. Jax came out. So after all the stuff for months about how she had been bullied and the heels calling her a bully and fans being told she was the victim, her new role is in fact being a bully heel. The woman called Michelle Webb was in the ring. Rousey was at the announcers table. Jax said the armbar doesn’t work on her and let Webb put the armbar on her. She easily power bombed her way out of this. If they had long-term plans they’d have never had her tap to the armbar in the Asuka match a few months back. Jax gave her a Samoan drop, a leg drop and a Carpentier cannonball while saying Rousey was too small and that she never faced anyone like her in UFC. She challenged Rousey to come out. Rousey came to the ring and fans were chanting “Ronda Rousey.” Jax said, “She knows her name.” It’s a little thing but it’s always better when people are thinking on the fly. Jax made fun of Rousey’s intimidating look. She said she’s not intimidated and finds it quite humorous and laughed in Rousey’s face and turned her back on her and walked off. Obviously you don’t want Rousey beating on her this early on, but the way it was laid out with Rousey just standing there doing nothing while being mocked made Rousey look like a goof. They should have had Angle tell Rousey beforehand that if she loses her temper, she loses the title shot, and have Rousey in the ring showing she wants to get at her but isn’t allowed and has to take the verbal abuse. At least then it doesn’t compromise her as a babyface like this scenario did. Dana Brooke did an interview. She did some statistical stuff that fits in with her character, except nobody would talk like that and the promo meant nothing. Matt Hardy & Wyatt beat The Ascension in 4:45 with the kiss of deletion on Viktor. The most notable stuff here was the commentary. Whether on purpose of not, Michael Cole called Matt’s son Maxel “Maxwell” and his other son Wolfgang “Wolfman,” as in Wolfman Jack. He also acted like he had no idea what Graves was talking about when he referenced Queen Rebecca. After the match, Axel & Dallas as The B Team was backstage with Angle. They wanted a title shot saying they were unbeaten since becoming the B Team. Angle said that two wins over Breezango doesn’t mean you deserve a title shot. Dallas said that they have to win over the other teams and get their blessing. Angle said he wasn’t saying that at all. They are doing a gimmick where Axel says stupid stuff and doesn’t know Angle is there and when Angle says he’s there, Axel doesn’t hear him. It wasn’t nearly as stupid as when they tried to pull this off in WCW, but it’s still goofy. The end result is not a match, but Axel & Dallas inviting all the other tag team to a Memorial Day barbecue to get them to say it was okay for Dallas & Axel to get a title shot. Owens pinned Roode in 9:40. At one point Owens went to walk off. Roode ran down the ramp and clotheslined him. Roode got out of the power bomb and Owens got out of the DDT. Roode went for a sunset flip but Owens blocked it and sat down on him for the pin. Strowman then came out and Owens tried to run away. Roode blocked Owens from leaving and Strowman ran him over and threw him into the ring. Strowman gave Owens a powerslam. Roode was watching, sitting on the top turnbuckle, and cheering Strowman on. He was doing it in an obnoxious manner, almost like it looked like the beginning of a heel turn, and given how flat Roode is, there’s nothing wrong with that right now. Strowman gave Owens a second powerslam, then pulled Roode off the ropes and powerslammed him. Zayn came out for the insincere fake apology segment. It wasn’t as bad as last week’s segment, but almost nothing could be. The best I can say about Zayn is he’s been a real pro working with the most Godawful material. The idea was he was apologizing for last week’s segment but we were to know he’s not sincere. They used the fact that people hated the segment as an attempt to blame it on him and for him to take the heat, so to speak. He admitted that he lied, and got the dreaded “what” treatment. He said last week those weren’t Lashley’s real sisters. He said they were men he hired to have a little bit of fun at Lashley’s expense because his intent was to entertain the fans. Well, nobody bats 1,000 on that, but if you explained last week’s segment to me ahead of time, it would be awfully obvious that an X should be have drawn through it. The fans also saw through this segment, so it was like making a mistake and doubling down. He said he was sorry, but then he said he did the right thing, because he exposed Lashley for being a bully and a liar, yet he’s the one getting flack. He told the crowd that they should be feeling sorry for him. Lashley came out. He first thanked everyone who had served in the military, noting his own background and gave a salute. Then he got a “USA” chant going. He said that his sisters, who were never contacted, thought the segment was entertaining but he said the stuff got old and he has an issue, and challenged Zayn to a match at MITB. They shook hands on it. Zayn said he would Helluva kick the stupid smile off Lashley’s face. Lashley then did the big squeeze handshake on Zayn, forcing him to the ground and Zayn was screaming in pain. Lashley then said he was apologizing in advance for what he’s going to do to Zayn. Mickie James did an interview. McIntyre pinned Gable in 4:43 with a Claymore kick. The actual wrestling here was good for the time they were given, but it was late in the show and no big reactions. Next was The B Team (Dallas & Axel) Memorial Day barbecue. So you had the other teams, except the Authors of Pain, who they had the good sense to keep away from this since every team involved came across like jokes. You had Dallas & Axel, Crews & O’Neil, The Revival, Slater & Rhyno, Breezango and The Ascension. So they were all eating. The announcers were doing the fake laugh, which killed the segment because the audience wasn’t laughing at all while the announcers were laughing in probably as fake a manner as humanly possible. I mean, the segment was going to suck either way, but you don’t have to make your announcers look bad in the process. There were a few funny lines. Slater put over the barbecue saying that in West Virginia, this would be like Thanksgiving. But Slater & O’Neil told Axel & Dallas that they weren’t cutting in line to get a title shot. Like Slater & Rhyno or O’Neil & Crews are in line for a title shot. Finally Axel got mad and wanted to take all their food back. O’Neil dumped a tray full of beans all over Dallas and Fandango dumped potato salad all over Axel. Then it turned into every Thanksgiving food fight except with no creative spots. Everyone ended up leaving and Rhyno was left in the ring eating a ton of food. Axel & Dallas then double choke slammed Rhyno through a table. Dallas & Axel, still wearing the food, wanted a title shot. Angle said that they would be in a tag team Battle Royal next week with the winners getting a title shot. From the way this has been built up, Axel & Dallas would go in as the favorites. Next was the women’s gauntlet. Bayley came out first and cut a promo. Bayley pinned Morgan in :10 with a belly-to-belly. Bayley pinned Logan in 1:18 with a front rolling cradle. Morgan & Logan beat up Bayley after the match. Logan head-butted her and Morgan gave Bayley a codebreaker. Riott then pinned Bayley in 1:06 with the Riott kick. Riott pinned Brooke in :55 with the Riott kick. Riott pinned James in 6:16 holding the trunks. James played total babyface, coming out dressed as Wonder Woman. She is from Richmond, so she was going to be a face, but this was another phantom turn. The crowd was behind her big, and were really mad when she lost. So this left Banks vs. Riott. The crowd was now dead, as they lost interest when James lost. They could have put James over, but the problem with that is Banks would have been booed and they wanted Banks to be cheered while winning, which meant she had to face Riott. They traded near falls. Banks got the bank statement. Morgan and Logan came out to distract Banks. Riott went fr a pin with the trunks again, but Banks escaped and got the bank statement on again and this time Riott tapped at 5:51
Notes from the 5/29 Smackdown tapings in Raleigh. Pretty good overall. Even though the billed main event of Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson was greatly watered down with Big Cass, it did feature one of the better TV matches of the year, but it was the Cedric Alexander cruiserweight title defense against Buddy Murphy. The show drew 7,000 fans. In an interesting note, one of Vince McMahon’s doctrines was I guess feeling Raleigh doesn’t sound major league enough. The announcers were instructed to never use the term Raleigh, and instead say “North Carolina State,” since they were using the college arena. Big E did say Raleigh in his interview but that was the only mention as both the Smackdown and 205 Live announcers were given those instructions. Before TV started, Jeff Hardy pinned Benjamin to retain the U.S. title with a swanton in 10:00. The crowd loved Hardy more than anyone since they were in the Carolinas. Basic match but it got over. Joe came out to start the live show. He pulled out a ladder. He had a great delivery for some crappy lines. He said he would show Bryan that there are things worse than a forced retirement, and told him to call his wife and have her tell his daughter that Daddy will be home for Money in the Bank, but it was be as a failure due to a very bad man named Samoa Joe. Actually, that aspect of the promo was very good, but the beginning was that wordiness speak that nobody ever really does. Bryan came out and told Joe not to mention his wife or daughter ever again, or he’ll break his leg. Bryan wanted the match right now. Cass came out with a crutch. Cass called Bryan and Joe the shrimp and the blimp. And I guess Cass would then be the gimp. Cass said that the match won’t take place because he’s facing Joe for the MITB final spot when he’s cleared. Cass went to hit Bryan with the crutch but Bryan moved and Cass hit Joe. Cass whipped Joe into the ladder, hit Joe with the briefcase and hit Bryan with the briefcase and said he was cleared. Paige was backstage with Rose and Deville. Deville said that Paige was making too many bad decisions. Paige announced Rose would face Asuka and said Cass doesn’t make announcements of matches and Bryan earned his spot by beating Jeff Hardy so it would be a three-way with Bryan, Cass and Joe as the main event. Nakamura pinned Dillinger in 8:51 after a Kinshasa off the middle rope and a second regular one. Nakamura would do moves and then count to ten, but Dillinger would beat the count. After the pin, Nakamura did the ten count with Dillinger staying down. Styles did an interview. He said he’s champion because he’s smarter and works harder than guys who are bigger and stronger, and that he’s the last guy to leave the gym and the last guy to leave the arena. He said he’s also the last guy to back down from a challenge. Next was a Lana vs. Naomi dance contest. The Usos, Rusev & English were all at ringside to join in. Even though Naomi is a clear babyface, the fans cheered Lana. They also cheered Naomi. Before a decision was read, Lana invited Naomi to dance with her. So they danced, and Lana laid out Naomi with a neckbreaker. Lana also slapped Jimmy Uso in the face. Naomi came back and the Usos cleared the ring with a double superkick on Rusev and then English. Kingston & Big E & Woods beat Sheamus & Cesaro & Miz in 12:05. This was a good match, at the ***½ level which is above what you’d have expected for a regular TV match. Woods had a great hot tag including jumping off Sheamus’ back over the top rope for a dive onto Cesaro. Lots of near falls. Kingston did a plancha off the post onto Sheamus and Cesaro and Big E pinned Miz with the big ending. Gallows & Anderson did a promo. Gallows called Karl Anderson “Abs Anderson.” Maybe they could call him Joey Abs Anderson, given his real name isn’t even Karl. Anderson then showed his abs and said that his hot Asian wife loved them. They were about to call Harper & Rowan nerds when in the room they were doing the promo, a video of Harper & Rowan played and they did a promo. Asuka beat Rose in 5:36 with the Asuka lock. Rose looked really good given her level of experience. Carmella was at ringside doing her math about how Charlotte beat Asuka and she beat Charlotte twice which makes her twice as good as Asuka. Deville attacked Asuka before the match. Carmella kept putting herself over and asked how many Money in the Bank matches did Lita or Trish Stratus ever win. That’s like a trick question. Carmella came into the ring after the match and held the belt up to Asuka’s face. Charlotte & Lynch were backstage. Charlotte said that Asuka would win the title, she’d win MITB, and there would be a WrestleMania rematch. Lynch said she was winning MITB this year. Charlotte said she had to win because she needed that contract to get another title match. That would be a lot more effective if even one person actually thought Charlotte isn’t getting another two dozen title matches this year no matter what. Paige as lurking in the back and then said that’s what Smackdown needs and set up their match for next week. Paige also brought up when all three were together that it was a reuniting of Team PCB. I think most people blocked that out of their mind by now. Almas and Sin Cara were hanging out. Vega showed up. Sin Cara told her that they go way back. Vega said that Almas is the future and “you are a nobody.” Well, she does have a point. Sin Cara patted Almas on the shoulder like they were buddies and Almas told him, in Spanish, don’t ever touch him again. So we’ve got a program for Almas to run through him. Joe beat Bryan and Cass in 21:13 to go to the MITB match. This was a good match, but Cass did drag it down. I mean, I don’t know if he’s lost a step due to the knee surgery but he didn’t move well in the ring, feeling a step slow, and his punches and timing looked bad. The other two were good. Joe did a tope on Cass. Bryan did a plancha on both. Cass threw Bryan with a biel throw over the announcers table. Cass did good heat since the crowd really likes Bryan. Joe missed a charge and went over the top. Bryan had the yes lock on Cass but Joe pulled Cass to the ropes. Bryan hit Joe with a running knee off the apron. Bryan hit a missile dropkick and Busaiku knee on Big Orange but Joe got behind Bryan and started choking him. Joe choked Bryan out and the ref stopped it. The crowd cheered for Joe, and heavily, chanting his name even though he came from behind to beat Bryan. Cass then hit Bryan with a running kick after the match so we know that program will continue. For 205 Live, Gallagher & Kendrick beat Kalisto & Dorado in 7:10. Gulak was on commentary doing his anti-flying and anti-Lucha gimmick. Metalik was at ringside shaking a noisemaker in the corner like he was a four-year-old. God was that lame. The crowd didn’t pick up on it either. This was your usual 205 Live match where the moves are crisp and the match is good but nobody cares. Dorado used a stunner on Kendrick and a tope. He was on the top rope when Gulak pulled his leg and he was crotched. Kendrick then put Dorado in the captain’s hook for the submission. It looked like another step to put Kendrick, Gallagher and Gulak together as three submission guys who hate high flyers. They asked wrestlers who would win the main event. Ali said that nobody is beating Alexander but him. Nese said that Murphy is going to win because he’s been unstoppable, he wants it more, works harder and is a better athlete. Maverick said that both men have something to prove. Alexander pinned Murphy to keep the cruiserweight title in 20:04 with the lumbar check. So here’s the situation. A lot of fans left after Smackdown. It was estimated at maybe 3,500 left when 205 Live started. Of those who stayed, a large percentage had no interest in this one, but of the ones who did, they went crazy for this with the “fight forever” stuff and the first few rows were on their feet for the last few minutes of the match. By the end, it was the most heat for a 205 Live match in recent memory and the ringsiders were legit going crazy. I’d go ****1/4. Alexander did a tope knocking Murphy over the announcers table. Murphy did a back suplex on the apron. It was hard hitting. Alexander did a running flip dive. Murphy also did a running flip dive. Alexander gave Murphy a flatliner on the apron. They teased the New Japan double count out spot. Murphy picked Alexander up in the Bruno backbreaker and dropped him into a DDT. Murphy got near falls with a power bomb and an Ibushi style kawagoe knee. Alexander finally won after two Neurolizer kicks and the lumbar check. After the show, in a rare WWE main roster live event with a legit woman’s dark mach, Carmella pinned Charlotte to keep the title with her feet on he ropes. Charlotte was over huge, given they were in the Carolinas. Carmella got little reaction. It was mostly comedy early. Carmella tried to run away and save the title but Charlotte ran her down in the entrance way and threw her back in. It picked up from there. After Carmella won, Charlotte attacked her after the put her in the figure eight to send the crowd home happy. At least those there because it had greatly emptied out
Notes from the 5/23 NXT TV show. Basic show. It opened with TM 61 beating Heavy Machinery in 7:12. Otis Dozovic has some unique charisma, but I’m not sure the short human wall type tickles Vince’s fancy. Tucker Knight suplexed both members of TM 61 at the same time. That spot always gets over. The crowd woke up the minute that spot happened and were hot the rest of the way. Dozovic did the worm on Miller, but they called it the caterpillar. Miller ended up pinning Dozovic with his feet on the ropes. They did a Bianca Belair video package. It looks like they are going to give her a big push to the title challenger level. She’s the best actual athlete of the women in NXT. Lacey Evans pinned Kairi Sane when Sane came off the top rope with a punch, called the women’s rights, in 5:03. The crowd got behind Sane. Cathy Kelly was out of the building as Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae came out. Gargano said that they had made a decision as a team. LeRae’s facial expressions throughout this angle have been so great, not underplayed at all, nor overplayed as would usually be the case in pro wrestling. It just adds another layer to how Tommaso Ciampa has been getting over as a heel, because Gargano & LeRae have this ability to come across as real people who are unique in an otherwise fake world. It’s really one of the best talents in modern wrestling that few have. It’s the same thing Daniel Bryan has, and perhaps the same thing IWGP title matches have and it’s more important than promo ability, size, physique or technical wrestling ability. The Undisputed Era did their promo with the music playing trying to be the modern NWO. Kyle O’Reilly has this gimmick like Chris Jericho over mispronouncing everyone’s name. Well, they all did to a degree as Strong wanted Daniel Burch. Strong said that Oney Lorcan & Burch are out of their leagues and last week was a fluke. Lars Sullivan won a handicap match over Velveteen Dream & Ricochet in 9:46. The idea was to get Sullivan over and set up Dream vs. Ricochet, with Ricochet as the face. So Sullivan had Dream pinned but Ricochet saved him. Dream did a crossbody onto Sullivan and Ricochet followed with a standing shooting star press, but Sullivan still kicked out. Dream then turned on Ricochet, hitting him with the rolling Death Valley bomb and left. Sullivan pinned Ricochet with the freak accident. They announced Shayna Baszler defending the title against Dakota Kai next week. Kai did a promo and Baszler showed up doing her bully role. Kai had called her the biggest bully she’d ever encountered in her life when Baszler showed up and tried to intimidate her. But this time Kai stood up for herself and Baszler looked confused. The show ended with Gargano & LeRae out. Gargano said that every day his body reminds him of the knee that smashed his head into the LED board and being driven off the stage through a table. He said that it’s time to start thinking about out future and said he had to ask if this is worth it. Fans started chanting “Yes.” This interview was very much reminiscent of the pre-Starrcade Ric Flair 1983 promo after Bob Orton Jr. and Dick Slater gave him a stuff piledriver before his match with Harley Race, so much that it had to be a direct takeoff. He acted like the chants were making him think and she was concerned about that. He took off the neck brace and called out Ciampa. By this point, she was freaking out. Ciampa came out. She ran to the back. Refs came in the ring as she came back out. Everyone dragged Gargano away and Ciampa was in the ring waving bye-bye. Fans were yelling at him to not listen to her. So he ran back out and Ciampa knocked him off the apron and he landed right on her. She sold like she was knocked out from her head hitting the ramp when he fell on her. So now he’s got the guilt trip of seeing her hurt because he lost his temper. This is the best angle in wrestling today and it’s not even close
The NXT weekend opened on 5/24 in Cocoa, FL, before 300 fans. Raul Mendoza pinned Lio Rush with a roll-up. Crowd was hot for this. Somewhat of a surprise finish but I think they are trying to test Rush. Lacey Evans pinned Kacy Catanzaro with a punch. Catanzaro again was well received and looked good. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat Brennan Williams & Christopher Dijak using a double-team DDT for the finish. Kairi Sane pinned Aliyah with the elbow off the top. War Raiders beat TM 61 clean. Tommaso Ciampa pinned Mars Wang. He pinned him and then put him in the Gargano escape after the match. Marcel Barthel did an interview. Kona Reeves came out with him. Lars Sullivan then came out and laid both men out using the freak accident. Dakota Kai pinned Bianca Belair. Kai used a sunset flip into a backstabber for the win. Main event saw Heavy Machinery beat Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly via DQ. Good match with a bad ending as the heels were DQ’d for double-teaming. This led to challenges by Dozovic which built to Cole defending the North American title against Dozovic two nights later
5/25 in Largo, FL, drew 450 fans. Largo is the best drawing city on the Florida circuit right now. Burch & Lorcan beat Lio Rush & Aiyegbusi. Lorcan was pinning Rush when Aiyegbusi jumped in to drop an elbow to make the save. Lorcan moved, Aiyegbusi hit Rush with the elbow and pinned him. I hope Rush & Aiyegbusi work because Rush’s in-ring makes him such a natural babyface due to his speed. Evans pinned Catanzaro with the knockout punch. Fabian Aichner pinned Mendoza in a good match. EC 3 beat Marcel Barthel with the one percenter. War Raiders beat TM 61. Kassius Ohno pinned Dan Matha with a spinning elbow. Nikki Cross & Dakota Kai & Steffanie Newell beat Rhea Ripley & Reina Gonzalez & Aliyah when Cross pinned Ripley with the swinging fisherman buster. Main event saw Cole keep the North American title, losing via DQ against Ricochet. Much longer than most NXT main events and great action. Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong interfered for the DQ. They were doing a beatdown and the Street Profits made the save. This led to a challenge for a six-man tag team match next week
5/26 in Orlando also drew 450 fans. It does appear that the Florida shows are generally on an upswing even though the first quarter for NXT was significantly down. I don’t know if it’s Ricochet although that’s the name people there have said his arrival started adding fans on the Florida circuit shows, or just the whole Uprising group and Dream clicking. Ohno pined Rush with the rolling elbow. Sullivan came out and laid out Ohno, Rush and Aiyegbusi with freak accidents and he said that he was going to be the next NXT champion. Sane pinned Reina Gonzalez with the elbow off the top rope. At one point they were not having her do that move on small shows with the idea that it was saving her for the long run, but it is the biggest pop. In the long run, the prior decision was the best one but in wrestling, it’s so much about thinking for the moment and not worrying about the future until it gets there. EC 3 pinned Aichner with the one percenter. The crowd loved EC 3. Lorcan & Burch beat Williams & Dijak with the double-team DDT. Ricochet pinned Dream. The crowd loved Dream here unlike in the other cities. They had a good match but not as good as others and it was rough early. Ricochet won with a shooting star press. Chad Lail & Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler beat Street Profits & Mars Wang. Tye
Dillinger did an NXT appearance pinning Barthel. Barthel came out and challenged anyone in the back. Dillinger came out and of course the crowd reacted huge to the surprise. The one thing about NXT, is that no matter how low ranked a guy may be on the main roster, NXT fans see them as a superstar when they appear on their show. Dillinger won with the tye-breaker and said how that the guys who started here that are on Raw and Smackdown are still NXT guys. Cross & Catanzaro beat Aliyah & Belair when Cross used her swinging neckbreaker on Aliyah. Main event saw Cole beat Dozovic to keep the North American title. Match was said to be entertaining. Cole mostly sold for Dozovic’s power. Dozovic also tore up a Cole T-shirt. Cole won clean with no interference using a shining wizard to the back of the head
The only Raw house show of the week was 5/27 in Hampton, VA, before 5,200 fans. There was also only one Smackdown live vent, which was 5/29 in Fayetteville, VA. We didn’t get a crowd on that one
Reigns wasn’t at the Raw show, although he was not advertised as he was given the week off. However, every mention of him during the show got heavily booed. Matt Hardy & Wyatt kept the tag titles beating The Revival. The crowd was hot and won with the double-team Sister Abigail. Hardy’s family was at the show and he brought Maxel into the ring to celebrate. Natalya, who was celebrating her 36th birthday, pinned James, even though James is from Virginia. James worked as the heel. Natalya won with the sharpshooter. Not much to the match, but the crowd was far more pro-Natalya surprisingly enough. Lashley did an interview saying that he would pay Zayn back for what happened on Raw on Monday. Ziggler & McIntyre beat Crews & O’Neil. The crowd cheered all four. Rollins kept the IC title winning a four-way over Elias, Balor and Roode. Rollins pinned Elias with a curb stomp to win. Rollins got the biggest reaction of the four. Corbin & Authors of Pain beat Breeze & Fandango & Jose. Nobody cared about this match. AOP sold a lot. Corbin pinned Jose with the End of Days. Jax retained her title in a four-way over Bayley, Banks and Bliss. Bayley was booed the most of the four, which was a surprise. The other three were cheered loudly. Jax got the biggest reaction of the four, particularly when she would attack Bliss. Jax pinned Bliss with a Samoan drop. Lashley & Strowman beat Owens & Zayn in the main event when Strowman pinned Owens after a powerslam. Lashley wasn’t over at first, but by the end they were reacting to everything he did. This didn’t get nearly the reaction the IC title match g
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