PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 June 11, 2018
NEW JAPAN SUPER JUNIORS FINAL ROUND ROBIN
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Will Ospreay vs. Flip Gordon 43
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kushida 36
Desperado vs. Dragon Lee 34
Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoh 10
WORST MATCH POLL
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Bushi 45
ACH vs. Tiger Mask 19
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Chris Sabin 9
NEW JAPAN SUPER JUNIORS FINAL NIGHT
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Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori 129
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Ishii & Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Suzuki & Iizuka & Michinoku
68
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SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT MVP
Hiromu Takahashi 83
Dragon Lee 36
Will Ospreay 32
Taiji Ishimori 11
SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT BEST MATCH
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori 101
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee 8
Dragon Lee vs. Sho 6
Will Ospreay vs. Flip Gordon 6
The three year legal battle between C.M. Punk, real name Phil Brooks, and longtime friend Scott Colton, Colt Cabana, as defendants in a defamation lawsuit brought on by WWE physician Dr. Christopher Amann ended on 6/5 with the jury ruling against Amann, ruling he was entitled to no damages.
Amann’s attorneys, earlier that morning in their closing remarks, asked for $3,989,000, coming up with the number based on $1 per listener of the podcast in question.
Punk, 39, and wife A.J. Lee, real name April Mendez, who testified for him in the case, broke down and cried as the verdict was read, just four days before Punk was scheduled to fight in a UFC PPV show at the United Center in Chicago against Mike Jackson.
Being in court for a week had to wreak havoc on his fight preparation during the most crucial part of camp. Punk said that even with spending most of the day in the courtroom, that he was able to get two training sessions in during the trial, just had to rearrange things, but with his camp usually in Milwaukee, and not Chicago, it had to have had an effect.
He said he would wake up and do wind sprints and shower up before court, and then train again at night after court. Still, there is no way the overall last week of training could have been as effective under the circumstances.
Punk, after the trial, noted that the Amann side had delayed the trial several times, and speculated, saying he knows how WWE operates, that the timing of it as it related to the fight date was not coincidental.
Cabana smiled at the verdict. Cabana and Punk’s reactions during the case, including sitting together and joking, made it appear both were confident in the end result.
The win was a major moral victory for Punk in a battle with WWE. While WWE was not officially part of the case, Punk has claimed that WWE was funding the case. When questioned about that, WWE did not deny that to be true, but also didn’t confirm it.
But if the goal was to bleed Punk dry with legal fees, the verdict, while certainly a relief for them, the fact is that legal fees were not part of the verdict, and in a case that lasted this long, for both men, particularly Cabana who never had the seven-figure years (and he may have never had six figure years) Punk had as a pro wrestler, it’s a significant loss of time and money for something that he never should have been part of.
The case was unique because from the outside, it felt like an open-and-shut case. Either Punk lied and he would lose, or he was telling the truth, and there should be no case. Those close to Punk had said that he was wanting the trial, which was risky because you can never accurately figure on how a jury would take evidence, and he could be liable for a big number.
As it turned out, the case wasn’t as open-and-shut. Punk’s statements on a November episode of Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast were not made up out of thin air, but some were not accurate.
He had claimed a lump on his back was MRSA staph, the worst kind, and that WWE doctors had mistreated it, giving him Z-packs, or antibiotics as opposed to removing it.
He said that he went to a doctor that his girlfriend, now wife, had suggested, who examined it, removed it and told him it was staph.
It was actually a physician’s assistant, not a doctor, named Patrick Duffy, who removed the lump. Duffy testified that the lump was never tested for staph, nor diagnosed, because Punk decided against it stating that he didn’t have medical insurance.
That was strange because WWE requires all of its performers to have medical insurance.
However, the Amann side, clearly backed by WWE, tried to argue that there was no lump, as testified by WWE trainer Larry Heck and others involved with WWE medical including Amann and Dr. Mike Samson. Punk had four witnesses, Colton, Mendez, Duffy and his massage therapist who all claimed to have seen the lump and described it in detail. WWE had, after the podcast, sent out photos of Punk’s back from the Royal Rumble pointing out no lump at the waistband, as he had claimed on the podcast, although testimony in the case indicated the reason is that the lump was on his butt.
However, for Amann, he had to prove both that what Punk said was false, and that it damaged him and his reputation.
Amann’s name was mentioned twice in passing on the podcast, but never focused on, with them usually talking about the doc, or Dr. Z-Pack. Punk in testifying said he meant the medical staff.
However, since Amann still works for WWE, his career wasn’t damaged. At one point when the case was being filed, he had claimed a huge increase in his medical insurance as damages based on what was aid. However, that was never introduced in court and others have said the idea his premiums would have been increased based on things said in a podcast were very unlikely, and it was more likely, like with the medical profession in general, premiums have been increasing.
While not directly related to the verdict, a lot of testimony regarded the 2014 Royal Rumble, which was Punk’s last match in WWE, as he quit the promotion the next day.
About 10:00 into the match, Kofi Kingston clotheslined Punk and likely knocked him out. Punk went to Amann, who was stationed at ringside, and noted he felt like his bell was rung. Amann believed he had suffered a concussion and notified backstage. They immediately ordered that he be eliminated and told referee John Cone to tell Punk to go out next. Punk then was furious. He had told Amann in the conversation that he was going to clear his head and continue the match. He pie-faced Cone and told him he was staying in.
Kane, who Punk had eliminated, which was part of a storyline to build for a Punk vs. Kane series, that would then lead to Punk vs. HHH at WrestleMania that year, was ordered back out. What happened in the match, with Punk making the final four and then having Kane come back out to eliminate him was the original match plan.
Punk remained in the ring for another 39 minutes working after refusing to be eliminated. Kane came out and had to sit there, which made no sense since he was eliminated.
Eventually, when it was down to four, Kane threw Punk out, but also, as was originally planned, he choke slammed Punk through a table, threw his head into the ring steps and threw him into the barricade.
It is impossible to make any sense of the choke slam on a table, or even the head into the steps, even if one can protect himself on the latter, on someone believed to have just suffered a concussion. Testimony indicated that backstage, all the key people, were aware Amann believed Punk had a concussion. Yet nobody evidently told Kane, and there was 39 minutes to do so, to change the original angle that was designed to build their match.
The story of this case, which stemmed from a November 2014 podcast over Thanksgiving weekend, really dated back to around August of 2013.
Punk and Lee started dating at that time, well after the two had a storyline romance scripted by WWE writers. Notably, in that storyline, Lee, who is bipolar, was portrayed as being crazy and Punk would say how he loved crazy chicks.
Lee noted a lump from the start on his butt, looking at first like a zit. She said that over time, the lump got larger and changed color.
Toward the end of 2013 and into early 2014, several people who Punk was close with had told me that he was unhappy. Punk was sick most of the time toward the end of the year, and with constantly being on the road, he wasn’t getting rest to recover. There were both injuries and health ailments he was battling and was prescribed antibiotics for.
Several weeks before the Rumble, I was told that Punk was probably going to quit, although one person close to the situation in the promotion who he had spoken with felt he’d probably leave when his contract expired in July. Another person close to Punk said they didn’t think he’d make it to July, and said maybe he’d make it through WrestleMania. When he did quit after the Rumble, there was a belief that he would come back for Mania because the money was so big for the match in question which would be one of the key matches on the show.
He quit, and obviously didn’t come back. WWE went to freeze his contract, like they did with people like Neville, Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio Jr., although in the latter two cases it wasn’t because they wouldn’t perform but for injury reasons. Because he wasn’t working and suspended, they stopped paying his merchandise money to him as well as his regular salary.
Eventually, on the day of his wedding, WWE fired him. Punk was furious that even though he’d for all real purposes quit, that he got a termination latter just before he was about to get married. Punk claimed on the podcast that a couple of days earlier he had been called by Paul Levesque and in the conversation mentioned his wedding date. In addition, the company was well aware of it being his wedding day because A.J. Lee was still with the company and asked for the wedding and a honeymoon period off.
Vince McMahon was later asked about this, somewhat apologized and said that when they sent the termination notice they weren’t aware it would come on his wedding day. Punk blew that apology off believing that it insulted his intelligence.
Punk’s lawyer eventually sent a nasty letter to WWE, to get a release, which would have allowed Punk to start negotiating with UFC, who had shown interest in him. The letter, which regarded his medical treatment at the end, was scary enough that WWE granted him a full release, allowed him the rights to continue to use the C.M. Punk name (they had registered it, but he probably could have fought and won usage since he used it professionally prior to WWE), and agreed to pay him his cut of merchandise money.
It appeared things were settled between the sides. Punk signed with UFC and seemed happy even though he was not a UFC caliber fighter, and with his lack of any combat sports background, or any sports background, and his age, the odds were greatly against him ever being of that caliber.
However, after his appearance on the show, Amann filed suit. Within WWE, they were furious about what he said on the podcast. In examining, the word was that there would be a lawsuit, Punk wasn’t honest on the podcast, and that the doctor he spoke of that his then-girlfriend, now wife, knew and sent him to get the lump examined, and then removed, didn’t exist. In a sense, there was a feeling that he swerved them.
Whether that led to the Amann lawsuit is unclear. Punk always maintained Amann was funded by WWE, and one of the reasons he said Lee quit WWE was their belief WWE had funded the lawsuit against him.
As far as the case went, those there said it felt like the jury didn’t trust Amann or his lawyers, particularly because there was no evidence of him being harmed professionally. Even to the outside, the idea of a somewhat public figure’s claims of being harmed and listing harassing Twitter messages or catcalls while working at live events for someone in wrestling seemed very weak.
Amann would have to be considered something of a public figure, and as such, the defamation claims are harder to win, because you have to prove both harm, whether career or financial, and that the person who harmed you knowingly lied.
While there were things said on the show that weren’t true, the key being the MRSA staph claim, they also weren’t provably false, since the lump was never tested, and Punk claimed it was a misunderstanding and he believed the medical assistant, who he and Lee both believed to be a doctor, did tell him it was staph. He claimed not to know the difference between MRSA staph and staph, but it does come across like an embellishment of the story to the outside.
Wrestle Zone reporters were in Chicago covering the trial itself. We also had someone giving their thoughts on the main aspects of the case, often several times per day, but just general reactions, which were very favorable to Punk’s side throughout.
Timothy Gaeng, an audio tech who worked at the 2014 Rumble, said in a 4/26 video, he heard people discussing Punk’s injury and distinctly heard HHH saying “If he’s hurt, check on him. If he’s hurt, get him out of there.” He said it was said more than once but not more than five times. He said the discussion lasted several minutes.
WWE trainer Larry Heck in a 5/22 deposition said he regularly gave Punk hot packs from October through January that year, and kept a direct treatment log that he filled out. He said he’d tape Punk’s ankles, knees and stretch his lower back and hips, and put hot packs to his lower back and that Punk went through several a night. He said he never saw a lump or infection and never heard Punk tell Amann about a lump or infection. He said that during the Rumble, Amann radio’d him to tell him Punk was concussed and he told HHH that Punk was concussed. He said after the match, he helped Punk backstage and saw him cuss people out and said Punk was mad that they stopped him from doing what he was supposed to do. Evidently they told Punk to stay down as he was selling for a long time, and not getting as much offense as normally would have happened, but he still recovered in storyline and remained in the match for another 39 minutes.
Ref John Cone said that he asked Punk if he was okay and Punk told him he had a concussion and Cone told him to stay down. Cone said he was told from the back to tell Punk to stay down and that they were sending Kane out to take him out early. Punk then told Cone that “If you make me leave this f***ing match, I’ll f***ing quit right now.” He also said Punk pie-faced him.
Glenn Jacobs said the elimination took place just as planned, but possibly earlier, although other testimony indicating Punk was to be eliminated when they were down to four indicated that he was right around the originally planned time.
Film of the match did show Amann coming up to Punk about 20 minutes after the clothesline and was talking with him outside the ring.
Mark Carrano, the Vice President of Talent relations, testified via video from 5/3. He said at the Rumble that the entrances have creative liberty on time intervals, and that the key people at the Gorilla position were Vince McMahon, HHH, Billy Kidman and Michael Hayes. He said Hayes and Jamie Noble put that year’s Rumble together. He said that at one point, he, HHH and Hayes all told Kidman to ask the ref if Punk was hurt, and that Kidman asked ref John Cone if Brooks (Punk) was hurt. He said Kidman said multiple times to get Punk out of the ring at that point. He said Punk was irate when the match was over.
He said Punk never brought up a lump to him, but Punk did bring up a concussion in the Rumble to him the next day in Cleveland, which was the Raw he walked out on.
Cabana testified that he first met Punk in 1999 when both were at the Steel Domain Wrestling School, and they became close friends because they loved wrestling the most.
Cabana said he saw the lump, describing it as a bubble or half an egg. Cabana said as far as he knew, nothing Punk said was false.
Cabana said that at the time of the podcast, he lived four blocks from Punk and he was well aware of the situation. He said he rode his bicycle to Punk’s house to record the show. He said that the two of them talked every day and that he was living Punk’s situation. He said he didn’t remember Amann’s name being mentioned on the show, although Punk did mention the name twice. He said he both heard about the lump and saw it prior to the Royal Rumble match.
Cabana called the lump disgusting, that it was raised, discolored and gross and saw the lump more than once. He also said as far as he could recall, the mention of Amann was a story unrelated to the lump and that when Punk said “They Z-packed me to death,” he believed it was WWE Medical in general and not anyone in specific, and felt that was the same for all of Punk’s comments. He said that after the show aired, he did get a cease and desist letter.
Patrick Duffy’s video testimony from 8/16 was played. He is not a doctor, but is licensed in Florida to treat dermatological issues. Duffy was called Patrick Bateman on the podcast, which Punk said was because he looked like an older Patrick Bateman.
Duffy said he did not attend medical school, said he never called himself a doctor, only a physician’s assistant. He said Punk had a fatty, sore, tender red lump on his lower back, and he treated the inflammation and swelling, used a scalpel to pierce and drain the lump. He said he would have cultured it but Punk refused to get it done, saying he had no insurance. He said it as not golf ball sized. He said Punk missed a follow-up visit, but did come to a March 20, 2014, visit and there was still a lump but it was responding well to Monodox. He said he wrote a note for Punk to WWE and in the note mentioned the lump could have been staph or MRSA, but it was diagnosed as a cyst. He also said a staph infection would not respond to Z-pack antibiotics.
Punk said that he listened to the podcast just before the trial, and said that he’s a different person now and he was better and swore a lot then. He said the C.M. nickname came because he was in a tag team called The Chick Magnets. Over the years, there have been different theories what C.M. stood for, including Chick Magnet, but he’d usually say it stood for whatever you wanted it to.
He said he did the podcast because after leaving WWE, he’d been silent on the subject and WWE hadn’t been, and he wanted to set the record straight for his fans.
He said in late 2013, he was often sick, noting headaches, lack of sleep, loss of appetite, vomiting, saying he did so after every match and his head was a fish bowl. He said one second he’d be fine, then he’d be welling up and having crying spells. He said his ribs were hurting and he was coughing a lot in September, and again in November.
He said he spoke only to Dr. Michael Samson on the European tour and in discussion of a possible concussion. He said that his symptoms got worse on the November European tour and Samson gave him a Z-pack. He said while on the tour he had rib pain, headaches, phlegm and said that he never brought up the lump to Samson on the tour. He said Samson never saw it but Amann did. He described it as shaped like a nickel and then it changed colors in December.
Punk said that he believed Duffy talked about a staph infection during his visit when the lump was removed. He confirmed that he declined getting the lump cultured and examined. He said that no doctor used the term MRSA to him. When asked about the term MRSA being used on the podcast, he said, “It’s all the same to me.”
He called it like a zit but being golf ball sized. Punk noted that even though he quit WWE before visiting Duffy to get the lump removed, he had him send a letter to WWE because “I know how petty they are.”
What is noted is that Duffy, in his letter to WWE, used the term “possible staph,” so the idea it was staph was certainly something he considered enough to write in his letter to WWE.
They brought up that Punk sent a text to Carrano to take him off all the shows. Punk wrote in the text, “I’m sick and have bruised ribs and concussion symptoms.”
He said he was clutching the table in great pain during Duffy’s draining it. Duffy’s description of Punk’s main was not as severe as Punk claimed on the podcast, but having had a similar infection drained and removed after a surgery, I can tell you it was, even when numbed on pain killers, probably the worse pain, or some of the worst pain, I’ve ever experienced in my life. I will also say that in that situation I don’t recall screaming in pain that badly, although I did scream at times. I’m guessing my own pain and description would be far worse than the doctor who was cutting it out of me would think and I’d hardly have the pain tolerance built up of a pro wrestler. The point is, those differing stories to me, having been through something similar, mean nothing and aren’t unexpected.
Punk did confirm at one point he told WWE trainer Larry Heck that he was physically fine, even though he had the lump and a prior concussion.
Punk confirmed telling WWE officials he wanted to finish the Rumble.
Punk said that while he can only recall being prescribed antibiotics once, he got them several times in a small envelope, and would get them by texting either Amann or Samson, or he’d ask for them in person. He noted he’d ask them wherever he saw them. He said he was never given paperwork for them. He said his symptoms would get worse when he was on tour wrestling, and get better when he was resting.
He also described his judgment regarding the Royal Rumble as “poor.”
Punk at times was crying on the stand.
Heck had testified that he worked on Punk many times and never saw the lump. Punk said Heck never would have seen it, since he was never on the bus when he was changing and he never saw him in the shower. He said he was never fully undressed around him.
There were text messages from Punk to Lee introduced as evidence talking about the lump back-and-forth on January 28, 2014, the Tuesday after the Rumble, or the day after he walked out. She wanted him to go to a doctor and he said he didn’t like doctors. He went to see Duffy on February 13, 2014, and texted her that the doctor said it was a staph infection. He said he texted doctor because he believed Duffy was a doctor, as did Lee.
Punk said that he showed Amann the lump in the fall of 2013 and told him that he didn’t know how long it had been there, but it didn’t hurt. He said he showed it to him a second time when he wanted it removed. He said he also showed it to him at the Royal Rumble, and described it as a giant mass on his butt. Lee was present at the Royal Rumble meeting and she was more concerned about it than he was. There were texts from WWE doctors where they joked about Lee in a manner that probably didn’t help with the jury. He said he stood by the basics of the conversation on the podcast but also said, “not accurately,” saying he stood by the gist of the conversation. He said he asked Amann to “cut this f***ing thing out of me,” but doesn’t recall what he said. He said Duffy called the lump a staph infection and that he needed two weeks of antibiotics before Duffy would cut it out. He at that point sent Lee a text message saying, “I’m going to f***ing e-mail Vince and bury Dr. Amann.” He also texted her while with Duffy that “I can’t believe Dr. Amman didn’t catch that,”
Lee, who was never in the court room prior to testimony and had no knowledge of what was said, said she was on the European tour and witnessed the same symptoms Punk had testified to, and said she saw the lump many times on his left butt cheek. She noticed it first in August and it grew and changed sides. She noted that Punk would change on his bus, and not in front of the talent. She confirmed text messages from Punk about how the lump hurts. She said that she believed Duffy, who she recommended him to see, was a doctor. She said she was surprised Amann didn’t see the lump as a problem sooner.
She said it started as a knuckle-sized pimple and that when she asked him in August about it, he said it wasn’t painful. She described that by the time of the Royal Rumble, it was the size of a small fruit. She said she was worried about it. She said she heard the word staph used to describe it but didn’t know the context.
The massage therapist was the last witness in the case. The therapist, named Corrine, described the lump on January 30, 2014, which would be shortly after the Rumble, as a large round lump, three inches across, raised one inch, on the left butt cheek, saying it was discolored. She indicated it was roughly the size of a golf ball or a tennis ball. She said that in an appointment on April 24, the lump was gone, and Punk told her it was a staph infection, so since he said this to everyone consistently, you can say that is what he believe he had been told and believed to have been the case.
Amann’s attorney, Phillip Zisook’s closing arguments centered around the idea that Amann doesn’t have to have incurred monetary damages, but simply has to prove emotional distress and emotional damages. He said Punk made false statements and Cabana allowed them to air, and claimed Cabana knew sone of the statements were false about the lump. He said that Duffy wasn’t a doctor, as said on the podcast, and his name wasn’t Patrick Bateman. He noted Duffy saying the cyst wasn’t baseball sized when asked. He noted Punk saying on the podcast it was MRSA staph, when it was never diagnosed as such. He said Punk used the term baseball sized on the podcast, but said golf ball sized in texts. He called Punk’s podcast appearance a false reality, similar to the comic books that Punk writes. He again tried to push that there was no lump, and said no texts bringing up the lump appear until after the Royal Rumble. He tried to push the idea that Punk was mad at Amann for changing the finish to the Rumble, except the finish went pretty much as it was planned, so that made no sense. They also said Punk was riding his bike at the time he claimed to have the lump. He noted the text that he was going to bury Amann and that the whole story was to get back at him. He said nearly 4 million people heard the podcast and cited the tweets and catcalls, and that Punk’s statements made it hard for Amann to do his job, and that Amann received hostility and hate after the podcast. He said Cabana was liable for the statements being out.
He said Cabana knew what he saw didn’t match what Punk said, and Cabana purposely avoided the truth. And he closed asking for $3,989,000.
In the end, the closing seemed to hurt Amann’s case, because of both the number asked coming across as ridiculous, and one person in the court room mentioned the jury’s reaction mirrored that thought. Plus, still clinging to the idea that there was no lump at all was impossible to believe given the testimony the jury had heard. His explanation that the reason for the podcast was Punk’s vendetta against Amann (who was barely mentioned on the podcast) because Amann forced a change in the Rumble makes no sense, because the Rumble ended up going down exactly the way it was laid out anyway. Plus, a jury wouldn’t have understood the political nuances of a Royal Rumble and WrestleMania to begin with. He had tried to position it that Punk thought with a great showing at the Rumble, he could get his elusive WrestleMania main event, and blamed Amann for not being able to shine in that match. But it was well known by everyone before the Rumble that the Mania main event planned was Randy Orton vs. Batista (Daniel Bryan was later added when the crowd rejected Batista as a babyface) and Punk was already locked into a top match with HHH, and nothing in the Rumble would have changed that. Punk quitting the next day changed that and opened the door for Bryan to get the spot, and the Bryan working twice storyline on a show where Bryan was booked originally to do a singles match with Sheamus, even as over as he was at the time.
Another person noted that Amann suing for damages while he was still employed by the same company in the same position was a key point talked about by the jury.
Punk’s attorney, Laura McNally, said there is evidence of Punk having a number of medical issues in late 2013, complaining about them, meeting with Sampson, and said testimony showed WWE medical records are not reliable since they never listed Punk’s antibiotic prescriptions. If there is internal fallout, my feeling is that the doctors will be much more careful about joking about patients with each other (there was an exchange between the doctors that came out where they were making fun of how Lee was so adamant about Punk’s medical situation), and everything they do will have a paper trail. But the key is, this issue was not Punk’s fault, although some may blame it on him, but was WWE and/or Amann’s fault for taking this case to court where the routine process of giving out antibiotics without paperwork was exposed and backfired in court. Taking it to court also left WWE open for major exposure down the line regarding Punk’s brain due to the choke slam when testimony is out that everyone was told he was concussed.
He also pointed to a text message where Amann claimed that Punk fabricated “pretty much everything.” He said the argument that there was no lump was ridiculous, and noted the massage therapist wasn’t a wrestling fan and had no reason to lie. He said the reason there were no texts about the lump between Punk and Lee before the Rumble is they were on the road together, while after the Rumble, she was regularly on the road and he wasn’t. He said that Punk didn’t believe he was lying, said the misrepresentation of Duffy was an honest mistake, and bringing up Internet posts he got said, “Why do we care about the trolls of the world?”
Cabana’s attorney, Kerry Stein, noted that he never said anything negative about Amann, that Cabana didn’t doubt the truth of what Punk was saying, he didn’t believe anything he said to be false, and he didn’t even know Punk was talking about Amann, thinking Doc meant the entire medical staff at WWE.
According to Cabana, jurors told him after the case that they couldn’t even understand why he was involved. When the case was filed, the idea of Cabana being a defendant seemed ridiculous to everyone but lawyers, and to them, it seemed obvious. The problem was, to the jury, who weren’t lawyers, the difference between morally wrong, suing someone who simply allowed a guy to do an interview, and refused to take down the interview when threatened, did matter.
Regarding the key when it came to Punk, it was WWE’s own medical records. The jury heard testimony from WWE doctors talking about antibiotics being handed out without being written down, and then tried to use WWE medical records, which didn’t list that, as evidence that Punk never came to anyone at any time about the lump on his butt, and that there was no lump to begin with. The joking about Lee complaining about Punk’s treatment, which the doctors texted about, and that complaining being about the treatment of the lump, which they denied existed, also hurt the credibility of that side.
Punk gave the impression after, while still leaving wiggle room, that he’s not interested in returning to pro wrestling, saying his mind is completely focused now on his fight and nothing past Saturday night. However, he said several times that he would not be on the All In show on 9/1 in Chicago, and that he was never directly asked, as in given a direct money offer and an opponent, regarding the show. Earlier he said that the only person involved with the show he’s had any contact with is Matt Massie, and he said his contact with Massie was very limited.
In the real world, if you have a doctor on one side and two pro wrestlers on the other, and you’re going to a jury, the odds are favoring the doctors every time. The fact the result didn’t back that up indicates just how weak the case turned out to be.
One week ago, the impending two out of three fall match with no time limit between Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega would probably be, at least ahead of time, as heavy a favorite for betting what would win match of the year as anything perhaps in ahead of time in history.
You could argue that Okada and Omega are the two best wrestlers in the world today. Last year, they ran away with the top spots for Most Outstanding and Wrestler of the Year. Their first two matches not only placed top two for Match of the Year, but in Japan, every single poll, whether fan based or media based, listed one match or the other as Match of the Year. A third match placed fifth. Not since Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat in 1989 had any program ever dominated the top matches in a given year.
Now, it may not even be favored for match of the night.
The 6/9 Dominion show at Osaka Jo Hall, the fastest pro wrestling sellout ever in that building, is built around three matches.
Okada vs. Omega IV, with both men tied 1-1-1 in their three match series, headlines for the IWGP title. It is their first singles match since Omega pinned the IWGP champion on 8/12 in the block finals of the G-1 Climax tournament.
The story is the same as in their two previous title bouts. New Japan is trying to create an enduring legend in Okada, who at 30, has broken almost every career record for the championship–longest reign, longest time as champion and most successful defenses in a given reign. There are two records left, both held by Hiroshi Tanahashi. One is the most career title defenses, at 28. Okada goes into Dominion with 25. The other is most title reigns over a career, that Tanahashi holds with seven. Okada has four, and ironically, to get to seven or eight would require several title losses.
On the flip side, New Japan is trying to expand internationally. WWE has shown there is an incredible amount of money for the dominant promotion, and perhaps for a major league promotion, in rights fees. New Japan, still reliant mostly on live gates and merchandise sales, is the No. 2 promotion in the world. The limitations of Japan make it impossible to cash in on that revenue available no matter how high quality the matches might be or how over in Japan the wrestlers or product can become.
For international growth, Omega is the best choice as the face of the promotion. He’s great enough inside the ring that people can cling to him as the best, or certainly one of the best, and better than any opposition face of the company. He and Okada both combine athletic excellence with daredevil tactics, amazing conditioning, unique drive and the reason few truly grasp, which is the mental visualization, to be able to have matches that rank with any in history.
Unlike really anywhere else, where the championship really doesn’t matter, it means a lot here. Omega will become a much bigger star with a title win, and Okada won’t become a lesser star with the loss. But it will take Okada out of the top spot on the big cards, a spot he’s performed at over the last two years as far as big shows go, at a level that nobody else in history has never approached, not Ric Flair, not Shawn Michaels, not Mitsuharu Misawa, not Kenta Kobashi, not Bryan Danielson or Samoa Joe or Terry Funk or Jumbo Tsuruta. On the big title matches, nobody has ever reached the peaks of Okada’s matches with the likes of Omega, Tanahashi, Minoru Suzuki, Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito. Attendance has grown during this period, and while there will always be people who want a change, the box office growth that has continued, with the sale of tickets here being the example, tells you anything but that it’s the right time to make the big change.
But for New Japan Pro Wrestling, the world is no longer the Japanese box office.
And there is also the underlying question. WWE has so much money. Still, Okada has a huge long-term contract and is probably going nowhere. For all the talk of everyone eventually goes to WWE, the reality is that if you look at every top guy in a strong major league Japanese promotion, only one in modern history, Shinsuke Nakamura, has ever left Japanese pro wrestling for the U.S. while at their peak. And with the benefit of hindsight, as hot as Nakamura was when he left, it’s pretty clear why he chose to make that move. But his being a success does somewhat change the game.
Omega is only under contract until January 31, 2019. Every time he’s asked, which is probably every time he does an interview, he gives every indication he’s not looking at going anywhere. He’s got more creative freedom to have the kind of matches that he wants to have. He is basically guaranteed a top position for as long as he’s physically able to perform at even close to his current level. And while in the past, because he’s Canadian, no matter how good he was, he could never be the Okada or Tanahashi, but with expansion, maybe he now has to be. But who knows. If New Japan gets a strong foothold outside Japan, WWE will be looking to stop them, and the first move in that direction would clearly be getting Omega. It’s a great spot for him to be in, but for New Japan, do you build around a guy who may get over huge, and have it be a guy you then lose when you are trying to take the next big step?
The game becomes far more complex when a title means something, you’re trying to grow a company outside your core market, and there is a clear adversary with more money than ever trying to make sure none of that happens.
One year ago, at Osaka Jo Hall, the two went to a 60 minute draw in what may have placed second in some places, but to me, was the greatest match of easily the greatest year for high-quality matches in history.
The two of three fall no time limit match puts incredible pressure on both, because it will be the first time in history that a legitimate ***** match will be viewed as a letdown. While people have high expectations of the top three matches on the show, Okada and Omega are going in with people expecting nothing short of the greatest pro wrestling match in history. The three falls is far more difficult than one fall. The no time limit makes people expect it’s going long, which is not a good thing. What made last year’s 60:00 match so outstanding is that they were going at a pace where you both knew they were going more than 30 minutes, but felt, because of so many big moves being hit, that they probably couldn’t go past about 42 to 44 minutes. But they did, and managed to continue to build. They had the longest New Japan match in more than a decade, and were so good that the match felt epic, but not too long.
They will have to follow the most popular wrestler in the promotion, Tetsuya Naito, as he faces Chris Jericho for the IC title. They also have to follow two men who having the best matches in the world this year in Will Ospreay and Hiromu Takahashi, and were the stars of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
Dominion comes five days after Takahashi beat Taiji Ishimori in the finals of the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors tournament at Korakuen Hall. It was not only the best match of the tournament, but one of the best matches I’ve ever seen. Emotionally, physically and mentally, it would be in the handful of matches, five so far, that I’d give ****** to. The only negative is not wanting to reward too much dangerous activity as Takahashi has such a lack of looking at his future, which makes him incredible today, but pro wrestling is a marathon, not a sprint.
Ironically, his opponent, the current IWGP jr. champion, is becoming the ultimate historical sprinter, compared to both the brilliance and self-destructive long-term performances of the Dynamite Kid.
Considering the performance Takahashi put on in the Ishimori match, and consider that was only the No. 2 match of his current run, and now he’s facing Ospreay, who tore it up every night himself, and they’re facing each other on what is New Japan’s second biggest event of the year, the goal would be to have the greatest match of the year, or die trying. But they do not have the pressure on that Okada and Omega have. They can have the 10th or 15th best match of the year and people will rave about it.
The two already had one title match, on 2/10 at the smaller Edion Arena, which was a classic, and both have noticeably improved in the nearly four months since that happened. They are younger, smaller, more athletic and even crazier once the bell rings than Okada and Omega.
The nine-match Dominion lineup for 6/9, which airs live at 3 a.m. Eastern time late Friday night/Saturday morning, opens with Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defending the IWGP jr. tag titles against Sho & Yoh, who both made great strides over the last month, particularly Sho. Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi face Juice Robinson & David Finlay, which likely will build to White vs. Robinson going forward, perhaps at the Cow Palace for the U.S. title. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano face Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. It appears from this past week that Suzuki vs. Ishii is a future direction. Hirooki Goto defends the Never Open weight title in a three-way against Michael Elgin and Taichi. Taichi limits this match greatly.
Next comes Evil & Sanada defending the IWGP heavyweight tag team titles against The Young Bucks. Who goes over here is very interesting. It’s similar to Okada and Omega, in that the right decision for Japan is the wrong decision for outside Japan. One can argue that in moving from junior heavyweight to heavyweight, you shouldn’t win the titles on your first big show. But the tag titles, which haven’t meant a ton in New Japan, would mean the most the belts have meant worldwide with The Young Bucks. Would it be better if they chase for a while and mean more if they win after a struggle? In a perfect world, yes, particularly since we’re really only in the beginning stages of the expansion. The Young Bucks are also only committed, at least on paper, until the end of the year.
Tanahashi & Jushin Liger & Rey Mysterio Jr., a trio of legends, face the Bullet Club trio of Cody & Marty Scurll & Hangman Page. This could lead to Mysterio vs. Scurll and Tanahashi vs. Cody as a future direction.
Ospreay vs. Takahashi for the IWGP jr. title pits the two wrestlers who have been the best in the world night-in-and-night-out inside the ring in recent months against each other.
Naito vs. Jericho depends, like everything, on how many dates Jericho is working for New Japan. He could lose to Naito and leave, and music is his passion and priority now, not WWE, nor New Japan. A win by Jericho, particularly if Okada is to retain, sets up another huge match. A win by Jericho to set up a match with Tanahashi for the IC title also makes sense. Jericho is coming off one of the best matches of his career with Omega, but for him, Naito is very different. Naito works faster than Jericho. With Omega, he had the attitude that he was going to listen and learn, since Jericho has more experience in more places, as opposed to come in with the attitude that he’s the biggest star and this is his company and you have to work to what I want to do. Naito is the biggest star in New Japan and a great wrestler, but whether he’s adaptable to Jericho, or Jericho is adaptable to him, is a question.
The respect for Jericho is such that they are billing this show as a double main event. Jericho in selling it, has tried to create the idea that New Japan’s IC title is somehow comparable or compatible with the WWE title of the same name, pushing that he’s going for a record 10th IC championship. But sandwiched between the two matches, it will be easy for it to be an afterthought after the show.
Takahashi and Ishimori had what could be argued was the year’s best match, and definitely the greatest finale in the long history of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, on 6/4 at Korakuen Hall.
After high risk moves, twists and turns, and Ishimori surviving the triangle, that Takahashi had used as his go-to move in the tournament, Takahashi got the pin in 34:09 with the time bomb.
The finals in recent years has been held at the Yoyogi Gym, but that’s closed for Earthquake renovation prior to the 2020 Olympics. Korakuen Hall, which sold out with 1,740 paid, was far too small for such an event.
From a drawing power standpoint, the tournament was a success in all but a few nights. All five Korakuen Hall events sold out, even though Tanahashi, Okada and Omega didn’t work any events on the tour until the last night.
The biggest out of the ring news of the past week came on the 6/3 show at Korakuen Hall. Tomoaki Honma, who just got married to a woman he met while he was in the hospital, came out and announced that he would be returning on 6/23 in Yamagata. The place went crazy for this. This was not the emotional reaction like Katsuyori Shibata got or Magnum T.A. got, but it was big. The situation was also different, because people knew those cases were very much life-threatening. Honma was in rough shape with paralysis at one point, but people knew he was making a recovery, lifting weights, and running.
Still, he was lighter, and when he walked he wasn’t steady. It didn’t appear that he should be wrestling and from those who were there live, said it was very clear how labored he was when walking and it didn’t look like he should be wrestling. You can always do six-man tag matches and be in for quick comedy spots, but you can’t expect the great Honma of old.
The finalists came out of the 6/3 show at Korakuen Hall, which drew 1,714 paid.
The tournament was not overall as good as last year, somewhat because of the very cold crowds at a lot of the smaller shows which gave the tournament the feel of a 205 Live show with a higher quality of performers.
But the ending was. The 6/3 show, with eight singles matches, was like a top-tier PWG show, perhaps better because of the deeper technical abilities. The matches ranged from good to outstanding, and the crowd was into everything. Each match told its own story and there were many different styles on display.
Even though much of the booking was parity-oriented, when it came down to the last night, it pretty much looked like it would come down to Ospreay or Ishimori in the A block and Takahashi or Kushida in the B block.
Ishimori and Ospreay were both 4-2 going into the final show. Ishimori had the edge, having beaten Ospreay in their head-to-head match. Ishimori was to face Yoh and Ospreay to face Flip Gordon.
If they both won, Ishimori would win the block and go to the finals. If Ospreay beat Gordon, but Yoh beat Ishimori, then Ospreay would win the block. If they both lost, it would be a mess that could only be entangled based on who won other matches.
Ospreay beat Gordon in one of the best matches of the tournament. Ishimori and Yoh had a great match, accentuated by Ospreay coming out to ringside, not interfering or distracting, but just heavily cheering Yoh on.
Ospreay’s reactions, going crazy when Yoh looked like he was close to the upset, and being devastated when Ishimori won, made the tournament look so much more important. Really, that should be studied by wrestlers and bookers when it comes to putting together a tournament.
The stronger B block was more straight forward. Takahashi, Kushida and Marty Scurll went into the final day with 4-2 records. However, Scurll’s two losses were to Takahashi and Kushida. So the only way he could advance was to beat Sho, and then have Takahashi and Kushida draw. But Sho beat Scurll in a great match with a dramatic comeback finish that was reminiscent of the Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ketsusis Smirnovas MMA fight in 2006.
So it came down to Takahashi and Kushida, who had a very unique match. They did a safety first match, that still got over great, and showed that if and when Takahashi stops doing the insane stuff, he’ll still be one of the best in the world. They literally did nothing but a lock-up for about 5:20. Takahashi won clean with a triangle, which is just being called a D, in 24:16.
Everyone was protected in the booking as with the exception of the block winners, Ospreay, Kushida and Scurll, everyone else in the tournament finished with 3-4 records, and in doing so, Gordon, Dragon Lee, Sho and Yoh all ended up increasing their value.
So the final standings were:
A block: 1. Ishimori 5-2; 2. Ospreay 5-2; 3. Bushi, Gordon, Tiger Mask, Yoh, ACH and Kanemaru 3-4.
B block: 1. Takahashi 5-2; 2. Kushida and Scurll 4-3; 4. Lee, Desperado, Sho and Ryusuke Taguchi 3-4.
MAY 31 - HACHINOHE CITY EAST GYM - 1,426
1. Kushida & Shota Umino beat Dragon Lee & Yuya Uemura in 8:48 when Umino beat Uemura with a Boston crab.
2. Marty Scurll & Chase Owens beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoyuki Oka when Owens pinned Oka after a package piledriver in 10:29.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado beat Chris Sabin & Toa Henare in 9:13 when Suzuki pinned Henare after a Gotch piledriver.
4. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi beat Yoshi-Hashi & Sho in 7:45 when Naito pinned Sho after a destino.
5. Bushi (3-3) beat Flip Gordon (3-3) in 11:58 with the codebreaker off the top rope.
6. Taiji Ishimori (4-2) beat ACH (2-4) in 11:57 with the bloody cross submission.
7. Will Ospreay (4-2) beat Tiger Mask (3-3) in 12:05 with the Storm breaker.
8. Yoh (3-3) beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru (2-4) in 16:37 with the five star clutch.
JUNE 2 - TAKASAKI NEW SUMPIA - 1,515 SELLOUT
1. Tiger Mask & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino beat ACH & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura in 8:27 when Oka beat Tsuji with a Boston crab.
2. Yoh & Yoshi-Hashi beat Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori i9 8:33 when Yoshi-Hashi made Owens submit to the butterfly lock.
3. Flip Gordon & Toa Henare beat Will Ospreay & Gedo in 9:24 when Gordon pinned Gedo after a 450 splash.
4. Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi beat Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taka Michinoku in 8:26 when Bushi pinned Michinoku with the codebreaker off the top rope.
5. Chris Sabin (3-3) beat Desperado (2-4) in 12:14 with cradle shock.
6. Marty Scurll (4-2) beat Ryusuke Taguchi (2-4) in 15:42 with a small package
7. Hiromu Takahashi (4-2) beat Sho (2-4) in 16:19 with a triangle submission.
8. Kushida (4-2) beat Dragon Lee (3-3) in 18:17 after back to the future.
Chuck Williams, a Northeast veteran independent wrestler best known as The Rockin Rebel, was found dead by his twin 10-year-old, believed to be ten-years-old, on 6/1 after a murder/suicide incident with his wife, Stephanie Burtnett Williams.
Police believe that Chuck Williams first shot his wife, and then shot himself. Both were shot in the living room of their home in West Chester, PA. Police believed that based on the injuries, that this happened late the night before.
Chuck Williams was 52 and his Stephanie Williams was 50.
After getting reports of a gunshot coming from the house, West Goshen Township Police Officers went to the house and when they got there, at 6:40 a.m., they met family members in the driveway. The officers entered the home and found the couple both dead in the living room. They immediately alerted the media, without giving out the names, of the death of the couple and said that it was believed to be a murder/suicide that there is no suspect nor should anyone in the area be concerned about a potential suspect on the loose.
Local news talked with neighbors who said that police had been called to the home several times previously due to problems between the two of them. They also noted that the two rarely left the home together.
The family of Stephanie Burtnett, headed by Chad Burtnett, her brother, has already announced plans to a establish a foundation to battle domestic abuse in her name.
Chuck Williams had in the days before the incident made several Facebook posts about family that were eerie in hindsight. On 5/28 he wrote, “Taking five minutes out of your day to tell/show you other half you love them means the world to them.” Later that evening he wrote,“Days of spending time with the ones who love you and you love them are far and few, make then count.” And “A little love goes a long way.”
You would not find many people saying nice things about Williams from most other wrestlers. Most comments were sympathetic to Stephanie and especially the kids. Comments that he was a bully and a racist were said to us by talent that have known him from the Northeast independent scene for a long period of time.
Several wrestlers noted that on shows, he would do what he wanted, and was about getting himself over and not what was best for the show or the promotion. But in the main scheme of things, most more had sympathy for his wife and children than worried about Williams behavior in the business at this shocking time.
Williams was known to be good friends with Frank Talent, a Pennsylvania state commissioner, and had a promoters license. Numerous small promotions would use his license to promote shows, and thus, he’d get booked on the shows and with the power of the license, have some input into how he was used and portrayed.
Williams took the name Rockin Rebel from the start of his career in 1988, after being trained by The Rock & Roll Express, Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson.
He had worked for 30 years mostly on independent shows in the Northeast, usually as Rockin Rebel, as well as Dark Rebel, Dark Ninja, Mr. X, Doink the Clown and under his real name.
WWF used him on Northeast television tapings in 1989, where he did enhancement work on television. In one match on July 18, 1989, in Worcester, he teamed with Paul Van Dale (the father of Carmella, whose real name is Leah Van Dale) in losing to Jacques Jr. & Raymond Rougeau.
He started making his name with Joel Goodhart’s Tri-State Wrestling promotion that was based in Philadelphia in 1990. The group, which was partially owned by Tod Gordon, was the forerunner of ECW.
He was the first Tri-State champion and also formed a tag team with Jimmy Jannetty called The Confederacy.
During that period he feuded with The Sandman, who had a completely different gimmick than the one that made him famous. In Tri-State, Sandman was a surfer and Rockin Rebel once knocked him out with his surfboard.
Williams had a reputation as an independent wrestler of not listening, in the sense he would to do things, or more often, not to do things, and he’d do them anyway.
He worked some in Puerto Rico, and was a regular when Gordon opened up ECW as Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1992, as a prelim heel.
There was a story about a night in Wildwood, NJ, where Paul Heyman supposedly told him that not only would he be winning a Battle Royal, but then beating Shane Douglas later that night to win the ECW title. Of course, it sounded ridiculous, since Heyman never gave him any kind of a real push. Then, all the other wrestlers were told about the rib and they all ganged up and threw him out the moment the Battle Royal started.
Heyman by this time had tired of Williams, feeling he was a pain in the ass. Williams showed up in Wildwood and went to Heyman and said that Douglas, who was the ECW champion at the time, wanted to work a program with him. Douglas apparently has no recollection of such a conversation and Heyman at the time would hardly be considering a Douglas vs. Rockin Rebel title program, as Rebel was hardly over to that degree.
However, Heyman listened to his pitch, and surprisingly, told him it made perfect sense and that they should do something that fans will never see coming. So he told Williams that he was going over in the Battle Royal that night, would throw out Jimmy Snuka when they were the last two, and then win the title from Douglas in the main event of the show. Heyman then told him not to tell anyone because he wanted to shock the boys as well. Heyman told Williams not to even tell Douglas, as he would let Douglas know, but wouldn’t let him know about the title change until right before Douglas went to the ring to make sure that everyone was surprised.
Heyman then immediately told Douglas what he told Williams but that it wasn’t happening. Williams then went to Douglas, even though he was told not to, and talked with him about dropping the title, how they’d do a long program together and what great business it would do.
Then Heyman got everyone in the Battle Royal together before the match. He first told them the finish was Williams going over, throwing out Snuka. Then Tod Gordon, who was in on it, told Williams that he needed to sign some merchandise . Heyman told Williams it was okay to leave the meeting. Williams left the room and everyone thought he was winning.
Then, when he was gone, Heyman told everyone, “He goes out first.” A lot of the guys didn’t like Williams so Heyman knew it would be well received.
The Battle Royal started and everyone ran after Williams. They were trying to throw him out. He tied himself in the ropes and was screaming to stop because he thought he was supposed to win. He was trying for all he was worth to stay in the ring but they overpowered him and threw him over.
He then ran to Heyman and said, “Boss, what happened. They all double-crossed me.”
Heyman then explained it was just a rib he played on him, but to take it like it was a rib and he’ll win points with everyone. Heyman said if he acts like he’s mad, it won’t go over well. He acted somewhat mad, but not too mad about it in front of everyone after.
However, the story that he sometimes told that he was going to be Raven’s understudy in the role that eventually went to Stevie Richards is a story that Heyman had denied.
Heyman and Williams didn’t get along and he was gone from ECW in 1995. He then did some TV matches for WCW, winning one as Rockin Rebel at a Center Stage in Atlanta taping, before being used as an enhancement wrestler, Chuck Williams.
He also worked as Rockin Rebel for some ROH matches in the Philadelphia area from 2004 to 2006 because ROH used his promoters license when running shows in Pennsylvania.
Williams claimed, whether this is true or not who knows, that he and Glen Osbourne had an offer to go to WWF as a tag team in the 90s. He claimed his wife had sewn their gimmicks, but in the end, Osbourne decided he didn’t want the life on the road so it never happened. He claimed it was face paint, leather and stuff, similar to Demolition.
At another point, as a publicity stunt, he tried out for the Philadelphia Wings, an indoor lacrosse team. Obviously he didn’t make the team.
Paul Carboni, one of our readers, noted that in 2000, he and Williams had an on-line spat and Williams came up from behind him at a CZW live show and carried the spat there.
He was still working Northeast independents at the time of his death.
He held championships in numerous independent promotions in the Northeast. He held the tag team title in Combat Zone wrestling, and the singles title in Northeast Wrestling, as well as dozens of other singles titles with different Northeastern companies.
Smackdown on 6/5 did a 1.54 rating and 2,138,000 viewers (1.53 viewers per home).
This would be the third lowest numbers for the show since it started airing live, trailing only the 1,921,000 on November 8, 2016 (election night) and the 2,072,000 on June 13, 2017 (head-to-head with the NBA playoff finals).
Smackdown was still seventh for the night on cable.
This is more attributable to the product being cold right now and that when Raw ratings are down, Smackdown the next day is going to be down as well.
The big decline was with males and with older viewers.
The show did a 0.44 in 12-17 (up 2.3 percent from last week), 0.50 in 18-34 (up 6.4 percent), 0.84 in 35-49 (down 1.2 percent) and 0.88 in 50+ (down 5.4 percent).
The audience was 56.4 percent male in 18-49 and 54.1 percent male in 12-17.
Raw on 6/4 did a 1.74 rating and 2,528,000 viewers (1.60 viewer per home), which, while the third lowest number of viewers in the modern history on a non-holiday date. In reality, because of the level of competition, this would have to be considered the worst showing for the show in modern history.
It only beat last week’s 2,487,000 viewers by one percent, which went against game seven of the NBA playoff semifinals and a monster rating, plus a Stanley Cup playoff game. The lowest audience was 2,478,000 came against the Clinton-Trump debate.
The rating itself tied the Trump-Clinton debate number for the third lowest in the history of the show. The two lowest were the December 25, 2017 show, a holiday, that did a 1.68, and last week’s show, that did a 1.69.
That includes Raws against football season, presidential debates, New Year’s Eve, Christmas Eve, July 4th, when they were getting killed by WCW and going against some of the biggest NFL games of modern times. Granted, television ratings in general are way down so direct comparisons aren’t always truly accurate but record lows are still record lows.
From an historical perspective, aside from the Christmas night show, which still beat both the 5/28 and 6/4 shows for overall viewers, the September 26, 2016, show, opposite the Clinton/Trump debate with 80.8 million viewers, did a 1.74 rating. Before that, the record low was October 14, 1996, which went against Nitro, the NFL and Major League baseball playoffs and did a 1.78. The October 12, 1992 and October 26, 1992 episodes of Prime Time Wrestling did 1.70 ratings. The all-time record low for Nitro was also a 1.70 on December 12, 2000, but that was also because the show was moved to an unfamiliar Tuesday night slot.
There is no explanation for this number. Television viewing itself was down as is the case in the summer, but Raw, being live, usually isn’t hurt at the level of other programming. There was an NHL Stanley Cup finals game with the Las Vegas Golden Knights vs. Washington Capitals, but that did 5,061,000 viewers and shouldn’t have hurt wrestling ratings too much, certainly not like last week. Last year in the same week, with the basic same competition, the audience was 16 percent higher, so this was the largest week-to-week drop in a year where the numbers for Raw have been pretty much the same as the prior year most weeks. This number in and of itself shouldn’t be taken badly, unless in a few weeks the ratings stay at this level, as right now it’s an unexplained one-week aberration.
Raw was fifth on cable, only trailing news programs since the hockey game was on NBC.
All three hours were similar to last week, with the third hour drop being slightly less, which led to the slight overall increase in the ratings.
The first hour did 2,594,000 viewers. During the summer, the second hour should ride, but that didn’t happen and it did 2,593,000 viewers. The third hour did 2,390,000 viewers.
The only age group that bounced back from not having an NBA game was 35-49, and teenagers were way down. But for the most part, the audience that started the show, stayed with it, as while there was the usual third hour drop, it was only significant women 18-49 and those over 50, and both teenage boys and girls grew slightly in hour three.
The show did a 0.51 in 12-17 (down 12.1 percent from last week), 0.61 in 18-34 (down 1.6 percent), 1.09 in 35-49 (up 18.5 percent) and 0.98 in 50+ (down 5.8 percent).
The audience was 61.8 percent male in 18-49 and 58.6 percent male in 12-17.
NEW JAPAN: Minoru Suzuki and Makoto Ishihara are working on an 8/31 benefit show for Yoshihiro Takayama, called Takayamania Empire. The show will stream live on AbemaTV. It’s said that Takayama, who had been paralyzed from the neck down, has been able to move his shoulders a little bit. The main event will be Suzuki & Nosawa & Mazada vs. Taiyo Kea & Kaz Hayashi & Taka Michinoku, with Naomichi Marufuji, Takao Omori and Sanshiro Takagi also announced
The Kenny Omega-produced and promoted show on 6/29 in Daytona Beach has announced himself, Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi, Kota Ibushi, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Jeff Cobb. More will be announced after Dominion. Omega is also working on some new things for the show, but of late is concentrating on the Dominion match
AXS TV is doing a contest over the Internet to give away tickets for the Cow Palace show on 7/7.
Regarding ITV World of Sport, the plan is if the TV ratings are a success for the shows, which will start airing in mid-to-late July on Saturday late afternoons, that they will follow up with touring in the U.K. That’s a big if. Martin Goldsmith, who was the promoter of the 1992 SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium and owned Event Merchandise, which handled WWE merchandise for years, and later TNA merchandise, was mentioned as possibly being involved in the ITV promotion if it tours. He wasn’t at the ITV tapings but his son was there. ITV had the mentality of wrestlers as being athletes and actors working on a television show as opposed to wrestlers. The performers were paid $1,000 or more per day and the deals were structured like they would be for a TV show. They are looking at different venues. The talent will be receiving royalties for replay showings, although traditionally pro wrestling shows aren’t replayed so that’s in the contract but may be a moot point. They will also receive merchandise rights similar to an actor on a television show. All performers are allowed to work anywhere in the world except WWE, or for a promotion that has national television distribution in the U.K
Chris Brookes was offered a WWE U.K. deal but turned it down. However, there were 12 wrestlers that were on ITV’s original list that opted for WWE. The edge WWE has is that you know they will be in business while the ITV thing is iffy. The downside is that there’s so much less exposure, in the sense while it certainly helped Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate for their indie work, and they are more over, they aren’t television stars. If the ITV thing works, the guys will be seen by maybe 25 times as many people as the biggest WWE stars are seen by, so the chance to make a name if it does make it is multiplied, and if there is touring, it would be a faster movement to stardom and making money. But it is a gamble.
ROH: At the TV tapings at the Hammerstein Ballroom, the Young Bucks teased the idea of All In 2 in Madison Square Garden. Right now I don’t think anyone is going to be planning anything of the magnitude until after All In 1. It is an interesting proposition. If All In was in MSG, they probably would have sold it out but who knows what kind of money could be made. To run MSG, the only way it’s worth it is if you jack up the ticket prices because the cost is so high. WWE charges their most expensive prices for house shows anywhere in North America and they can run it profitably, and usually do 13,000 to 14,000. Depending what kind of talent is available, a second show a year later on Labor Day could sell out. I’m pretty sure they’d have sold out MSG at much higher prices had anyone realized the demand, but it’s so difficult on costs and the other arenas in the area are probably more cost-effective. The one thing is, from a pure publicity standpoint, the idea of selling out MSG (which for a second show is a question but I think just it being in MSG would be a draw on its own) would garner a ton of media publicity and build their names as both real stars and entrepreneurs, but it’s also an economic risk if it doesn’t draw. Plus, WWE isn’t going to sit back. If the idea is to get as many of their friends jobs in WWE, or even themselves high paying offers, perhaps this is a great strategy. We know WWE won’t be able to block it like they did through 2000 when everyone that tried to book a date, even WCW with Turner’s connections, couldn’t get in
For the All In show, they announced Jerry Lynn as a referee, along with ROH’s Todd Sinclair and Paul Turner, PWG’s Rick Knox and former JCP, WWE & TNA referee Earl Hebner.
Being the Elite this week featured Matt bringing Cody a proposed card for the show and Cody’s eyes lit up but they didn’t tease anything. The Young Bucks & Page were watching game one of the NBA finals when there was news bulletin that claimed actor Stephan Amell was arrested for the murder of “famous dick wrestler Joey Ryan.” The newsman (played by Ian Riccobani) was standing in front of Madison Square Garden talking about Billy Joel setting the sellout record. Amell claimed he didn’t do it. The Bucks joked they thought Page did it and he was acting all paranoid. They are also doing a bit with Jay Lethal where after his legit concussion a few weeks ago, they do a deal where if you pat him hard on the shoulder he thinks he’s Randy Savage and does his perfect Randy Savage voice. On the show, the excuse was a door opened and hit him in the face and knocked him out, and when he woke up, he saw Lanny Poffo and thought it was his brother. This week Scorpio Sky came up to him and patted him on the back and he became Savage and thought Scorpio Sky was Virgil, and talked about him doing the autograph show gimmick stuff. The Young Bucks came home from New York and talked about challenging Evil & Sanada for the heavyweight tag titles but that for the first time they wouldn’t be in Kenny Omega’s corner for his match with Kazuchika Okada. They cut to Omega, who was studying Okada and then sad music played and they showed all kinds of photos of clips of the Bucks & Omega together from all over Japan over the past several years including right before previous Omega-Okada bouts
The show ended with Omega opening up the package the Bucks sent him
WWE: In an interview with Sky Sports, Shawn Michaels hinted that he is at least open to do a one-time coming out of retirement match. Michaels had turned down previous offers, including in 2013 for a match with Bryan and earlier this year at the Greatest Royal Rumble show. He was promoting his appearance at Royal Albert Hall and trying to get tickets sold out for the events that surprisingly struggled even though in a 3,500 seat set up. He said his return would have to involve HHH in some way, and said he would be receptive to an offer to return after eight years, after losing a retirement vs. streak stipulation match at the 2010 WrestleMania. “I’ve been retired for eight years now, and when it got to the five-year mark, I thought people would start asking me, but they just kind of stopped. I think it’s one of those (things) that you would never say never about and if it was just for a one-off, then it’s something I would take a look at. It would have too be done the right way, and just for one match rather than something that ran longer. It could be possible, but people would have to accept hey wouldn’t be getting the Showstopper, Mr; WrestleMania and that I’m 52 years old now.” He said the most likely option would be a DX reunion tag team match. Here’s the thing. And we’ve seen guys come out of retirement and just the hype and excitement for it would be a great part of the battle. Michaels isn’t out of shape as far as gotten fat or that in the least. He’s in some ways in as good or better shape because he’s probably living healthier than in his wrestling days. Athletically, no, he won’t be able to do exactly what he could, but mentally he’s the same guy, his moves are over and he can get the basics back. Ricky Steamboat was older and had very good, even great matches on a comeback run. He’s got incredible talent to choose from. I think a comeback as part of a DX tag team would be big, but a singles match with somebody like Styles, Rollins, Reigns or Bryan would be far bigger, and would also be a big boost to the guy he faces, where a DX comeback, unless it’s a dream match with The Shield in some form, will require the other guys to just be opponents like The Spirit Squad, who were hot before and then dead after that program. Reigns may be a bad one since I don’t know that even if they tear down the house, such a match helps Reigns, but it would help the other guys. “If it was the Shawn Michaels of 10 years ago, I would love to have gotten in the ring with so many of the guys that are competing today. A.J. Styles and Daniel Bryan would be good and then there’s the guys in NXT too. Someone like a Johnny Gargano would be fantastic. But for a one-off match now, I’d need it to be a tag team match where Hunter and I can just do a few crotch chops and have some fun.
Money in the Bank right now is an 11-match show. There’s always the chance to also add a cruiserweight title match next week. Besides the two briefcase matches, it’s Styles vs. Nakamura last man standing, Jax vs. Rousey Raw women’s title, Rollins vs. Elias for the IC title, Carmella vs. Asuka for the Smackdown women’s title, Reigns vs. Mahal, Zayn vs. Lashley, Bryan vs. Cass, Matt Hardy & Wyatt vs. Dallas &Axel for the Raw tag titles (putting brother vs. brother which is never acknowledged) and Harper & Rowan vs. Anderson & Gallows for the Smackdown tag titles. Chicago is maybe the best U.S. market for crowd reactions but it feels like a lot of matches that may not get over big all on the same show. The men’s briefcase match is always good. The women’s one has question marks. Jax vs. Rousey certainly has question marks, a does Carmella vs. Asuka. Reigns, Zayn, Bryan and Rollins should be in great PPV matches but in each case, the opponent is questionable, not so much for a good match, but for a great match
After KeyBanc Capital followed BITG in upgrading the long-term value of WWE stock, the sock closed on 6/5 at $61.50 per share and left the company with a market value of $4.745 billion. Analyst Evan Wingren of KeyBanc said that he targets the stock value at $71 per share, up from his previous target of $49, based on what he called “press reporters that look to be reputable” regarding the value of the new U.S. television deals
John Cena and Nikki Bella are said to be back together. The gossip magazines reported it this week, although Nikki denied the early reports and Cena said that the two of them are just friends in media questions. But Cena, while doing a TMZ interview said that he now wanted to have children. Other gossip magazines have concluded that the entire thing from start-to-finish was staged. Clearly the January thing was and at least some of what happened after the public story broke of the May wedding canceled was. It was clearly designed to boost ratings for the show, the early breakup in particular that was filmed for television in January. While the first two weeks of the show did the lowest ratings for either that show or Total Divas to date, week three on 6/3 saw a big increase. Cena said that before he was 100 percent about wrestling treating it as his full-time thing with no time but now that he’s gotten away from wrestling 24/7 he’s discovered there is life outside of wrestling. It’s funny that nobody buys wrestling storylines, but reality show storylines, which aren’t all that different but are kept reality based, are being covered as reality in genuine mainstream publications. It’s also notable that people who know nothing about wrestling or have any interest in the product in the general public are aware of who the two are and this story. Even my mom who is 89 years old and in an assisted living center and never followed wrestling past the early TV days with Verne Gagne and Lou Thesz, asked me last week about Cena and his relationship
For those wondering, Bryan’s contract will expire on 9/1 and at this point he hasn’t signed a new deal
WWE is now starting a marketing campaign that they should be up for an Emmy Award. WWE invited some members of the Los Angeles media among others to an event on 6/6 in North Hollywood called “For Your Consideration,” about WWE pushing they deserve an Emmy. Announced at the event are HHH, Stephanie McMahon, The Bella Twins, Rousey, Reigns, New Day, Charlotte and Strowman. What’s notable is that the first five are the ones being pushed and not the last five, meaning in their marketing now to the mainstream they believe the Bella Twins because of the reality shows, HHH & Stephanie and of course Rousey are the key stars and not Reigns, who had been the guy they were for years looking to build around. It will be a red carpet event and then the WWE will be airing the three-plus hour Raw 25 show, an episode of Mixed Match Challenge and the WWE 24: Empowered (a documentary about WWE’s rise of women’s wrestling built around the first Royal Rumble). Interesting that they think Raw 25 was a show they want to showcase when it was generally poorly received, particularly live. Forbes was given the story and noted that it showed they were trying to get a nomination for a documentary or specialty programming as opposed to a nomination for Raw or Smackdown as a series
Keith Lee, former Australian rugby league star Daniel Vidot, gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr. (who is the highest caliber gymnast ever in a U.S. promotion), and former English Rugby League player Luke Menzies (who has worked U.K. indies and was trained by Marty Jones) join Io Shirai and Deonna Purrazzo as far as those expected to start in July barring any last minute medical issues
Besides Jacob Kasper, the Duke wrestler who placed fourth at the NCAA tournament in March, also scheduled for the next tryout camp is Dorin Dickerson, 30, a 6-foot-2, 226 pound tight end who played with the Houston Texans in 2010, the Buffalo Bills in 2012 and the Detroit Lions in 2013 as well as was in camp for several other teams. He was the Pennsylvania high school player of the year in 2005 where, as a running back, he had 182 carries for 1,429 yards and scored 36 touchdowns. He was one of the most recruited players out of the state and went to Pitt and was named on several All-American teams as a tight end during his senior year
The 7/7 show in Madison Square Garden added Undertaker wrestling on the show, pushing it as his first match in MSG in eight years. Currently the card has changed with the main event being Rollins vs. Balor vs. Elias for the IC title and Jax vs. Rousey for the women’s title. It was a late add and had nothing to do with ticket sales for the show, which were ahead of the usual pace and may even sell out which would be the first MSG sellout since the show Lesnar did. It’s also interesting that Reigns and Strowman are neither in one of the three big matches
Regarding the disappointing ticket sales for the 6/18 and 6/19 U.K. shows at Royal Albert Hall, I’m told there are two reasons for it. The main one is the ticket prices, as the cheapest tickets are 60 pounds ($80). The belief is that the WWE audience for the most part isn’t interested in these shows, as evidenced by the lack of reaction the U.K. exclusive wrestlers get when on a WWE house show (as opposed to the reaction they get on indie shows). The main audience is the audience that attends groups like Progress, Revolution Pro and ICW, and they are used to paying far less for tickets. But even worse, is the 6/18 show goes against England in the World Cup. That’s a monumental booking mistake, because that’s like booking a house show against the Super Bowl. Still, if that was the entire reason, and it is absolutely a huge reason for 6/18, that doesn’t explain 6/19. Michaels was added in the advertising for 6/18, although just as an appearance. People who had sixth row tickets this week got notified via e-mail they were being upgraded to the front row for 6/18 without having to pay front row prices
The decision was made not to air it live, so they can post-produce it and also put it out in a not so crowded period. Both shows will air on a one-week tape delay. The first night will air on 6/25 at 3 p.m. and the second night will air on 6/26 at 3 p.m. That is a Monday and a Tuesday afternoon, so it should end each day a few hours before Raw on those respective days. But it’s away from a weekend with a Takeover and a PPV plus Raw and Smackdown
A correction from last week in the note about John Cena voicing a character in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” it will be for the TV series, not a movie
On 6/10, the TBS rap battle show “Drop the Mic” will have a pro wrestling theme. One of the battles will be WWE women vs. GLOW women with The Bella Twins, Fox and Carmella against Kate Nash, Jackie Tohn, Britney Young and Sunita Mani . Another battle will be Jericho vs. Laila Ali
Jeff Hardy is currently working with a pinched never that has caused numbness in his fingers according to PW Torch
WWE has confirmed the Mae Young Classic dates as 8/8 and 8/9 in Orlando
Sal Siino, who was Vice President for Global Content Distribution and Business Development lost his job because of an insane wife. His wife was Twitter celebrity @AmyMek, real name Amy Meckelburg, who constantly attempts to drive hatred at Muslims. She’s also gotten endorsements for her work from President Trump. The Huffington Post did an expose of who she was. Siino, who has a Harvard MBA, hooked up with Meckelburg back in the 90s and was hired by WWE in February 2017. Meckelburg claimed to her former best friend that the WWE knew all about her and told her husband to keep his marriage quiet. When WWE was asked about this, they claimed, “This is the first time we’re hearing stories about Amy Meckelburg.” While his wife was running an organization called Resistance Against Islamic Radicals, whose mission was to stop Jihadi infiltration on American communities, Siino was negotiating deals in the Middle East. She continued to tweet hatred of those in the Middle East, and on 5/25, when the Huffington Post asked if they knew about Meckelburg when they hired Siino, a WWF spokesperson wrote back, “No. Now that it has come to our attention, Sal Siino is no longer an employee.” Even so, after he was let go, she continued to tweet. She then posted a long thread on Twitter attacking reporter Luke O’Brien, claiming it was his fault the WWE fired her husband
Lio Rush (Lionel Green), who just started in August, is already being brought to 205 Live as a heel. He’s playing a rich playboy type. The first vignette had nothing with Babatunde Aiyegbusi, who has been his second at NXT house shows. The idea of him coming to NXT quickly was talked about from day one of his arrival, even after he struck a nerve with some of the wrestlers for some ill-timed tweets on Tenille Dashwood when she was fired. He’s actually a natural babyface because of his quickness but that doesn’t mean some day he can’t turn
For TV next week, Raw will be on 6/11 in Little Rock with both the Raw men and women in MITB in four-ways, so Banks vs. Natalya vs. Bliss vs. Moon and Roode vs. Strowman vs. Owens vs. Balor, plus a face-to-face confrontation in-ring with Jax and Rousey. Smackdown and 205 Live are in Memphis with Sin Cara vs. Almas, some sort of a face-off with the four Smackdown women (Lynch, Charlotte, Naomi and Lana) in the MITB match, and for 205 Live, Gulak & Gallagher & Kendrick vs. Kalisto & Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado
With a lot less in the way of non-wrestling programming being released, the most-watched network shows this past week were: 1. NXT from 5/30; 2. Camp WWE Episode 5; 3. 205 Live from 5/29 (I think this show, which was the Alexander vs. Murphy show, was the highest finish the show has done); 4. Something Else to Wrestle With with Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard from 5/30; 5. This Week in WWE (a show that rarely even hits top 20); 6. Camp WWE Episode 4; 7. NXT from 5/23; 8. Table for 3 with Edge, Christian and Hardys; 9. Backlash 2018; 10. Something Else to Wrestle With from 5/23.
Notes from the 6/4 Raw tapings in Houston. A weak show overall. No good matches and three DQ finishes, on the same show. The big thing was Corbin becoming the constable on Raw, basically the heel counterpart to Angle, and God knows we need more heel authority figures. The deal is that he reports to Stephanie and undermines Angle. Lashley and Zayn had another terrible segment in their quest to win worst feud of the year. They drew 7,000 fans, which for Raw in a great wrestling market like Houston, is surprisingly low as Houston usually does well even for house shows. For Main Event, Jose pinned Kanellis in the first match and Gulak pinned Tozawa in the second match. The show opened with Elias out with his guitar. He got heat talking about how the Warriors beat the Rockets. That would not be the last reference to the NBA playoffs. Rollins came out and went to the ring. Elias was ready to use his guitar as a weapon so Rollins grabbed a chair. Rollins got into the ring and used a chair to knock the guitar out of Elias’s hands. Mahal then attacked Rollins from behind before he could use the chair. They were beating him down until Reigns made the save. Probably because of the set up, and he was saving Rollins, Reigns got probably the most cheers he has gotten in months. Reigns was cheered saving Rollins, but once Rollins recovered and Reigns was throwing punches on Mahal, there were some boos, but still more cheers. Angle came out and then announced a tag match. Mahal & Elias beat Reigns & Rollins in 17:34. Good action, at least from the face side. The heels weren’t bad or anything but Rollins was really the star of the match and Reigns looked good. Rollins did a couple of dives. In commentary, they were heavily pushing the idea that Reigns deserves a title shot because of what happened at the Greatest Royal Rumble. Currently, that is the idea for SummerSlam, but as noted last week, at least as of a few days ago, it was not 100 percent confirmed, but was the working idea that Lesnar returns for SummerSlam and Reigns as of right now is the opponent. Vince can change his mind at any time and there’s a lot of ways this can go. You have to remember that booking is very different now in that booking makes no difference to business and who is the champion doesn’t either, so it’s not about any traditional thing other than Vince’s whim and he changes his mind all the time. Strowman has faded a little of late and Rollins is the hottest he’s been, but the commentary made it very clear Reigns is the next big match. It should also be noted that 6/30 is the deadline for Lesnar to join the USADA testing pool or he’ll be ineligible to fight on the 12/30 UFC show in Las Vegas. If he does join the testing pool, it would make sense that he’d be at the 7/7 UFC show since his fight would be against the winner of the Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic fight that takes place that night. Rollins hit a tope on Mahal. Sunil Singh grabbed a chair but Rollins got it from him. The chair ended up in the ring and Elias DDT’d Rollins on the chair and then hit the drift away for the pin. If you’re wondering about why no DQ call since the DDT on the chair was right in front of the ref, it’s partial creative license, but also the secret WWE rules are that if someone introduces a foreign object to the ring, which Rollins did since he brought the chair in, and a guy does a legal move, which the DDT was, and it hits the chair the guy left on the floor, than it’s not a DQ. Nobody said that and it is kind of stupid in the sense a DDT on a chair in front of the ref should be a DQ or at worst a no contest (it wouldn’t be a DQ in New Japan either but WWE protects ref credibility better than NJPW, which is funny since NJPW has more of a real sports presentation). The finish made sense because you’ve got the challenger for the IC title pinning the champion in a tag match. They pushed Bruce Prichard’s Network show and he was shown in the front row, since they were in Houston, where he lives. Hawkins was in the ring. He said that he’s lost 199 matches in a row, and he’s ending the streak tonight. He also said that if he breaks the streak, everyone in the crowd will get a free taco. He had a table set up with Mexican food, but hardly enough to feed the crowd. This was a spoof on Taco Bell doing a promotion during the NBA playoffs that if a team wins a game on the road, Taco Bell will give away tacos at certain locations the next day. The final NBA reference is that Hawkins’ opponent was billed as James Harden from Houston, a small white guy. James Harden is the name of the Houston Rockets star guard who led the NBA in scoring this past season. The crowd reaction to the name wasn’t nearly what you’d think. It was like they were trying to get a rise out of the crowd and it didn’t work at all. James Harden was played by Will Lockhart, a student of Booker T’s local wrestling school. Hawkins had the match won when a smiling Corbin came to the ring and gave Harden the End of Days, and the ref DQ’d Hawkins for outside interference at 1:44. Corbin started laughing. It was easy heat because the crowd was mad about not getting tacos. They in fact, chanted “We want tacos” when the match started. After the match, Corbin threw Hawkins’ face into all the tacos on a table at ringside and turned the food table over on him. Usually that’s a heel thing but Hawkins is a comedy heel but the idea of a fake Harden in Houston sounds like a heel as well. I think it’s best not to worry about such things because we’re in the “It doesn’t matter” era. It doesn’t matter to the people putting the show together. It really doesn’t matter if the fans hate it, because almost all the money coming in is guaranteed. Angle was backstage texting when Corbin showed up laughing. He complained to Stephanie that he wasn’t getting fair opportunities on Raw, and said Stephanie appointed him as the new Constable on Raw. Basically his job is to report to Stephanie whenever Angle screws up, so we’ve got a heel authority person to feud with Angle. Jax pinned Natalya in a non-title match in 7:25. Rousey was on commentary. This was just bad. Jax was no selling and the match just didn’t really click. Rousey on commentary came across like she didn’t want to be there. What was weird is that there was a line the announcers said that Jax said Rousey, because this was her first singles match, was ripe for the picking. Rousey said that only her husband could say that. Then, after a commercial break, they brought the line up, and once again, Rousey said that’s what her husband tells her. Usually when guys are out there doing commentary, while some of the stuff and direction is talked about ahead of time, it’s not scripted like a promo, so it’s often on the talent to sink or swim. Here, because it was Rousey, my impression is everything was scripted, and their scripting of conversational speak often comes across awkward. We don’t know if Rousey herself was scripted, but the announcers were scripted on every question to ask, so one would figure if what they asked was scripted, that her responses were as well. Natalya’s knee went out and Jax picked her up for the Samoan drop for the pin. Jax seemed like the heel, but obviously after being the clear heel last week and the face on all the house shows, it felt like they didn’t want her as a heel or a bully, probably due to all the anti-bullying stuff she’s been doing. So she kept acting concerned for Natalya. Rousey came out and told her to leave. She seemed concerned about Natalya’s knee and didn’t want to leave. If anything, Rousey came off as the heel here, which wasn’t the idea either. You were left with the impression that Jax would pretend to leave, and then jump Rousey, but she didn’t do that at all, although there are a few weeks left before the match. Roode did an interview talking about winning MITB. When asked about Strowman, he put Strowman over and said he’s been wrestling for almost 20 years and has never seen anyone like Strowman. He said his goal was just to survive. Strowman pinned Roode in 4:43. This wasn’t much. Crowd was into Strowman. Roode set up a ladder bridge from the barricade to the apron. They ended up outside and Roode ran away. He ran under the ladder. Somehow the idea is that this ladder bridge protected him and he was on the other side of the ladder bridge laughing. Like Strowman couldn’t just move it or climb under. Strowman instead punched the gimmicked ladder which broke and then he snatched Roode, threw him in the ring and powerslammed him for the pin. Owens did an interview for his main event with Balor. Natalya was backstage with ice on her knee. Jax showed up all concerned. Rousey asked her to leave. Jax said that she was just as good a friend of Natalya’s as Rousey was. Natalya was mad at both of them and limped off on crutches. So they were there together. You once again figured there would be words or fighting, but the scene just ended. Matt Hardy & Wyatt did an interview where Matt asked Renee Young if she was woken. She said that she was. Wyatt seemed happy about that. Next was the tag team Battle Royal for a title shot, won by The B Team of Axel & Dallas in 9:23. If one person was eliminated, their partner had to leave. Breeze surprisingly dropkicked Ziggler out early. McIntyre, being eliminated, killed everyone after and threw out Slater, but it didn’t count. McIntyre & Ziggler did the combo Claymore kick and zig zag on Dallas. After a commercial, O’Neil & Crews, Ascension and Fandango & Breeze were all eliminated. This left The Revival, The B Team and Slater & Rhyno. Wilder was next eliminated. Slater had Dallas in the air, but in doing so, he knocked Rhyno over the top costing he and Rhyno the match. Axel & Dallas threw Slater over the top after it was over just for fun. Lashley came out and called out Zayn. Zayn came out and made fun of Lashley with the idea Lashley gives inspirational messages on social media but it’s really a cash grab to get people to join his fan club. Lashley made a joke about how many burner accounts he has. That’s yet another NBA reference to Bryan Colangelo, the President of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. Zayn called him “Bobby, if that’s your real first name” (his real first name is Franklin) and accused Lashley of making up having sisters and making up serving in the army. The idea is Lashley was having fun with Zayn being entertaining to a point, but when he accused him of making up his military service, Lashley was no longer smiling. He said that maybe Lashley never really served his country and it was just another one of Lashley’s lies. Fans were chanting “USA.” These segments suck, and I think Zayn is actually doing a great job with them. I think they got off on such a bad foot the first week, and even worse the second, that it just feels like worst feud of the year no matter what they do. Mahal did an interview and said Reigns was a jealous bitter man. He said Reigns thinks there’s a conspiracy against him when he’s been given more opportunities than anyone. Reigns was on a split screen and they argued. Reigns was tired of arguing and left, looking for Mahal. He found him. Mahal threw Singh at Reigns, but Reigns still got the better of the fight and threw Mahal into the arena garage door before the producers separated them. Riott & Logan & Morgan beat Bliss & Banks & Moon via DQ in 11:17. It was never explained why Bliss was teaming with Banks and Moon. Bliss then did a clearly fake knee injury spot and walked off on her teammates, making it 2-on-3. Then, at the end, Bayley came out and tagged in and immediately hit a belly-to-belly on Logan for the pin. Why Bayley is helping Banks when they split actually does make sense in a weird way. The whole storyline seems to be the usual TV/movie storyline where the audience likes two people, who can be lovers or friends (really Kenny Omega & Young Bucks are doing the exact same thing) but things keep the best friends or loves from getting back together. That said, they’ve been doing this since January, had a couple of full-fledged splits, no big matches and it feels like a tag team that split and should be feuding but aren’t feuding at all. Corbin was backstage mad at Angle for allowing that to happen. Angle said it was none of his business but Corbin said that nowhere in the rule book does it say that someone can just insert themselves into a match they aren’t in. Even though it happens all the time. Corbin said Angle has to tell Banks & Bayley & Moon that the win doesn’t count of he’s calling Stephanie. Backstage, Bayley & Banks & Moon are all celebrating their win. Moon wanted to go out and told Bayley and Banks to hug and make up. They were about to hug when Angle came out and said that Bayley wasn’t in the match, so he has to reverse the decision and rule it as a DQ win for The Riott Squad. This is after the Reigns-Lesnar silliness where Reigns won the match based on the rules but the referee’s call was final even though the referee said he botched the call. Banks then got mad because Bayley cost her the match. It would be one thing if this was a match with a title shot at stake, but in a world where wins and losses are forgotten about and rarely count, the idea that Banks would get mad at Bayley for helping her out after they were about to hug, was a tough storyline to buy. Corbin was backstage yelling at ref John Cone for blowing the call. Either that or he was mad that Cone didn’t get Punk out of the Rumble for 39 minutes. Show came out. He’s lost a ton of weight and looks great. He’s still a ways from returning after his second hip surgery due to his infection. He was with a bunch of Special Olympic athletes from Texas and promoting them. Balor beat Owens via DQ in the main event in 18:31. The match was slower than you’d think. But it was still good. Balor did a running flip dive and a Woo dropkick. He went to the top rope but Owens fell on the ropes and Balor crotched himself. Owens then kept beating on Balor and refused to break on five for the DQ. After two previous DQ finishes on the same show, this was such a lame main event ending. Owens then gave Balor a frog splash after the match. Owens then climbed up a ladder to do another frog splash, but now we find out that Owens has a fear of heights. He climbed up near the top, and got scared. He climbed down and by this point Balor recovered and hit another Woo dropkick. Balor then went to the last step on the ladder and jumped off with a coup de grace on Owens. Balor then climbed up the ladder and unhooked a briefcase to end the show. After the show, they did a dark match with Reigns & Rollins & Lashley beating Mahal & Zayn & Elias with the faces going over clean. Given that four of the six already worked earlier in a tag match, they did this probably to give the fans something after doing three DQ finishes during television and having them leave with a clean happy ending with the top faces in the ring
Notes from the 6/5 Smackdown tapings in Corpus Christi. The show drew 3,000 fans, which is a bad number, especially since Corpus is an historically storing market. Smackdown opened with Carmella out. She showed clips of Asuka losing to Charlotte at WrestleMania and then getting beaten up since moving to Smackdown. She said she had no fear of Asuka and put over her Mella is Money catch phrase. She said the Age of Asuka is over and now everybody is ready for Asuka. She asked fans to raise their hand if they were ready for Asuka. Lots of people did. Asuka came out. Rose & Deville also came out. Rose said she was a second away from beating Asuka last week and would beat her in a rematch. Deville wanted her as well. Paige came out and asked Asuka which one she wanted, and she said both. So Paige made a handicap match. Asuka beat Rose & Deville in 11:28 with the Asuka lock. There were some rough spots in the match. Asuka looked good though. Rose went to attack her after the match but Asuka hit a spinning backfist on Rose. Carmella then hit Asuka from behind with a belt shot and kicked her in the face. Miz was backstage. He’s now wearing a headband and backstage acts like he’s out of the Karate Kid movie. A guy with a bunch of pancakes for the New Day showed up. The New Day showed up as well. They had pieces of paper in a hat and asked Miz to pick out which member of the team would be in MITB. Then they said he had to be blindfolded so they wrapped his headband over his eyes. Miz supposedly couldn’t see, although it was clear he could, and they switched hats. The new hat Miz put his hands in was filled with pancake batter. Miz sold it well and then wiped his hands on the other guys’ shirt. Anderson pinned Harper in 2:06. Harper destroyed him the entire match, but missed a kick and Anderson got a schoolboy. Anderson then rolled out of the ring to safety. Jimmy Uso & Naomi did an interview before their mixed tag match. Jimmy Uso & Naomi beat English & Lana in 10:29. English sang Lana’s song before the match which helped get her over. English is really an unsung star on this brand because his singing got Rusev over big and Lana was going nowhere fast and he’s gotten her over as well. This was mostly the women in. They had their rough spots but Lana looked easily the best I’ve ever seen of her as far as wrestling. She used to look like she didn’t even belong in the ring, and now she’s more the level of a beginner who has some of the basics down. Jimmy pinned English after a superkick to the throat. They were teasing an injury with the idea that English’s vocal cords were hurt and maybe he won’t be able to sing. The contract signing with Styles and Nakamura was done backstage. Paige promised that there would be a winner in this match. Styles signed right away. Nakamura pulled out a pen and said it was out of ink. Nakamura asked Styles if he could borrow his pen, but he said the pen was broken and threw it away. Styles slapped him in the face and the agents, Dean Malenko and Adam Pearce, pulled Styles away all mad. Nakamura did great facial expressions and then pulled out his own pen and signed it with a smile. The idea is he’s continually getting to Styles with his mind games. Lynch beat Charlotte in 8:26, when she reversed a figure four into the disarmer. There were rough spots here but the last few minute were very good. Charlotte did a plancha and also went for a moonsault, but Lynch got her knees up, right before the finish. The story was that these were two best friends doing a friendly match. They hugged when it was over. Joe did a promo. This time he had a good script and he’s able to make promos work with the worse scripts imaginable, so this came off well. Renee Young interviewed Cass. He actually did a hell of a heel promo himself. He talked about how he was a big man, 7 feet tall, and how he was in New Orleans for WrestleMania four years ago when Bryan won the title and he looked at Bryan and thought it was a joke. He got real heat making fun of Bryan as champion since the crowd relates to well to Bryan. He said Bryan’s title win was a fluke, his win at Backlash was a fluke and that Bryan has never been in the ring with someone as big as him (we’re supposed to forget about Bryan’s matches with guys like Show and Henry and Kane), nor anyone as educated as him nor any star of his magnitude. Cass’ promo was good but the problem is once the bell rings, fans today see him as just a guy who is tall, and that means nothing today. He said a pathetic small man like Bryan could never survive in a big man’s world. Bryan did a comeback promo, only it was on the Internet, that badly should have been on this show. It wasn’t scripted and it was one of the best WWE promos in a long time. Sin Cara said he’s known Almas since Almas was 14, and that he and Almas were like brothers. I guess Mexicans are like Samoans in wrestling where they are all related. Vega showed up and insulted Sin Cara and said Almas was going nowhere with friends like him. This ended with Almas attacking Sin Cara from behind and throwing him into the set, and they announced a match for next week. New Day beat Miz & Rusev & Joe in 13:17. This was a ***½ match. Woods did a flip dive on Rusev. E speared Miz off the apron. Miz got a tray of pancakes and was to accidentally throw them in Rusev & Joe’s face when the New Day would move. They actually missed Joe. Joe and Rusev walked out on Miz and E pinned Miz after the Midnight Hour. 205 Live opened up with a Maverick promo. He is great in this role. He pushed Murphy vs. Ali for the top contender spot as the main event. Lince Dorado pinned Brian Kendrick in 7:35 with the Lethal injection. Drew Gulak was out with Kendrick while Kalisto and Gran Metalik were at ringside with Dorado. Kalisto and Metalik were constantly using noisemakers, so obviously that’s an idea for gimmick sales. Gulak attacked Kalisto and Dorado after the match and kept calling Dorado “Dorito.” He did that in commentary as well. They said that Jack Gallagher would have been out as well but he wasn’t there as he had a family situation he had to take care of. Ali talked about how impressed he was with Alexander’s performance last night in beating Murphy. They put over how great of a match it was. He said that Murphy was stronger than he was but Murphy didn’t have his heart. TJP beat Brian Keith in 2:09. TJP used one of Dwayne Johnson’s spots that others did before him of doing commentary while wrestling. He called himself the cruisergreat, and said that Maverick isn’t giving him chances and was open soon to going to work for Paige, Angle or Regal and said he was the best technical wrestler in the game. He won by submission with the trailer hitch, which is like a cloverleaf. Lio Rush did a promo about his impending arrival. Murphy & Nese did a promo together so they are pushing them in a group. Ali beat Murphy in 12:11 via DQ. The match had no heat early but was well-wrestled. Ali used the reverse huracanrana and they showed slow-mo’s of Murphy landing almost on the top of his head. That didn’t look good at all, especially when slowed down. There were lots of near falls and about 90 seconds before the finish, the crowd started getting into it. The big pop was for Ali doing what looked to be a crossbody off the middle rope to the floor, but instead, Ali turned it into a swinging DDT on the floor. He threw Murphy into the ring to beat him and went to the top rope. Hideo Itami knocked Ali off the top rope for the DQ. Itami also laid out Murphy with a running dropkick, so it looks like a three-way program with Murphy, Ali and Itami for the next title shot. The post-show dark match saw Jeff Hardy & Bryan beat Miz & Cass
