Wrestling Observer Newsletter
PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 March 2, 2020
Due to the coronavirus, New Japan Pro Wrestling has followed the wishes of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on 2/26 who asked all sports leagues and cultural events to postpone activities for the next two weeks to control spreading of the disease.
A number of sports and entertainment events such as major concerts were immediately canceled, including the Japanese Major League announcing 72 preseason games be played without spectators including Yomiuri Giants games at the Tokyo Dome. Japanese Rugby Union canceled 16 games. The Japanese Pro Volleyball League, Pro Basketball league, Pro Tennis company and Figure Skating Championships as well as J-League Soccer have all canceled games and competitions over the next few weeks. Concerts with the biggest touring musical acts like Exile, AKB48 and Perfume were all canceled. Large movie theaters have also shut down for the time being.
The previous day, the Japanese Boxing Commission announced that no pro boxing events could be held in the country through the month of March due to the coronavirus.
Public schools are also being shut down for about one month.
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced it would be canceling all shows through 3/14, a schedule that includes the 3/3 anniversary show and the first rounds of the New Japan Cup.
The company announced shows on 3/1 in Mito, 3/2 in Fukushima, 3/3 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, 3/4 at Korakuen Hall, 3/7 at the Aiichi Gym in Nagoya, 3/8 in Hyogo, 3/9 in Kochi, 3/10 in Okayama, 3/12 and 3/13 at Korakuen Hall and 3/14 in Chiba are canceled.
New Japan is at this point scheduled to return to touring on 3/16 in Takaoka at the Techno Dome, but at this point anything in at least the short-term future has to be considered iffy. Plus, the lineups for 3/16 to 3/21, since it was part of a single-elimination tournament, will have to be changed given the plans for those shows related to matches that would be held on the canceled events.
New Japan announced the cancellations almost immediately after Abe had made the recommendations, a decision made as a reaction. New Japan made the public statement immediately, offering refunds on tickets, before it even discussed internally what this means for the New Japan Cup. The statement was made before they had meetings on how to handle the situation, as they felt they had no choice either way but to cancel those events.
Stardom, which announced cancellations last week of a number of shows, aside from a 3/8 event that will be held at Korakuen Hall with a loaded lineup and no spectators, is scheduled to return to action on 3/20 in Gunma.
The Stardom 3/8 show, called “No People Gate,” was scheduled to be its first live international broadcast, and will go on as scheduled streaming on YouTube at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on 3/7.
DDT, Tokyo Joshi Pro and Genbare Pro, who are all under the CyberAgent umbrella, have also announced no shows before the public through at least 3/7. DDT will be doing empty arena events on 2/28, 3/1, 3/3 and 3/7, and Tokyo Joshi Pro will be doing an empty arena show on 3/1.
Keiji Muto announced that his Wrestling Masters show on 2/28 at Korakuen Hall will take place, but if fans don’t want to attend, they can get refunds.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has canceled a 2/29 fan autograph event in Tokyo as well as the 3/8 show at the Yokohama Bunka Gym, one of the company’s biggest events of the year.
The canceled card was to have Shiro Koshinaka & Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Mohammed Yone & Tadasuke & Hitoshi Kumano, Dragon Bane vs. El Hijo de Canis Lupus, Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Michael Elgin, Kazushi Sakuraba & Hideki Suzuki & Hajime Ohara & Nosawa & Kinya Okada vs. Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura & Nioh & Haoh in an elimination match, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Shuhei Taniguchi & Junta Miyawaki vs. Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada, Great Muta & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Masaaki Mochizuki of Dragon Gate & 90s wrestler AKIRA, Yoshinari Ogawa defending the jr. title against Daisuke Harada, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge defending the jr. tag titles against Hayata & Yo-Hey, Takashi Sugiura defending the National title against Minoru Tanaka and Go Shiozaki vs. Kazuyuki Fujita for the GHC title.
The situation has become so serious that, even though it is not scheduled until the summer, there is very major concern about the 2020 Olympics that are scheduled to be based in Tokyo.
At this point the problem isn’t so much that maybe sports will have to shut down for a few weeks, or even a month, but that it may be quite a bit longer, which would be crippling to everyone involved in the sports economy in the country.
All Japan, Dragon Gate and Big Japan have not canceled shows. Hisashi Shinma said that the 3/19 Real Japan Pro Wrestling show at Korakuen Hall will go on as scheduled and that he believes the reaction to the coronavirus is overblown. But it is believed more shows will be canceled.
Every day life in Japan is pretty normal. People are not staying home and they are shopping and taking the trains as normal. But far more people are walking around with masks.
The problem is canceling these events is a major economic issue for every company, since, other than New Japan, the profit margins are very small if they exist. It will make a significant difference in annual profits and losses with a few weeks canceled, and be far worse if this lingers on.
All Bushiroad employees are working from home and teleconferencing rather than working out of the office.
Nothing has been said regarding the New Japan Cup tournament, which was to begin on 3/4, or rescheduling the Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiromu Takahashi match that was to headline the 3/3 show.
New Japan Pro Wrestling had just announced one day earlier its “other” major tournament lineup, the single elimination New Japan Cup.
The stakes for the New Japan Cup and G-1 Climax are essentially the same, the winner getting an IWGP title match. Technically in the New Japan Cup the winner can challenge for any title, but it always ends up as the IWGP title. But the dynamics and importance is very different.
It’s single elimination, meaning 31 matches instead of 91 matches, and the title shot is at the big spring show, in this case the 3/31 Sakura Genesis show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, rather than at the Tokyo Dome.
The G-1 is symbolic in the sense it’s a journey where finals are memorable and a lot of fans without thinking can vividly remember the finals. The New Japan Cup has had some great stories over the years, most notably in 2018 when Zack Sabre Jr. submitted Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi, Sanada and Hiroshi Tanahashi in a row to become an instant superstar in one classic match after another. This set up a loss to Kazuchika Okada in the championship match.
It’s not always as pleasant to remember, as the year before, Katsuyori Shibata went through Minoru Suzuki, Juice Robinson, Tomohiro Ishii and Bad Luck Fale before also losing to Okada in a classic match, but it was also the last match of his career and a match he came perilously close to dying in, needing emergency brain surgery to survive.
Another thing the same is the success rate. The New Japan Cup started in 2005 with Hiroshi Tanahashi winning, but that was just a tournament without the automatic title shot.
But over the next 14 years, four winners followed it up by taking the IWGP title and another chose the IC title and won it. In 2007, Yuji Nagata won the title from Tanahashi. In 2013, Okada won the title from Tanahashi. In 2014, Shinsuke Nakamura chose the IC title and not the IWGP title, and won it from Tanahashi. In 2016, Naito won the title from Okada and last year, Okada won the title from Jay White.
Conversely, since 2012, when the G-1 winner was to get the Tokyo Dome title match (it happened before that but it was never officially part of the G-1 stips until 2012), only once has the G-1 winner captured the title, which was 2018 winner Tanahashi beating Kenny Omega. And the reality is that wasn’t supposed to happen either, but Omega asked to lose the title since he was considering leaving.
The 32-man tournament this year was to have the winner face Naito for both the IWGP and IC titles in the main event at the 3/31 Sakura Genesis show at Tokyo Sumo Hall. What that means to that show is unclear if there is no tournament.
If they can go back to running on 3/16, they can save the tournament as is, by condensing things. They can do first round singles matches on 3/16 and 3/17. They can do the second round on 3/18, and third round on 3/20, and then do the semifinals and finals on 3/21. It’ll be tougher on talent due to lack of recovery time and the two finalists having to do five matches in either five or six days. A worst case scenario, even if they can’t go back until 3/20, would be to cut the tournament to 16 guys, do a first round on 3/20 and a final eight, like a K-1 Grand Prix, on 3/21.
What’s notable is that two of the other champions, Never champion Shingo Takagi and British champion Will Ospreay were in the tournament. Both were among the favorites, but one was to be eliminated in the first round since they were facing each other. U.S. champion Jon Moxley and jr. champion Hiromu Takahashi are not in the tournament. With Moxley, he’s now mostly a major show wrestler because of his AEW commitments and Takahashi is staying in the junior heavyweight division. Ospreay this past week did a major tease of something with Naito that was strong enough to make you think that match is coming over the next few months somewhere, but that could be for the as of yet unannounced show at the Copper Box in London after the completion of the G-1 tournament. And if that’s the case, if Naito remains champion, that would indicate an Ospreay win over Naito in G-1.
The tournament had some intriguing brackets, as well as surprises with people like Alex Coughlin, Mikey Nicholls and Karl Fredericks involved, although Nicholls has been in it, but he hasn’t been around much of late.
Another key note is that Lance Archer was not scheduled for the tournament, and was then announced as having signed with AEW.
As far as the original plans, the top half of the left bracket had Togi Makabe vs. Jeff Cobb, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toa Henare, Toru Yano vs. Chase Owens and Colt Cabana vs. Bad Luck Fale.
The bottom half of the bracket, had Okada vs. White in the highest profile first round match, plus Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki, Juice Robinson vs. Coughlin and David Finlay vs. Tanga Loa.
On the right side top, the first round had Tanahashi vs. Taichi, Ibushi vs. Sabre Jr., Nicholls vs. Sanada and Ospreay vs. Takagi, which was the hardcore biggest match of round one.
The bottom half of the right side had Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yoshi-Hashi, KENTA vs. Fredericks, Satoshi Kojima vs. Evil and Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi.
If you look at the tournament, the favorites would have been Okada, White, Ibushi, Sabre, Ospreay, Takagi, KENTA, Sanada and Evil, and aside from Ishii or Tanahashi, anyone else would be a major surprise. KENTA just had his title shot at Naito so his odds are lower. I would think the Okada rematch would take place at a bigger show like Dominion or Madison Square Garden. Sabre seems to be groomed for Moxley’s U.S. title on 3/31, so he’s unlikely as well.
The other major show of the week canceled was the 48th anniversary card on 3/3 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, which sold out well in advance (4,000 seats) for a non-title match with Naito vs. Hiromu Takahashi with the IWGP and IC champion facing the junior heavyweight champion.
At the 2003 Survivor Series, the show ended with Brock Lesnar holding one WWE world title and Bill Goldberg held the other.
I suppose at the time, it was conceivable to think that in 2020, a PPV would end with Lesnar holding a world title. Goldberg? Not a chance.
And until about a week ago, there really wasn’t much of a chance.
As mentioned last week, here is the reality of the situation. WrestleMania is coming and to the average person, what match means more as the main event, Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal title, or Goldberg vs. Reigns? Granted, it doesn’t mean who goes last, but in the plans on paper as of the Raw taping on 2/17, Wyatt vs. Reigns for the title was the main event.
But the answer to the question, as sad as this sounds, is that Goldberg vs. Reigns garners far more interest, even in 2020. Of course the mentality to go with stars of the past and not make stars of the present is the case history of one of the main things that killed WCW. But that’s for the rest of the year. WrestleMania is where you go with the matches people most want to see. So there it was.
While it was reality, it also meant Vince McMahon had to come to a sad but telling admission. In Wyatt’s Fiend character, he had not, perhaps since the introduction of Kane in 1997, and perhaps even before that, allowed a heel character to look so dominant. Wyatt’s Fiend character was creative and fresh. He had become the top merchandise seller. He got up from everyone’s big moves and destroyed top babyfaces. The Fiend was cool, like the Undertaker, but he was destroying babyfaces. Seth Rollins had to turn heel because nobody wants a top babyface who cowers from the heel. The Miz had to turn heel because nobody wants a babyface whose family is threatened, vows revenge, and gets destroyed like he was made of silly putty. Daniel Bryan didn’t turn heel, but he is now setting up a program with Drew Gulak while it’s WrestleMania season, and this was after somehow being the only one who could figure out how to make a match with The Fiend work. Luckily for Braun Strowman, who he destroyed in an angle, they moved him away from The Fiend before he reached the point of no return as a face.
Since day one of Smackdown on FOX, the main storyline was The Fiend destroys everyone, no exceptions, and Roman Reigns is kept away from him in a long feud with King Corbin. This would lead to their first meeting at WrestleMania, the monster heel, even if he is cheered, against the badass face. It’s the formula that almost always works.
Except the change in the card shows in Vince McMahon’s eyes, it didn’t. It’s quite an admission, that a WCW creation of 1998, now, 22 years later, can walk off the couch and be a bigger star than the guy who has been pushed as untouchable weekly on television. But that admission is true. For an endless number of reasons, WWE has trouble making stars, even when they have them. Even with the bigger audience and platform, the WWE method of making stars can’t match 22 year old nostalgia. It’s not the first time. WCW couldn’t make stars after 1999 who could get over like Hulk Hogan, Sting, or Ric Flair, who were all past their primes. But yet, those same people who couldn’t be stars, ended up doing well years later. Today, people who weren’t seen as stars in WWE who could carry the brand, Cody, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley, are carrying the rival brand and getting reactions far bigger than anyone in WWE. One of the great lessons of the value of WWE television was many years ago from Jericho. During one of his comebacks, he had the idea that he wanted to work a house show schedule, but refused to work any television. At almost every house show, the guy with no television was over more than the main eventers on televison weekly. Granted, the same could be said for Bruno Sammartino after 1977 and until the end of his career, that he was more over at the arenas but was never on television, but, he was Bruno Sammartino, not Chris Jericho.
Indeed, the very idea of Goldberg was to be the reincarnation of Sammartino from late 1977 until he retired in late 1980. That’s why him being added to the list of babyfaces destroyed by The Fiend, which was absolutely the plan, seemed foolish.
Goldberg beat The Fiend, breaking the mandible claw twice and pinning him with a jackhammer that really wasn’t one, in 2:57 on a night in Saudi Arabia where the theme seemed to be current guys squashed by part-time legends in seconds, a largely heatless crowd, and lackluster matches.
Undertaker won the Tuwaig Mountain Trophy doing one match where he pinned A.J. Styles with one move in 20 seconds. Hopefully they have a great follow-up idea, because after this encounter, a fan would have less interest in a rematch at WrestleMania than a third Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight.
Lesnar retained the WWE title over Ricochet in 1:28 in a match where Ricochet got no offensive move in. Obviously there was no chance for Ricochet to win, but he could have lost and still have the match worked in a way that he could have benefitted from it. This was the opposite. He’s now fully established as a guy not worthy of investing in or paying attention to.
Why you had three matches like that on the same show is an unanswerable question. Undertaker-Styles killed interest in that match. Lesnar-Ricochet didn’t have to be like that. Goldberg-Wyatt shouldn’t have gone last and ended the show the way it did, but going any longer or different was a risk not worth taking. Even with Goldberg being the most popular wrestler on the show to an audience consisting of mostly children in Saudi Arabia who not only weren’t born in 1998 to see Goldberg’s big year, but weren’t even born in 2003 when WWE botched him in an attempt to remake the simple formula that worked.
Goldberg did nothing but four spears and the jackhammer. At 53, he looked amazing for his age to be sure physically, but there was a difference between this Goldberg and the guy who wrestled Dolph Ziggler months back and even more, the guy who came back against Lesnar a few years back. You can’t fight age, although he’s done a pretty decent job of it. Perhaps he was battling an injury, or wasn’t given enough lead time to get his body in cosmetic shape or this match. But whether it’s Hogan, Flair and Sting in 1999 or Bruiser, Crusher, Mad Dog, Baron, The Blackjacks and Verne coming out of retirement one too many times in 1985, this is a lesson in history that Vince McMahon evidently never learned.
And the irony is that McMahon’s M.O. was to give up on people at 40. Now it’s to give up on people at 28 and build back shows around guys in their 40s and 50s. There’s only one way this can end. The lone saving grace is that WWE is financially idiot-proof, which is a luxury Verne Gagne, Eric Bischoff and everyone else who only thought about today with the stars of yesterday and having no vision for tomorrow didn’t have.
A 16-match WrestleMania card was supposedly finalized more than a week back. Until it wasn’t.
Sometime after 2/18 or 2/19, with the first word breaking early on 2/21, Vince McMahon made the call to revamp and scrap most of the Smackdown side of the WrestleMania show. The key call was that Goldberg vs. Reigns was the direction, with Goldberg getting the title. Wyatt would be freed to face John Cena, likely with the idea Wyatt would win, eventually go to the Reigns program as planned, and he’d regain the mystique that he lost to a degree here, and only to a degree. The Saudi Arabia show aired on a Thursday afternoon in the U.S., so people seeing it was actually minuscule compared to most PPV and TV shows.
Perhaps because of Undertaker, Goldberg and Lesnar winning, actual interest was up. The show did 200,000 searches on Google, the fourth most for the day, a level that Saudi Arabia shows in the past have not done, and the normal level for most Sunday PPV shows.
After the changes, this is a skeleton Mania lineup:
*Goldberg vs. Reigns for the Universal title. In theory, Reigns gets his title shot winning the Elimination Chamber match on 3/8 in Philadelphia
*Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE title
*Cena vs. Wyatt
*Edge vs. Orton - Stipulations to be named later
*Undertaker vs. Styles - Still happening
*Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler for the Raw women’s title, in theory based on Baszler winning a Chamber match on 3/8
*Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair for the NXT women’s title
*Kabuki Warriors vs. Natalya & Beth Phoenix for the women’s tag team titles. It is likely the Phoenix return on Raw on 3/2 in Brooklyn to report on Edge’s condition leads to an angle that starts the build for this one. One would think this match can’t be announced until 3/9 or later since both Asuka and Natalya are in the women’s Elimination Chamber match. The two were paired off with each other during the contract signing angle for the Chamber
*Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler. This will be Mandy Rose related in some form
*Two Battle Royals, one for the men, one for the women, to get everyone on the show, and for women to bring back people from the past for a nostalgia pop and get some NXT talent that may not be on Takeover to be part of a big show
There will be five other matches.
One match will involve Seth Rollins. It could be a singles match with Kevin Owens, and as of ten days ago, that was the plan. It could be Rollins & Murphy defending the tag titles, with Owens and a partner (Samoa Joe’s suspension will be up on 3/24, but that would mean no angles could be done until after that date, and it would be hard to figure Joe in, because with two concussions in a short period of time, you really can’t make plans involving WrestleMania for him this week), or multiple tag teams.
There will be a Smackdown women’s title match. It appears that Bayley will defend against the winner of a third Elimination Chamber match in Philadelphia with Smackdown women. That hasn’t been announced and is not official, but given that on Friday, Lacey Evans did an interview about entering an Elimination Chamber match to get another title shot, and then on Monday, she was not involved in the contract signing for the women’s match featuring only Raw competitors, that would seemingly lead to a third. Bayley vs. Naomi was at one point planned for the show, but they just did that match in Saudi Arabia.
There will be an IC title match with Braun Strowman. Given Strowman pinned Shinsuke Nakamura on television, one would think he’s not in it. It could be multiple people. Sheamus is getting monster push for something so he could be in it. But that’s only speculation.
There will be some form of a Smackdown tag team title match. This could be a Miz & John Morrison rematch with New Day, or could involve other teams. One idea was King Corbin & Robert Roode, since Ziggler is with Otis. That was described to us as possible.
The U.S. title, currently held by Andrade, is the other match that at least was at one point on the books, perhaps a multiple person match as well.
While nothing has been said, rumors have come up in the past week of the idea of a Tyson Fury match. WWE pushed Fury’s win over Deontay Wilder hard on Raw. Strowman teased the idea, but we’ve seen that and there was nothing about it that would make you want to see it again. Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon were at the fight, but that means nothing because they routinely attend major Las Vegas boxing matches. There has been talk of Fury on the show, but nothing serious could be planned because of the risk of injury in the Wilder fight. But he got out of it unscathed. The big question is money. Fury, with the win, is in a much higher income bracket than a few months ago. In no way would Fury be worth millions for one show given what he would mean as far as WWE Network subscribers. And no way he’s working for less than millions. But he could be a key component if they are trying to sell WrestleMania to an outside service, as Fury’s name means a ton in the sports world and the fighting world right now, although not as much as if his PPV had done a bigger number. Given that every significant star is figured in, the only names I could see as an opponent if a deal is made, would be either Big Show, with the size gimmick and he can lose with no issue, or HHH, who one would think would also have to lose.
Super Showdown 2020 on 2/27 at the Mohammed Abdu Arena on the Boulevard in Riyadh, South Africa would rank as a newsworthy, but very lackluster show.
It was a huge spectacle, with more pyro than a July 4th stadium event in the U.S., making WrestleMania look like an ROH house show in that regard.
There were two title changes, and Lesnar, Goldberg and Undertaker all worked on the same show. But the matches across the board felt flat. It was weird, because the crowd was heavily children. WWE was not expecting this. But a heavy children’s crowd is actually easier to get to react. Yet this crowd seemed to be enjoying the spectacle of seeing WWE, and stars, but didn’t seem to care much for the matches. People were working hard and stiff in some cases to little reaction. But the matches were slower-paced, even though shorter, and far more routine, generally not feeling PPV level.
John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens once again didn’t go on this trip and Sami Zayn either didn’t go because he wasn’t allowed to in the past, or still wasn’t allowed to. Aleister Black and Zelina Vega also didn’t go, with Black for the same reason, the fear of his tattoos with religious significance offending the hosts. Randy Orton didn’t go either, whether by choice or not booked, but given they are into stars from the past, Orton would seem to be a curious name to not be brought. Rusev was booked in the gauntlet match, but pulled out, claiming a back injury. His wife Lana did go, accompanying storyline husband Bobby Lashley, and just doing an entrance literally covered from head to toe, with even her hair covered and just her face showing. The number of people brought was half or less than half of previous shows.
Most succinctly, the show sucked, particularly by modern standards where very few television shows wouldn’t have blown this away.
1. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson beat The Viking Raiders in 9:55. Anderson hit Erik from behind to set up the heat spot. Ivar got a hot tag, but he missed a charge into the corner and he was then selling. The finish saw Ivar missing a moonsault and Gallows & Anderson hit the magic killer on Ivar and Anderson pinned him. It was fine, really one of the better matches on the show, yet well below an average Viking Raiders TV performance. **½
2. R-Truth pinned Bobby Lashley in 5:36 in the first match of the Tuwaig Mountain Trophy gauntlet. R-Truth did some John Cena offense. In a surprise finish, Lashley missed a charge into the corner and R-Truth schoolboyed him. Lashley attacked R-Truth after the match, threw his shoulder into the post, threw him into the steps and speared him. *3/4
3. R-Truth pinned Andrade in 4:48 in the second gauntlet match. R-Truth was bleeding from the left cheekbone and sold the injuries from the Lashley match almost the entire way. Andrade missed his running knee into the corner and took a crazy Harley Race bump to the floor. The two bonked heads and Andrade went down and R-Truth fell down on him, also supposedly knocked out, for the fluke pin. *1/4
4. R-Truth beat Erick Rowan via DQ in 2:25 in the third gauntlet match. Rowan dropkicked R-Truth on the floor into the ring steps. Rowan then hit R-Truth with the ring steps for the DQ. Rowan laid out R-Truth with a claw slam after the match. 1/4*
5. A.J. Styles beat R-Truth in 2:23 of the fourth gauntlet match. Styles just toyed with him and mocked him. Styles did nothing but taunt and dance until putting R-Truth in the calf crusher for the submission. DUD
6. Undertaker pinned A.J. Styles to win the gauntlet in :20. It was supposed to be Rey Mysterio, but Mysterio never came out. Styles was laughing like he knew what was up. They showed Anderson & Gallows destroying Mysterio. Fans were already chanting for Undertaker because it had gotten out, and WWE actually publicized Undertaker was there. Styles told the ref to raise his hand and declare him the winner since Mysterio wasn’t coming out. He told Mike Rome to ring the bell. Then backstage they showed Anderson & Gallows both laid out and you could see that Undertaker was supposed to have done it. Undertaker came out. He seems to have lost several inches in height, although next to Styles, who is like 5-foot-8 or less, you still had the big difference. Undertaker did one move, a choke slam, and got the pin. There was a ton of fireworks playing for his win.
7. The Miz & John Morrison won the Smackdown tag titles from Big E & Kofi Kingston in 12:58. Morrison did a twisting dive over the top on E. Some near falls. E had Morrison on his shoulder and Kingston came off the top with a doomsday double foot stomp for a near fall. The fans were doing the goofy Miz & Morrison chant that they pushed last week on Smackdown. The New Day hit the big ending on Morrison but Miz saved. Kingston missed a trust dive and splatted on the floor landing on his back. He was still up very quickly and back in the match. Morrison hit Kingston with a chair to the gut behind the refs back and Miz pinned Kingston with a schoolboy holding the tights. ***
8. Angel Garza pinned Humberto Carrillo in 9:04. This wasn’t close to their TV match a few days earlier. The wrestling was good but the crowd wasn’t into this. Garza was bleeding from the mouth. Garza blocked a sunset flip and sat down and pinned Carrillo. The way this finish was done gave you the impression Vince was done with Carrillo, even though Garza is an obvious bigger potential star. **1/4
9. Seth Rollins & Murphy retained the Raw tag titles over The Street Profits in 10:37. Murphy knocked Montez Ford off the apron and he went flying into the Arabic announcers table. They worked on Ford with a toned down style. Rollins came off the apron and crashed into the barricade. Ford hot tagged to Angelo Dawkins. Ford did the world’s highest and greatest frog splash on Rollins for a near fall as Murphy pulled Ford out of the ring. Dawkins punched Murphy over the Arabic table. The finish saw Rollins give Dawkins a curb stomp on the apron and Murphy pinned him. **3/4
10. Mansoor pinned Dolph Ziggler in 9:16. Robert Roode came out with Ziggler. Mansoor got a big reaction. Roode shoved Mansoor, who dropkicked Roode out of the ring. The ref kicked Roode out. Ziggler used basic heel tactics to control early, mostly working the left arm. Mansoor kicked out of the zig zag since it is no longer his finisher. Ziggler missed a charge and ran into the turnbuckles. Mansoor used a sliced bread into a DDT, and followed with a moonsault, where his knees ended up landing on Ziggler’s ribs. They did an interview with Mansoor after. He spoke in English and it got over. He talked about being WWE’s first-ever Saudi Arabian superstar and how he is there to give people hope. It was a nice feelgood spot for the local crowd. **½
11. Brock Lesnar pinned Ricochet to retain the WWE title in 1:28. Lesnar used a falcon arrow, three German suplexes and an F-5. Literally, that was the entire match. Ricochet didn’t have one second of offense. -*
12. Roman Reigns pinned King Corbin in a cage match in 12:50. Reigns at first chained the door shut with the idea there could be no fluke crawling out the door finish. The crowd was dead for this. Corbin got the key from Reigns and unlocked the door. Reigns slammed the door on Corbin’s head. Corbin choke slammed Reigns for a near fall. He grabbed the chain and went to hit Reigns, but Reigns beat him to the punch with a Superman punch for a near fall. Reigns almost climbed over the top but Corbin pulled him back in. The finish saw Reigns hit two Superman punches, and then got the chain, and hit a Superman punch with the chain for the pin. They pushed that this was the final match these two would have and when it was over called it the end of the feud. **
13. Bayley pinned Naomi to retain the Smackdown women’s title in 11:30. Both were covered from literally the top of their necks all the way down with only their heads and hands not covered. Naomi did a twisting pescado. Some fans, not a lot, were singing to Bayley. She told them to shut up. They didn’t listen. Naomi kicked out of the belly-to-belly which is no longer a finish. They hit harder than most on the show. They were really trying but the crowd didn’t care. Naomi missed a split legged moonsault. Bayley used half crab and then put the bent foot of Naomi behind her back and trapped it in her shirt. Bayley slammed her face on the mat for the pin. **1/4
14. Bill Goldberg pinned Bray Wyatt to win the WWE title in 2:57. Wyatt having the severed head on the lantern was quite rich and totally inappropriate, but I doubt they even thought about that. No red tinting. Goldberg speared him right away but Wyatt kicked out. Wyatt put on the mandible claw but Goldberg broke it and hit three more spears and Wyatt kicked out again. Wyatt put on the claw again, Goldberg escaped and hit what was supposed to be a jackhammer but was closer to a vertical suplex for the pin. Wyatt got up after being pinned, and then the lights went out and he was gone. 1/4*
The retirement of Manabu Nakanishi on 2/22 at Korakuen Hall was one of those bittersweet moments that pro wrestling delivers.
Nakanishi hasn’t been a major featured guy in New Japan Pro Wrestling for a decade, but he’s been a fixture with the promotion for most of the last 27 ½ years.
His career as a wrestler, which started when he was one of Japan’s best amateurs, saw him recruited to be the future top star of the promotion. On the surface, he had it all. He had the wrestling ability, the size, the look and the body. In Japan, where Olympians are held in high regard, he was almost the perfect recruit.
But nothing in pro wrestling is ever perfect.
He was never quite that guy. His career had its highlights, one IWGP title reign in 2009 that was short-lived, and winning the 1999 G-1 Climax tournament in a famous final scene where he shockingly made Keiji Muto submit to the torture rack.
His career was in many ways linked with his contemporaries, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan, the New Japan third generation stars. The idea is that New Japan had an original generation of stars, led by Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi, Tatsumi Fujinami and Riki Choshu among others. The second generation, in the 80s, included Muto, Masahiro Chono, Shinya Hashimoto, Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki.
The first generation built the company to its early 80s peak on television. The second generation brought it to the big show era running major events at domed stadiums.
The third generation had it much harder. At the time they were going to take the reigns and be the top stars of the company, pro wrestling declined greatly in popularity with the ascent of MMA. So their peak years were the dark era and when it came back, they were around, but a new generation had taken the spotlight. The other three had the ability to be all-time legends, but the timing never truly allowed it to happen.
For the past eight years, Nakanishi was an undercard fixture. Ever since a terrible neck injury in 2011, he was limited. He moved slowly, but could work spots as a powerhouse, mainly doing things like standing there when his opponent would try to whip him into the ropes or blocking foes moves by the idea of pure power. He was bigger and stronger, and less mobile, than the rest of the Japanese roster, and he could fill that role.
While Jushin Liger, who retired last month, was a far bigger star, in other ways the Nakanishi retirement hit a lot of people harder.
While the two were similar in age, Liger being a little more than two years older, they were from different generations. Liger was second generation, a small revolutionary wrestler who fits the real meaning of words like legend and all-time great without watering them down in the least. He started wrestling out of high school and had been around forever. His contemporaries were mostly gone, or if not, no longer were full-timers. In New Japan, he was the last link to the first Tokyo Dome show ever, where he debuted with the Liger gimmick. If anything, it was impressive how good he still was considering the style he worked in his prime.
For Nakanishi, it was different, and far more emotional. Nakanishi started eight years after Liger, after college and competing in amateur wrestling at a high level. He and the people he started with are no longer at the top, as they once were, but are still there. They work with the next generation stars, and do their trademark spots every night as comfortable parts of the undercard. His retirement was more of a sign that it is the beginning of the end of that generation. Takashi Iizuka retired last year, but he was never as big of a star. With Nakanishi, it’s the sign that time is marching on for a new generation, and that Nagata, Tenzan and Kojima will all be faced with this over the next few years.
You can’t talk about Nakanishi without bringing up amateur wrestling. He was only 19 when he first won the Japanese national championship and competed in the World Cup. At the Junior World championships (20-and-under) in 1987, he placed second at 198 pounds and placed fifth in the Asian games. He wrestled in college at Senshu University, winning national titles. He won a bronze medal at 220 pounds in the 1992 Asian games.
As funny as this sounds today, Nakanishi’s major issue is that he was too big to cut to 198, the weight he wrestled at in his teen years. But he was smaller than the 220-pounders, who were guys who walked around at 245 to 250 pounds and cut weight. He may have done better now, when there is a 213 pound weight class. After the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, in the 220-pound weight class that included future UFC champion Mark Coleman, he lost twice, failed to place, and was recruited by former Olympians Riki Choshu and Hiroshi Hase to come into pro wrestling.
He was rushed into action, far before he was ready. The Olympics were in August. He was signed in September to significant publicity, with the idea that he’d be like Masa Saito, Choshu, Jumbo Tsuruta and Hase as Olympians who would go in to being Hall of Fame level competitors.
In October, right before that year’s tag team tournament, Big Van Vader, who was to team with Tatsumi Fujinami, was injured. The idea was to make up for the loss of such a major star on one of the year’s biggest tours, they would debut Nakanishi to much fanfare.
He wore an amateur singlet and wrestling headgear, similar to Rick Steiner, who at the time had become a big star in Japan with his brother. In a sense, the idea was that Japanese fans would see that soon they would have their own Rick Steiner-like powerhouse. They placed sixth out of seven teams, with Nakanishi losing every fall, but they did get one win over Tom Zenk & Jim Neidhart.
Immediately after the tournament, he was brought to the U.S. for the WCW Halloween Havoc PPV show. He wasn’t wrestling on the show, but he was shown at ringside with New Japan President Seiji Sakaguchi. Basically the idea was to show American fans this rookie who would one day be a big star.
Probably the closest modern comparison to Nakanishi would be Katsuya Kitamura, a former Olympian with the great physique, who may not have been the best pro wrestler of the young guys, but because of his background, was felt to be a sure-thing as a future IWGP champion. The difference was Kitamura was much older when he started due to a longer amateur career. He never reached that level due to an injury suffered outside the ring and later health issues that led to his career ending.
Nakanishi was 25 when he debuted so they didn’t have to rush him after the publicized debut tournament. But he didn’t progress in the ring as fast as Tenzan, Kojima and Nagata. He didn’t place in the 1993 Young Lions tournament, which was won by Tenzan, who was then known as Hiroyoshi Yamamoto. In 1994, he lost to Kojima in the finals. In 1995, he beat Nagata in the finals and was immediately sent to WCW.
He used the name Kurosawa, after the famous movie director Akira Kurosawa. He ended up playing a stereotypical Japanese heel, in the Stud Stable, managed by Col. Rob Parker, the former Robert Fuller. He was immediately put into a feud with Road Warrior Hawk and shockingly beat him via armbar submission at the 1995 Halloween Havoc PPV show. But that wasn’t followed up on as he lost television matches to Arn Anderson, Sting, Hawk, Diamond Dallas Page, Disco Inferno, Rick Steiner, Ice Train and Konnan over the next several weeks.
The reality was that he was never more than a routine pro wrestler. In the 70s and 80s, his look and physique combined with his background would have made him a superstar. But in the 90s, fans wanted heated action and more versatility, which Kojima, Tenzan and Nagata could bring.
Nakanishi & Kojima were put together as The Bull Powers tag team after excursion. On May 3, 1997, they defeated Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki to win the IWGP tag team title in the semi-main event before 43,000 fans at the Osaka Dome. On August 10, 1997, they lost the titles to Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki at the Nagoya Dome.
In 1997, he lost in the first round of the G-1 Climax tournament, then a single elimination to Muto. In 1998, he lost in the first round to Masahiro Chono. In 1999, the tournament became a round-robin, and Nakanishi got wins over Hashimoto, Yamazaki, Tenzan and Koshinaka to go 4-1, with his only loss being to Chono. That gave him the B block, and he beat A block winner Muto to win the tournament at a sold out Sumo Hall. He went to the finals in 2000, losing to Sasaki.
In 2001 and 2002, he tied for second in his block, but finished anywhere from the middle to the bottom for the rest of the decade, never being in the running until a second place in block finish in 2010.
He and Nagata beat Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsutoshi Goto to win the IWGP tag titles on August 28, 1999 in Shizuoka, and had a long reign. They lost the titles 11 months later, on July 20, 2000, losing to Kojima & Tenzan. A rematch on October 9, 2000, was named tag team match of the year in New Japan. He got that award for a second time for a June 5, 2002, match where he teamed with Osamu Nishimura against Chono & Tenzan.
Without a doubt, his most famous singles match was a 60:00 draw when challenging Nagata for the IWGP title on March 9, 2003, at Nagoya Rainbow Hall before 10,500 fans.
He also did two shoots that year. At the age of 36, having not competed in 11 years, he had an MMA fight against Kazuyuki Fujita on May 2, 2003, at the New Japan Tokyo Dome when they mixed shoots with works on the same show, which didn’t work out well. Fujita, an experienced MMA fighter, won via punches at 1:09 of the third round. Even more foolish was Antonio Inoki sending Nakanishi into a K-1 kickboxing match, something he had no business doing, where he lost to Toa the Samoan Beast.
He later formed a team called Wild Child with Takao Omori, winning the titles from Shiro Koshinaka & Togi Makabe on July 17, 2006. They lost on March 11, 2007, to Giant Bernard (Matt Bloom) & Travis Tomko.
He formed a powerhouse tag team called Muscle Orchestra with Jon Anderson, known as Strong Man, a huge bodybuilder/powerlifter type, and they were awarded the 2010 tag team of the year award by Tokyo Sports. But they were never able to win the IWGP tag team titles from champions Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson.
Nakanishi did get one brief run with the IWGP title, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi on May 6, 2009, at Korakuen Hall. Tanahashi regained the title at Dominion on June 20, 2009, at the Osaka Furitsu Gym.
His career was in jeopardy after a spinal cord injury suffered in a six-man tag mach on June 4, 2011, taking a German suplex from Wataru Inoue. His body was numb and temporarily paralyzed, and he underwent neck surgery that kept him out of action for 16 months.
Wrestling had been in a huge decline over the prior decade, largely blamed on the popularity of MMA, since New Japan had been built on the idea of having the toughest and hardest training fighters in the world, based on an image created in the 1970s when Antonio Inoki had worked matches where he beat top fighters from other sports.
The idea wasn’t so much that pro wrestling matches were real, but that they were all tough guys doing it, and could handle fighters in others sports. The thought was that New Japan recruited so many great athletes, including national champion wrestlers. But by putting people like Nagata and Nakanishi into real fights years after they had stopped competing in wrestling, it exposed that myth about pro wrestling.
Pro wrestling recovered for a number of reasons, including the charisma of Tanahashi and teaching a new generation that pro wrestling wasn’t about having the toughest fighters, but about creating the most dramatic and exciting matches in its own world. The marketing of Bushiroad gave the stars more exposure, and the charisma, storylines and quality of the matches the headliners did brought the customers back for more.
Nakanishi returned with business on the ground floor, and for the rest of his career was mainly a comfortable figure in prelims that everyone knew as it returned to popularity.
He did a TV Asahi variety show called “Nakanishi Land,” and became a cult favorite due to his legendary Monster Morning Breakfasts, where he would eat huge amounts of food. That itself is a throwback to another era, where young wrestlers in the dojo were encouraged to train hard but eat like crazy, with the idea of building thick powerful heavyweight bodies, not as extreme as sumo but with the similar idea. When Nakanishi started in 1992, he may not have taken to the pro wrestling moves like the others in his class, but he was very good at eating and lifting heavy weights, being able to bench press nearly 500 pounds.
On the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show in a prelim match, Nagata & Nakanishi lost to Tenzan & Kojima, and afterwards the other three all paid him respect. While not said, it was the first hint of his retirement, which was announced a few days later.
The four third generation stars told a story over the week. On 2/19,they defeated the Suzuki-gun team of Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. The next day, they teamed with Tiger Mask to beat the LIJ team of Tetsuya Naito & Sanada & Bushi & Evil & Hiromu Takahashi. In his next to last match, the third generation quartet beat Bullet Club of Jay White & Bad Luck Fale & Gedo & Jado.
It was very clear he was not winning his last match. It would have broken tradition, and that wasn’t his role. He got to go out while in the ring with four guys there to make sure his last match was everything it should have been, Kazuchika Okada & Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Hirooki Goto.
Choshu, who helped recruit him, came out for commentary. A sold out crowd of 1,720 paid, with most wearing masks due to the Coronavirus, held up signs for im and were going crazy.
Tanahashi set the pace early, delivering Mongolian chops to Tenzan, which he knew was an easy way to establish himself as the heel, since the older stars had to be the faces to make the mach work. Kojima was fired up, and was a very different wrestler in a major main event than when in the usual multiple person prelim match. Ibushi also played heel. Finally it came time for Nakanishi got get the hot tag.
Nagata kicked Nakanishi by accident. Nakanishi picked him up and put Nagata in the torture rack and threw him at Tanahashi. Nakanishi did a top rope superplex to Tanahashi, as well as a crossbody off the top rope. Nakanishi was part of a four-way submission spot. His last cool spot was doing a Northern lights suplex on Goto and Ibushi at the same time.
And then it was time to end. Okada hit the dropkick. Tanahashi hit the sling blade. Goto hit the GTR. Ibushi hit the kamagoye. Okada hit the rainmaker. And finally Tanahashi hit the high fly flow in 18:03 in a ****1/4 match. That may sound unlikely for a Nakanishi match in 2020, but everyone involved was determined to make sure that happened.
Then the tears started. There were many in the ring from Nakanishi and Tanahashi, as well as the others, and even more behind-the-scenes when reality set in that an era is ending.
Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton did a remarkable job of contextualizing the situation. Kelly pointed out that it is a happy time to look back at the memories, and a sad time because they are ending, but that everyone will at some point go through the same thing.
Tenzan spoke first, saying, “Are you sure you’re quitting before I am? You never gave up. You always stayed with me. Good luck with the rest of your life. I can’t believe I outlasted Manabu Nakanishi.”
Kojima, crying, said, “Thank you for everything you’ve done over the years. In the more than 25 years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you angry, never seen you mad. You’ve always been kind to me and everyone. You’ll remain that strong, kind human being and a good example for all of us.”
Nagata was next, saying, “It’s been 27 years. 27 years as a pro wrestler, 33 years as a wrestler, I’ve always tried to follow your example
You’re going into your second life and you will still be the example for all of us.”
Next out were New Japan President Harold Meij, Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi and former President and headliner Seiji Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi, who just turned 78, is hurting. Senator Hiroshi Hase noted that he scouted Nakanishi when he was a college wrestler, since both went to the same college, and both went to the Olympics, with Hase competing in the 1984 games in Los Angeles.
“I watched the entire show,” said Hase. “You were awesome. You were great. There are an awful lot of wrestlers, but you’re still the biggest guy here.”
Next was Choshu, who moved shockingly well considering he did 45 years of pro wrestling in the hard Japanese style and competed in judo and amateur wrestling ten years prior to that. Choshu wrestled at Senshu University and competed in the 1972 Olympics before becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese wrestling history, and later booked New Japan during its most successful period.
“I’ve known you from Senshu University. You put the work in. Now it’s your time to enjoy your retirement and take it easy.”
Next out was Fujinami, who was the best actual worker of any New Japan heavyweight wrestler until the emergence of Tanahashi, and still wrestles on his own nostalgia shows at 66 years old, and likely just had his last-ever New Japan match on the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show.
“You still look damn good. Why is someone in this amazing shape retiring? I still expect a lot more from you in your life after retiring.”
Nakanishi said, “Thanks so much for such an amazing crowd, so many people who came out here to see me off. I went from the unbelievable world that was the Olympics to the incredible world that is New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was a demanding world and seeing guys like Tenzan and Kojima and people underneath who came after me and lifted me up and pushed me forward along the way. For someone like me, it’s been unbelievable to me that all of you to support all of us wrestlers like myself. Thank you so much. In every situation I’ve been in I’ve been able to do what I have because of you. Even though I won’t be in the ring and my contract with New Japan may be up and I won’t be wrestling again, I’ll always be a wrestler and I will die a pro wrestler. Masa Saito first said that back in the day. Just like the example he set, I will carry that knowledge into my second life now.”
“I’ve come all the way. I may have been in the Olympics but I always wanted to be here. I always wanted to be a professional wrestler. It was because I wanted to be a professional wrestler that got into amateur wrestling. It was always my dream and I was able to live my dream. When I came into this business it was a hell of a climb. It was because of the expectations that were put on me and the support of those around me that I was able to live my life. It felt at times that there was nothing I could do, but I kept that knowledge that I always wanted to be a professional wrestler and through that I had that burning will to keep moving on and keeping living that life.”
The company held two shows at Korakuen Hall over the past week, the third and fourth days in a row.
The 2/21 show drew 1,500 fans built around three matches. The main event saw Tanahashi & Ibushi win the IWGP tag titles from Tonga & Loa in 20:10 of a ***1/4 match. It was a good match but never reached great. There was a freak accident. Ibushi had a nasty cut over the left eye. He was whipped into the barricade and a woman in the front row instinctively held up her purse to block him hitting her, and in doing so, a sharp part of the purse connected with Ibushi’s head and sliced him open. They traded near falls until Tanahashi used the high fly flow on Tonga, but Jado pulled ref Red Shoes Unno out of the ring. Loa hit Tanahashi with a belt shot. Tonga went to hit Ibushi with a belt shot, but he moved and ht his brother. Ibushi hit the kamagoye on Tonga and did a pescado on Loa and Jado. In the ring, Tanahashi again used the high fly flow on Tonga and got the pin.
The semi was a match for the Never trios titles which was a comedy match where Bushi & Takagi & Evil beat Taguchi & Cabana & Yano in 14:14 when Bushi pinned Taguchi with a backslide and bridge, the Bushi roll.
Naito & Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi beat Okada & Ospreay & Rocky Romero in 12:24 when Takahashi pinned Romero after the time bomb. The key stuff here was a post-match confrontation with Naito and Ospreay where Ospreay talked about taking Naito’s titles. Takahashi also picked up Naito for the time bomb although Naito escaped. They both went for moves on the other but didn’t hit them to tease their anniversary bout.
The 2/22 show, the Nakanishi final, also had a tremendous match with Naito & Takagi & Evil beating Ishii & Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi in 12:13 of a ****½ match. This was probably the best tag match of the year in New Japan. The crowd was molten which helped drive everyone. When you have Ishii & Ospreay as a team it’s great, because with Ishii you get the hard hitting and with Ospreay you get the amazing moves. On the other side, Takagi worked incredibly with both. There was a sequence with Takagi and Ospreay where they escaped each others moves and well as hit each other with moves, maybe a 30 second multi-move high spot, that was unreal. Those guys and the crowd seemed to drive everyone because after all that, Naito and Yoshi-Hashi were also great with each other. There was another Takagi and Ospreay face-off where Ospreay went for the Oscutter and Takagi turned it into the noshigame. There were great near falls until Naito used the destino to beat Yoshi-Hashi.
AEW has its fourth PPV in its history on 2/29 in Chicago at the sold out Wintrust Arena.
The PPV number will be interesting because TNT aired a one-hour UFC Countdown style special on 2/26 after Dynamite, focusing on the top matches. That in theory should help U.S. buys, but that will be offset by the loss of television PPV in the U.K. with ITV Box Office closing up shop.
The ITV Box Office had been hovering at around 15,000 per show. It’s probable that some of those people will order streaming through FITE, but not all. So one would think, all things staying equal, this show would be down a little because of that. But it will also be on television PPV for the first time in Germany on Sky Germany. It will also air in some markets through PlayStation.
There is the argument that the company had its best go-home show, and its first hype special, and that should increase U.S. numbers. The PPV has more storyline depth, but the last show featured incredible promos building the Chris Jericho vs. Cody title match, with Cody saying that he would never challenge for the title again if he didn’t win. The problem is that stip probably didn’t help numbers because AEW is drawing from a smarter fan base, and they believe all stips are not going to be adhered to given the last 30 years of U.S. pro wrestling history is you always get lied to on stips. Whether AEW, like ECW attempted to do in the 90s, is able to or wants to adhere to stips, it will probably take years for that to fully resonate, if it ever does.
The show was an instant sellout, although the secondary market get-in price fell this past week to $74 from $121. It’s still across the board multiples of the actual ticket price and the strongest pro wrestling secondary market show on the market right now.
There will be a one-hour pre-show streaming starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, with the current plan being one match, Chuck Taylor & Trent vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky, going into the ring at 7:30 p.m.
The Revolution PPV starts at 8 p.m. and can go until midnight, although it’s not timed out at this point as to exactly when it will end.
The show has seven matches listed, with Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW title, Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW tag tiles, Cody vs. MJF, Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander for the women’s title, Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hager, Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara and Pac vs. Orange Cassidy.
It is notable how many of the key players, including Pentagon & Fenix, Santana & Ortiz, The Jurassic Experience, Joey Janela, Cima, Kip Sabian, Britt Baker and Riho who don’t have a spot on the card.
A key angle in the countdown show was an appearance by Randy Couture, as one of the trainers of Jon Moxley. Moxley legitimately trains at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. His strength and conditioning coach on the countdown show Gil Guardido, is legit. They showed Couture training Moxley on ways to get into the paradigm shift, and how to either avoid or escape the Walls of Jericho, and how to duck and suplex out of the Judas effect. Jericho in his promo then claimed he could beat up everyone Moxley trains with, and then claimed to have knocked out Couture in a street fight at the Palms in Las Vegas, and to google it and it was covered on TMZ (obviously this was meant as comedy/heel heat).
As coincidence would have it, Evolve, which ran a WWE network special head-to-head with AEW’s Jacksonville show on B/R Live, announced a free streaming show on Facebook. Evolve said that its show, from La Boom in Queens, NY, would end before the AEW show starts. The show is listed to have a 6 p.m. start, so I’m skeptical it ends by 7:30 p.m., but would likely be over around the time the PPV starts if not a little past that.
That announced show has Josh Briggs vs. Anthony Greene in an anything goes match for the Evolve title as the main event. There are also five WWE contracted wrestlers on the card, Jake Atlas, Mansoor, Brendan Vink, Denzel Dejournette and Jessi Kamea.
AR Fox & Leon Ruff face Adrian Alanis & Liam Gray where the winners get a tag title match. Other bouts are Atlas vs. Stephen Wolf, Mansoor vs. Curt Stallion, Vink vs. JD Drake, Avery Taylor vs. Brandi Lauren, Dejournette vs. Harlem Bravado and Kamea vs. Alyx Sky.
UFC in Auckland, New Zealand on 2/23 (2/22 in the U.S.)
By Ryan Frederick
In a fight that will likely end up as one of the best UFC fights on 2020, Dan Hooker scored a razor-thin win over Paul Felder on the 2/22 UFC show in his home country of New Zealand.
Hooker and Felder had an absolute war with both men ending up at the hospital together after the show, where they took one of those great pictures of them together with both on stretchers.
It was a super close fight that could have gone either way, made even more close by the judges having some different scorecards.
Hooker started out the fight winning the first round just battering away at Felder, who had his right eye completely swollen shut. Felder, who is as tough as they get and also as smart as they get, came back strong in the second round to win it. The third was back to Hooker as he landed with more volume though Felder did land hard and do some damage. The fourth was Felder’s round as he landed some hard punches that rocked Hooker and was defending takedowns with some good shots.
It came down to the fifth. Felder landed some hard shots but Hooker did land more. Hooker got a late takedown that looked to possibly seal it for him but Felder was landing from the bottom and got up late and landed hard elbows right at the end. It was truly a round and a fight that could have gone either way as it was really close.
All three scorecards had it 48-47 with Hooker getting the win on two scorecards to give him the split decision. Howard Hughes gave Hooker rounds one, three and five while Barry Foley gave Felder rounds three, four and five. David Lethaby was the deciding judge, giving Hooker rounds one, two and three. I had it 48-47 for Felder, giving him rounds two, four and five. Media scores were 71% for Felder, 24% for Hooker and 5% scoring it a draw. While that shows that most people thought Felder won, this was in no way a robbery, just a close fight that could have gone either way.
They were both a mess after the fight, which was the first UFC main event for both. Hooker looked to have a broken jaw as you couldn’t understand a word he said during his post-fight interview and he was having trouble walking. Felder’s right side of his face looked completely broken. Felder was very emotional after the fight, saying his four-year-old daughter always misses him when he leaves for training camp, and said this could be his last fight, though his manager and coach downplayed those comments afterwards.
Hooker called for a fight against Justin Gaethje next, in some of the very few words that could actually be understood. That would be a great fight to make, but there are preliminary discussions for Gaethje to fight Conor McGregor in the summer. If that fight does take place, Hooker could possibly take on Dustin Poirier in another big fight at lightweight.
That was the highlight of a show that looked skippable on paper going in, but it was a good show overall in front of a great crowd in New Zealand.
The crowd reacted huge for wins by Brad Riddell, Jake Matthews and Kai Kara-France, who all turned in solid performances in decision wins.
One of the more well-known fighters on the card was Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who was looking to end a three-fight losing skid. Unfortunately for her, she was on the wrong side of a one-sided fight against Yan Xiaonan, who won by decision. What made matters worse for Kowalkiewicz was she suffered a broken orbital bone around her right eye, which happened in the first round, and she was holding her right hand near her eye the rest of the fight. It should have been stopped as it was obvious, but neither the doctor nor her corner would stop it, which only made the injury worse as the fight went on.
Another notable fighter on the show was Angela Hill, who was fighting for the second time in four weeks and the sixth time in eleven months. She looked crisp in scoring a decision win over Lona Lookboonmee, far better than a lot of fighters who take similar quick turnarounds. She has let it be known she will take any fight on any notice at 115 pounds, and has put together an impressive three-fight win streak.
There was one fight cancellation on weigh-in day as Maki Pitolo vs. Takashi Sato was scratched from the card. Pitolo was having a bad weight cut and was going to miss, and he was in bad enough shape that UFC officials pulled him from the fight. It was heartbreaking for Sato, who recently lost his father, and he was dedicating this fight to him.
The show at the Spark Arena in Auckland drew a sellout crowd of 10,025 fans with a gate of $1,239,625 USD. It set records in both attendance and gate of any sporting event in the arena’s history.
The entire show streamed on ESPN+, with an hour earlier start time than usual with ESPN wanting the show over before the Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder fight. Nothing showed up in Google searches for the show, showing that this wasn’t a show with lots of interest.
The $50,000 bonuses went to Dan Hooker and Paul Felder for Fight Of The Night, while Jimmy Crute and Priscilla Cachoeira got the bonuses for Performance Of The Night.
1. Priscila Cachoeira (9-3) beat Shana Dobson (3-4) in :40 in a women's flyweight fight. They came out swinging and tagging each other until Cachoeira landed an uppercut that dropped Dobson and it was all over in less than a minute.
2. Angela Hill (12-7) beat Loma Lookboonmee (4-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in a women's strawweight fight. This was another short notice fight for Hill. She was coming forward and landing punches while Lookboonmee was landing lots of leg kicks. Hill got a late takedown and ended the first on top landing punches. Lookboonmee came out aggressive in the second and got a takedown, but Hill was attacking with armbars and triangle choke attempts. The second round was close. There were a lot of strikes missing in the third but while Lookboonmee edged on striking stats in the third, Hill was landing harder shots and controlling the action. I had it 30-27 for Hill as she looked good on short notice. All media scores were for Hill.
3. Kai Kara-France (21-8 1 NC) beat Tyson Nam (18-11-1) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a flyweight fight. Kara-France got a big reaction. They came out swinging in the first and Kara-France landed some good shots early but Nam was starting to rock him at a few points. The second was more action on the feet and Kara-France was mixing in good leg kicks while landing punches but both men were constantly coming forward and throwing with lots landing. Kara-France came out strong in the third and was making Nam retreat a lot as he was landing hard kicks to the legs and body and following them up with punches. Kara-France looked really good in this fight and Nam gave him a tough fight. The crowd reactions during this one were good and it was a good fight. I had it 30-27 for Kara-France, and all media scores were for him.
4. Song Kenan (16-5) beat Callan Potter (18-9) in 2:20 in a welterweight fight. Potter got an early takedown but Kenan got up and was landing shoulder strikes, which I guess is the new craze now. Kenan then landed a right hand and followed it up with a combo that dropped Potter and he finished it off.
5. Jake Matthews (15-4) beat Emil Meek (9-5-1 1 NC) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28 in a welterweight fight. Matthews came out to Triple H's theme music again. Matthews got a takedown early and was controlling on top and landed an elbow as they got up. He then dropped Meek with an uppercut and spent the rest of the round on top landing. The second saw Matthews land early before getting a takedown. He was looking for a choke but Meek was active on the ground and they got up. Meek hurt Matthews standing but Matthews landed a spinning elbow and another takedown before the round ended. Matthews was tired after the second. Meek took advantage of Matthews being tired in the third and landed a lot of strikes as Matthews was looking to take him down. Matthews had the takedown pressure as Meek was landing elbows. Meek escaped and tried his best for a finish late but time ran out. I had it 29-28 for Matthews with him getting the first two rounds. All media scores had it for Matthews getting two rounds. He got a big reaction when the decision was announced. Matthews still has lots of potential but still needs some more development before the next level. He's still only 25 even though he's been with the UFC since 2014.
6. Jalin Turner (9-5) beat Joshua Culibao (8-1) in 3:01 in the second round in a lightweight fight. Culibao took this fight on just over a week's notice. Turner was landing early and got on top on a failed takedown attempt from Culibao and was landing knees and elbows and almost had a guillotine locked in. Culibao was able to escape the first. Culibao injured himself during the second as he planted on his leg wrong and was limping around the Octagon. Turner locked in a guillotine during a scramble but used it as a set-up to get into mount and started throwing lots of punches and elbows until it was stopped. Turner looked good here and is another young guy at 24 with loads of potential. He signed a new contract with the company after the fight.
7. Zubaira Tukhugov (19-4-1) beat Kevin Aguilar (17-3) in 3:21 in a featherweight fight. They were trading and Tukhugov was landing more. He dropped Aguilar with a left hook and was landing more. Aguilar was able to get up but got dropped again and Tukhugov swarmed again until it was stopped. It was the first time in over six years that Aguilar had been finished.
8. Brad Riddell (8-1) beat Magomed Mustafaev (15-3) via split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 in a lightweight fight. Riddell got a big reaction from the crowd. Riddell dropped Mustafaev early in the first and started landing from the top but Mustafaev was able to grab an ankle to recover. Mustafaev was able to take Riddell down four times in the first but Riddell quickly got up each time, so the round was difficult to score. They were trading in the second and both landed solid punches. Mustafaev got three takedowns but again didn't do much with them and Riddell was able to get to his feet each time. Riddell had a strong third round as he knocked Mustafaev down early and also took him down and was landing from the top. Mustafaev was able to get up and took Riddell down but Riddell was landing elbows and able to get to the top before the round ended. I had it 30-27 for Riddell but the first round was close. I was surprised Mustafaev got one scorecard as it didn't seem as close as that, but the right guy still won. Media scores were 46% for Riddell, 36% for Mustafaev and 18% scoring it a draw, so it was close. Riddell got a big reaction when announced as the winner.
9. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (17-6-1) beat Ben Sosoli (7-3 2 NC) in 1:28 in a heavyweight fight. Both men were swinging wildly early, which meant this was either going to be a quick knockout or they were going to get tired and this was going to get ugly. de Lima was landing and then landed a hard left hand that caused Sosoli to do a face plant and the fight was stopped.
10. Yan Xiaonan (12-1 1 NC) beat Karolina Kowalkiewicz (12-6) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 30-26 in a women's strawweight fight. They traded early and Xiaonan was getting the better of it and then took Kowalkiewicz down. They got up and it was then that Kowalkiewicz's eye started bothering her. Xiaonan got another takedown before the round ended. The doctors checked on Kowalkiewicz but let her continue. The last two rounds were pretty much the same as Kowalkiewicz couldn't see and it was affecting her badly. Xiaonan was landing punches and got some takedowns but she wasn't doing much to try and stop Kowalkiewicz and it turned into a boring fight. It was the classic example of a fight where someone is cruising to a win but takes no risks or chances and does the bare minimum to make sure they win the fight, and it turns into a bad fight. I had it 30-27 for Xiaonan, and all media scores were for her. Kowalkiewicz had to stay in New Zealand after the fight for surgery on her eye.
11. Jimmy Crute (11-1) beat Michal Oleksiejczuk (14-4 1 NC) in 3:29 in a light heavyweight fight. Oleksiejczuk is a dangerous striker so Crute did the smart thing and immediately took him down. They kept getting up but Crute kept taking the fight back down, and even Oleksiejczuk grabbing the fence once couldn't stop himself from getting taken down. Crute ended up with eight takedowns in less than one round of fighting. Crute ended up getting a kimura locked in and Oleksiejczuk tapped.
12. Dan Hooker (20-8) beat Paul Felder (17-5) via split decision on scores of 47-48, 48-47 and 48-47 in a lightweight fight. The fans were into Hooker and this fight. Hooker was landing leg kicks early in the first and started landing the jab. Felder was landing some good punches but took some good damage and his eye was swollen shut after the first. The first round was pretty close. Felder turned up the volume in the second and landed more punches, and landed some real hard shots. Hooker did land some good shots and got the back standing at one point but it was Felder's round. Hooker turned up the volume himself in the third round and was doing some damage with the jab. Both were landing hard leg kicks at times. Hooker landed a lot in the latter stages in the round and took the round. Felder came out on the offensive in the fourth and was landing hard leg kicks and some power punches. Felder rocked Hooker several times and it looked like this was the round where Hooker's jaw broke. Hooker was trying for takedowns but Felder defended them and landed hard punches and elbows after they broke each time. It was tied going into the last round. Both mens' faces were a mess at the start of the last round. Felder landed some kicks and punches early and was landing more until Hooker started pressuring with the jab and got a takedown. Hooker was holding Felder down but Felder was throwing back elbows as Hooker had his back as the fight ended. The fifth was real close and this was a fight that really could have gone either way. As noted, I had it 48-47 for Felder but either man getting the win would have been justified. They were both a mess after the fight. This fight is worth going out of your way to see and ended the show on a high note.
Both AEW and NXT declined from the prior week on 2/26.
In the case of AEW, that wasn’t a big surprise since the Atlanta show was a bigger show and the Cody-Wardlow cage match had been built up for weeks, while the AEW big match, Kenny Omega vs. Pac, was an Iron Man match which traditionally doesn’t do well in ratings since people know the actual finish isn’t coming for 30 minutes as opposed to not knowing when the finish is coming.
NXT was not only coming off a Takeover show, but had heavily promoted Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair. We don’t have quarters at press time so we really can’t say what did and didn’t work or why.
AEW did 865,000 viewers and a 0.30 in 18-49, a drop of 3.6 percent in total viewers and 3.2 percent in 18-49. Last week’s show went against the Democratic debate that did huge numbers, but clearly the interest in both shows were down, even with AEW coming off a string of great shows.
NXT did 717,000 viewers and a 0.23 in 18-49, a drop of 9.7 percent overall and 8.0 percent in 18-49.
In addition, AEW had a one hour Countdown special at 10 p.m. which did 383,000 viewers and a 0.14 in 18-49.
Miz & Mrs. went pretty much head-to-head, from 10:05 p.m. to 10:37 p.m., doing 394,000 viewers and a 0.13 in 18-49. For Miz & Mrs., likely due to the AEW competition, they were down 21.2 percent from last week overall and 23.5 percent in 18-49.
The key questions for last week are how the quarters did, particularly AEW’s Iron Man match, as well as Q8, with the Chris Jericho-Jon Moxley weigh-in going against Flair vs. Belair. Jericho has not lost a quarter hour since AEW started but WWE was sending one of its most pushed wrestlers in a storyline program in competition. The other key is when AEW ended, did AEW putting on a Countdown show against the last five minutes hurt the usual migration at 10 p.m. of AEW viewers to NXT.
In addition, not that it matters that much, head-to-head, AEW’s show likely beat Miz & Mrs. The latter was promoted very hard on Raw, on USA and during NXT. The former had no promotion past mentions on Dynamite the night of the show, and one mention in passing that most fans missed the week before. The numbers look to be close but because the AEW show was one hour and likely faded as the show went on, while Miz & Mrs. was 32 minutes, it’s not clear which show did better in the actual head-to-head.
AEW was ninth in 18-49, trailing four news shows that it usually beats, but those news shows did far better than usual overall, as well as two NBA games on ESPN, Black Ink Crew 8B on VH-1 and Real Housewives of New Jersey on Bravo. NXT was No. 17 in that demo, which is better than it usually does, even doing a below average rating.
The ESPN NBA game head-to-head with both shows did 940,000 viewers and a 0.41 in 18-49.
AEW in particular declined with men from last week. In the 18-49 demo, AEW was down 10.6 percent with men and up 14.8 percent with women. It also was AEW’s lowest numbers ever with teenagers. But for the first time, AEW beat NXT in over 50, because that was the age group that NXT lost this week. So while the audience is pretty stable, it was increasing with women, decreasing in men, and getting older.
The show did a 0.06 in 12-17 (down 50.0 percent), 0.21 in 18-34 (up 16.7 percent), 0.39 in 35-49 (down 11.4 percent) and 0.36 in 50+ (down 5.3 percent).
The audience was 65.6 percent male in 18-49 and 64.2 percent male in 12-17.
On the flip side, NXT was up with men, but down with women, and the only demo it beat AEW in was teenagers, but both shows did pretty much record lows there.
The show did a 0.07 in 12-17 (down 50.0 percent), 0.13 in 18-34 (down 31.6 percent), 0.33 in 35-49 (up 6.5 percent) and 0.34 in 50+ (down 10.5 percent).
The audience was 70.2 percent male in 18-49 and 69.8 percent male in 12-17.
So in 18-49, Men were up 0.9 percent from last week, but women were down 23.8 percent.
Ratings for the 2/25 WWE Backstage show aren’t available as the show didn’t rank among the top 150 first run shows in 18-49.
The good news for the 2/24 Raw is that the first-to-third hour drop, which was near record levels last week, was far lower than usual. The problem was it was more due to how weak the first hour was.
The 2,246,000 viewers in the first hour was the lowest in history for a non-holiday show that didn’t go against major sports competition.
The overall average of 2,210,000 (1.41 viewers per home, well above usual) would be the second lowest to the 2,168,000 on figure on 2/3 when it comes to a Raw that didn’t go against major sports coverage.
The first hour did 2,246,000 viewers. The second hour actually grew to 2,278,000 viewers while the third hour fell to 2,106,000 viewers. It was only the second time this year where hour two beat hour one. In particular, there was strong first-to-third hour growth in every female demo from 12 to 49, particularly teenage girls grew strongly in hour three.
Raw won the 18-49 demo with a 0.71 average on cable, and beat reruns on CBS and the second hour on FOX (also reruns) in that demo. The show finished in eighth place overall. The 913,000 viewers in 18-49 was down 11 percent from last week, with men down 12 percent, and 18-49 was down 31 percent from the same week last year, but for obvious reasons that’s an unfair comparison.
It was down in total viewers 9.3 percent from last week’s strong showing. It was down 24.4 percent from the same show one year earlier, but that was the show where Roman Reigns returned with them heavily publicizing he would give a cancer update after they held off the news so it would maximize ratings, plus they had Ric Flair’s 70th birthday part on the show last year.
The first quarter did 2,329,000 viewers which was the Randy Orton and Kevin Owens talking segment to build up their main event. Angel Garza vs. Humberto Carrillo lost 127,000 viewers. Ricochet vs. Luke Gallows lost 56,000 viewers. The Paul Heyman & Brock Lesnar promo was the high point of the show at 2,350,000 viewers, an increase of 204,000. Aleister Black vs Erick Rowan lost 15,000 viewers. The Drew McIntyre promo lost 55,000 viewers. The R-Truth vs. Bobby Lashley segment lost 132,000 viewers. The women’s Chamber contract signing gained 129,000 viewers. Angelo Dawkins vs. Murphy lost 205,000 viewers. Seth Rollins vs. Montez Ford lost 120,000 viewers to 1,952,000, the low point of the show. And the Owens vs. Orton main event and post-match gained 173,000 viewers to 2,125,000.
The first-to-third hour movement was different from usual, based on very low numbers for teenage girls in the first two hours and strong growth in hour three. Women 18-49 grew from a 0.48 to 0.52 from hour one-to-three, while men fell 0.94 to 0.85.
The show did a 0.36 in 12-17 (down 28.0 percent from last week), 0.47 in 18-34 (down 24.2 percent), 0.95 in 35-49 (down 1.0 percent) and 1.02 in 50+ (down 5.6 percent).
The audience was 63.8 percent male in 18-49 and 71.2 percent male in 12-17.
Bellator on 2/22 in a taped show from Dublin, Ireland did 310,000 viewers with Brent Primus over Chris Bungard as the television main event. The number is fine given it went head-to-head with the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fight.
Smackdown on 2/21 did a 1.55 rating and 2,484,000 viewers (1.33 viewers per home) and an 0.7 in the 18-49 demo for a show built around Bill Goldberg being there live and the Bella Twins Hall of Fame announcement. The number was virtually identical with the 2,464,000 and 0.7 numbers last week and the rating was up 1.3 percent.
Smackdown was the highest rated show on television in 18-49, beating a number of 0.6s for CBS shows. There were also two 0.6s on cable, although an 0.58 for Gold Rush on cable is equivalent to an 0.82 in the available homes.
As far as overall on the networks, Smackdown did beat “Fresh off the Boat” on ABC (2,387,000 viewers) but lost to everything else.
Last year on the same week on Friday, FOX in those two hours averaged an 0.6 in 18-49 and 3,348,000 in viewers. That was with first-run programming so this was the first time this year that FOX’s first-run of the same week drew a lower 18-49 number than this year.
As far as the quarters, based on the major markets, the high point was the first segment with the Usos, New Day, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode and The Miz & John Morrison and the beginning of the eight man tag. The match itself lost 9.1 percent of viewers. The quarter with Tucker with Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Renee Young interviewing Evans and the intros for the Symphony of Destruction match gained 4.7 percent. The Braun Strowman & Elias vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro symphony of destruction match lost 5.1 percent. The Corbin interview and Alexa Bliss with the Bella Twins gained 8.8 percent so they were big movers. Daniel Bryan vs. Heath Slater and the Otis, Mandy Rose and Dolph Ziggler segment lost 3.7 percent. Carmella vs. Naomi lost 5.2 percent. And the closing angle with Bill Goldberg and Bray Wyatt gained 4.8 percent, which is fine but not out of the ordinary for the last segment. For whatever this is worth, comparing the Goldberg segment with the Bellas in total viewers, Goldberg won in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia was tied, Bellas won huge in Dallas, Goldberg won in San Francisco, Bellas won in DC, Goldberg won in Houston and Bellas won huge in Atlanta.
Bellator on 2/21 head-to-head did 296,000 viewers for a show from Thackerville, OK headlined by Yaroslov Amasov over Ed Ruth. That’s actually above what a show like that would be expected to do at this stage.
Combate Americas on 2/21 drew what was undoubtedly its largest total audience to date on 2/21 for a show from Mexicali featuring Rafa Garcia defending their lightweight title over Humberto Bandenay. The show drew 511,000 on Univision, a great number considering the show started at midnight on Friday night. Of that, 274,000 were in the 18-49 demo. The 18-49 number was the second best they’ve done on Univision. Those numbers don’t include English language viewership on AXS TV. The key is that on Univision, the median viewer age was 27, which is 15 years younger than AEW or UFC, 23 years younger than Raw or Smackdown and 28 years younger than NXT. That figure would be the youngest of any major sports company that I’m aware of, and the fact it’s on a Friday at midnight makes that even more impressive.
Some more ratings notes on the 2/19 AEW and NXT shows. The numbers live were 893,000 (1.35 viewers per home) to 794,000, although head-to-head that was 788,000.
AEW had 402,000 viewers in 18-49, lower than usual. NXT had 324,000 overall and 322,000 head-to-head.
The first quarter had AEW with a Battle Royal, which did 882,000 total viewers and 402,000 in 18-49. NXT had an Undisputed Era interview and the beginning of Jordan Devlin vs. Lio Rush for the cruiserweight title, which did 799,000 viewers with 310,000 in 18-49.
The second quarter saw AEW continue the Battle Royal plus the beginning of Shanna vs. Kris Statlander, which lost 18,000 viewers and 7,000 in 18-49. NXT had the rest of Devlin vs. Rush, which lost 31,000 viewers and 10,000 in 18-49.
The third quarter saw AEW continue Shanna vs. Statlander and have a Nyla Rose interview. That lost 69,000 viewers and 48,000 in 18-49. NXT had a Tommaso Ciampa interview plus some stuff with Austin Theory and gained 59,000 viewers and 44,000 in 18-49. This was the only quarter NXT won, winning with total viewers 827,000 to 795,000 and with 18-49, by a 354,000 to 347,000 margin.
The fourth quarter saw things reverse. Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb for AEW gained 177,000 viewers and gained 78,000 in 18-49. NXT had a Finn Balor promo and Zack Gibson & James Drake vs. Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde and lost 55,000 viewers and lost 36,000 in 18-49.
The fifth quarter, built around the post-match beating of Moxley, saw AEW gain 1,000 viewers overall (which was its peak head-to-head overall audience at 937,000 and 441,000 in 18-49) and gain 16,000 in 18-49. NXT had Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, and they gained 61,000 viewers overall, which was also the peak audience of 833,000, but their peak 18-49 audience was quarter three. They also gained 17,000 in 18-49.
The sixth quarter saw AEW have the Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix match, which lost 75,000 viewers and 27,000 in 18-49. NXT had Keith Lee’s interview, quick match with Kona Reeves and post-match with Dominik Dijakovic, which lost 56,000 viewers and 25,000 in 18-49.
The seventh quarter, which for AEW was basically building next week’s show, videos building the cage match story, lost 83,000 viewers and 40,000 in 18-49. NXT had Chelsea Green vs. Kayden Carter along with a Bianca Belair run-in during the middle of that match, and gained 7,000 viewers and 6,000 in 18-49. The key is that except for quarter three, this was as close as it got with AEW having an 815,000 to 784,000 lead.
The final quarter, the head-to-head main events, was a big win as expected for AEW. Cody vs. Wardlow in a cage gained 132,000 viewers to 947,000, and gained 46,000 in 18-49 to 420,000. So the key is while it did gain in 18-49, the big gains were older and younger, and likely more older. So the cage was a big hit for the over 50 crowd, which is the one demo AEW has been losing and where for the first time they equaled NXT in. NXT, with Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong, pushed in commercial after commercial on Raw, lost 40,000 overall to 744,000, and 6,000 in 18-49 to 310,000.
The cage match gains were 107,000 men and 25,000 women. But as far as actual viewers, less than half of the male gains came directly from NXT and almost all the female gains came from people watching other television shows.
The last five minute overrun saw a huge turnover of 196,000 viewers overall going to NXT and 71,000 of them in 18-49. Given the shift of the previous quarter, what it looks like what happened was that a ton of regular NXT viewers switched over to the cage match.
Whether that’s a good sign for the 3/4 show when NXT does Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox in a cage is interesting. Because the shift to AEW was largely over 50, and the shift back when the show ended, was also over 50, which is the dominant NXT audience.
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CMLL: To the surprise of nobody, Volador Jr. & Cavernario won the B block of the Parejas Increibles tournament on 2/21 at Arena Mexico before another crowd of about 8,000 fans. Volador Jr. & Cavernario first beat Soberano Jr. & Templario in 3:52, then Atlantis Jr. & Negro Casas in 2:39, before winning the block final over Angel de Oro & Sanson in 7:35. So this puts them in the finals on 2/28 where they will face last week’s winners Caristico & Forastero. Angel & Sanson reached the finals beating Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro and then Stuka Jr. & Gran Guerrero. In the former match, there was a spot where Cometa was on the top rope ready to give Sanson a huracanrana on him on the apron. And he just stood there for a long time too far away while Cometa had to stand on the top rope waiting for him to get into range to do the move. This week’s tournament was said to be not nearly as good as the week before. Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther were a team and broke up earlier in the tournament
. Besides the Parejas increibles tournament final, the 2/28 show also has the start of a tag team tournament for the vacant Mexican national tag team titles, with Titan & Soberano Jr., Dulce Gardenia & Fuego, Misterioso & Sagrado, Ephesto & Luciferno, Back Panther & Blue Panther Jr., Stigma & Pegasso, El Hijo del Villano III & Templario and Universo 2000 Jr. & Virus. The only non-tag team match on the 11-match show will be Angel de Oro & Diamante Azul & Niebla Roja vs. Felino & Negro Casas & El Terrible
There was yet another tag team tournament, this being a family tournament like they do at Fantastica Mania, taking place on 2/24 in Puebla. Cuatrero & Sanson beat Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero via DQ in the finals. Cuatrero & Sanson both gave Gran Guerrero a low blow, unseen by the ref. Ultimo then pulled the mask off both Cuatrero and Sanson, which the ref did see, and he called for the DQ. The Dinamitas won their first round match over Drone & Rey Bucanero and then beat Negro Casas & Felino in the semifinals. Los Guerreros won over Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000 Jr., and then beat Euforia & Soberano Jr., in the semis. The other teams entered were Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja, and Ephesto & Luciferno. .. Volador Jr. pinned Casas using Casas’ own casita (la magistral cradle) on him in the 2/23 Arena Mexico main event singles match
Volador Jr. defends the NWA welterweight title against Templario on 3/2 in Puebla.
AAA: The Cubsfan has reported that this year’s TripleMania show will take place on 8/22 in Mexico City. For those keeping score, it means that NXT Takeover Boston, TripleMania and the New Japan Madison Square Garden show will all be taking place at the same time. And there will likely be a UFC show at the same time as well. Luckily if you want to catch up, you can do it the next day if you don’t mind missing a six plus hour SummerSlam show
Fenix challenged Daga to a match where the winner would be next to challenge the winner of the Rey de Reyes Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid match for the Mega heavyweight title
They held TV tapings on 2/22 in Tonala, just outside Guadalajara. The show was said to be not as good as most of the recent tapings. Some of it was that the crowd wasn’t mic’d well so the match came across as having little heat. They moved to a new venue at the last minute and also changed up the advertised card. They still got a good crowd. Daga was advertised until the day of the show even though he was working in the U.S. for Impact this weekend. Arez got moved from the opener to the third match to replace Australian Suicide. Suicide replaced Daga. In the TV opener, Nino Hamburguesa & Aramis & Mascarita Sagrada beat Draztick Boy & Latigo & Demus when Hamburguesa pinned Draztick Boy after a top rope splash. Los Ingobernables (Rush & L.A. Park & Bestia del Ring) came out with Konnan and they beat down Hamburguesa, Aramis and Sagrada. A terrible women’s three-way was next where both Lady Maravilla and La Hiedra won when both pinned Lady Shani at the same time after interference from Rey Escorpion, who gave Shani a package piledriver. El Hijo del Tirantes, the heel ref, pretended to be distracted and thus missed the interference. Parka Negra & Super Fly won a three-way over Argenis & Arez and L.A. Park Jr. & El Hijo de L.A Park when Negra pinned Hijo de L.A. Park after tearing off his mask and covering him. The match had a lot of blown spots. In a real strong match, AAA trios champions El Hijo del Vikingo & Octagon Jr. & Myzteziz Jr. beat Chessman & Averno & Rey Escorpion in 15:01. The non-title match ended when Octagon Jr. pinned Chessman after a split legged moonsault. The rudo losers attacked the champions after and Taurus and La Hiedra joined in. Escorpion then challenged the champs to put the belts on the line against he, Taurus & Hiedra. This was a short match ending at 1:50 when Vikingo pinned Hiedra after a reverse 450. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix won a three-way AAA tag title match over Taurus & Australian Suicide and Puma King & Laredo Kid when Fenix pinned Suicide. Taurus gave Puma King a rodeo driver off the apron and through a table. Puma King went out on a stretcher. Pentagon gave Laredo Kid a package piledriver on the apron. Averno, Chessman and Super Fly attacked Pentagon & Fenix. Averno threw beer in Pentagon’s eyes and tore up his mask. Main event saw Park & Rush & Bestia del Ring over Pagano & Monsther Clown & Murder Clown in 21:48. This was the advertised main event. Psycho Clown wasn’t on the show. He almost never misses AAA tapings since he’s been the top tecnico for years, but had got a prior U.S. booking for Pro Wrestling Revolution in San Jose, CA and drew a sellout crowd of well over 1,000 fans. Los Ingobernables right now are always winning as the long-term plan is to get them as much steam as possible. This ending was when Park pinned Monsther after a spear after Chessman attacked Pagano. Tirantes played heel ref and counted slowly when a Clown had a pin. Monsther was bleeding heavily. Chessman attacked Pagano after the match and they brawled onto the stage. Chessman threw him off the stage and threw the table. Pagano looked like he was hurting badly after it was over.
THE CRASH: People were raving about the Bandido & Dragon Lee vs. ROH tag champs Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal match that took place on the 2/22 show in Tijuana. Lee pinned Gresham with a running knee in a great match. Los Traumas won the Crash tag team titles from Mecha Wolf 450 & Bestia 666 in a three-way cage match that also included Mesias & Oraculo. They announced a 3/28 show, the day before the next PWG show, in Tijuana, with Bandido, Dragon Lee, Chris Dickinson, Ultimo Guerrero, Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Pirata Morgan and Canek. The key is that means Crash and CMLL are back doing business, and also, this would be the first time Lee has been on a show with CMLL talent since CMLL fired him.
ALL JAPAN: The 2/22 show in Akatsuki was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hikaru Sato’s debut. The show drew 354 fans. Sato, 42, worked the main event teaming with Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa to beat Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu & Hokuto Omori when Sato pinned Omori with a back suplex. Sato’s first pro wrestling match was June 14, 2001, so not quite 19 years ago. But then again, he was doing pro MMA before that. Sato was a shooter, with an amateur wrestling and judo background who was the heavyweight amateur champion in Satoru Sayama’s Shooto promotion, and then turned pro and went 2-0 in MMA before leaving to join the Zero-1 pro wrestling promotion in 2001. He held their world heavyweight title five times between 2010 and 2017, including winning the title from such major stars as Toshiaki Kawada, Masakatsu Funaki and Kohei Sato. He also held Big Japan’s World Strong heavyweight title last year beating Yuji Okabayashi
Susumu Yokosuka of Dragon Gate retained the world jr.. title over Yusuke Okada on the 2/23 show in Osaka before 596 fans. Yoshitatsu also retained the TV title over Gaina with a back suplex. They had a version of a Parejas Increibles in the main event where Kento Miyahara teamed with usual rivals Ryoji Sai & Shuji Ishikawa in the main event to beat Suwama & Yuma Aoyagi & Shigehiro Irie when Miyahara pinned Suwama in 19:54 with the shutdown suplex.
NEW JAPAN: The last show before the shutdown was 2/26 in Okinawa before a sellout of 2,882 fans with a main event of Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay over Tetsuya Naito & Bushi in 11:48 when Ospreay pinned Bushi after the storm breaker.
PRO WRESTLING NOAH: They ran 2/24 in Nagoya before 812 fans for a somewhat big show build around Takashi Sugiura retaining the National title over Kaito Kiyomiya in 29:47 with an Olympic slam. The show also featured Kazuyuki Fujita (the challenger for the next GHC title match) teaming with Hideki Suzuki over champion Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi when Suzuki made Taniguchi submit to the octopus. They also had a 30 year anniversary match for Akitoshi Saito. Saito, 54, who started wrestling at the ed of 1990, so it’s not exactly on date, teamed with regular undercard tag partner Masao Inoue and former 90s New Japan tag team partners Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi to beat younger wrestlers Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Haoh & Nioh when Saito pinned Nioh with his death sickle, which is an enzuigiri.
OTHER JAPAN NOTES: At the DDT show on 2/23 at Korakuen Hall they announced Kenny Omega, Cima, T-Hawk, Lindaman and Meiko Satomura for the 6/7 Peter Pan show at the Saitama Super Arena, which will be one of the biggest shows in company history. Omega did a tease of a match with then-champion KO-D champion Harashima when he was there for the 11/3 show. Nothing was agreed to at the time and Harashima lost the title on 1/26 to Masato Tanaka
The Korakuen show drew 1,194 fans with Tanaka retaining the title over Mao in 21:49 with a sliding D. Chris Brookes became the first Universal champion, winning the match to crown the champion over Konosuke Takeshita in 19:26 via roll-up
Kagetsu had her retirement match on 2/24 in Osaka before 733 fans at the smaller Edion Arena. She wrestled twice on the show, first beating Saya Iida of Stardom and then losing in her retirement match to Meiko Satomura in 21:07. Several major wrestlers including Zeus and Jinsei Shinzaki worked the show
Daichi Hashimoto retained the Big Japan Strong world title over Takuya Nomura in 18:30 with a triangle in the main event of the 2/24 show in Osaka. Yuya Aoki kept the jr. title beating Lindaman on the show.
HERE AND THERE: Larry “Rip” Oliver, 67, who was the top star in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 1980s, has entered hospice care due to end stage heart failure. Oliver has suffered several heart attacks in recent years and his condition worsened in recent months. Oliver holds the record with 12 reigns as Pacific Northwest heavyweight champion, one more than Buddy Rose, between 1982 and 1991. Oliver started his career in 1976, as a prelim wrestler Rick Oliver, working around the Southeast. Originally from Florida, although most associate him with Oregon, where he first arrived in August 1980 for the first real push of his career. He was linked up with Rose, who had been the area’s top star for several years. He formed a heel group called The Clan, and ended up turning on Rose in 1982, making Rose a babyface. He was the top star in the territory for the next three years, until leaving for Texas. He returned to Oregon as the top star until signing with WWF in August 1987. This basically did a number on his career as a guy like him, a solid worker who was a good talker for an Oregon territory, was neither muscular or flashy enough to be pushed in WWF past a certain level. And he didn’t even get to that level, as he was used as a reliable enhancement guy. He quit after less than four months to return to Oregon, but the damage had been done. He was pushed in Oregon, but the fans saw him differently and Don Owen could no longer build around him since fans saw him as a guy who wasn’t good enough to even win television matches in the big leagues. The problem at that point is fans in Oregon had seen their top stars, notably Rose and Oliver, go to WWF and be TV losers in quick matches over and over. So while they could return and fans remembered them, they also saw them as guys who couldn’t make it in the biggest company. It hurt the perception of Oregon wrestling in general and was a key reason for the decline, and made it impossible to build around Oliver as the top guy any longer. But he continued to work in the territory until its death at the end of 1991, eventually as a babyface and helped his son, Larry Jr., who wrestled as Larry Oliver, get started. Oliver was also part of the class action concussion lawsuit filed in 2016 against WWE. His case is notable because he wrestled regularly for 16 years, and his WWF tenure was only a few months
The movie “Jumanji: The Next Level,” that came out on 12/19 which is Dwayne Johnson’s latest, has now grossed nearly $311 million in the U.S. and $477 million outside the U.S. for $788 million.
Tammy Sytch, 47, was paroled by the Carbon County Jail in Pennsylvania on 2/25. She had been held since March 2019 after a series of parole violations when she failed to show up at a parole hearing and missed a scheduled drug test. She had been pulled over for a DUI, a few weeks earlier, which was at least the sixth time she had been pulled over for such a thing over a four year period
The movie “My Spy,” starring Dave Bautista, will open on 3/12. There has been a lot of commercials for it, particularly and obviously during wrestling shows.
This would have been something big a generation ago, as on 2/29 at Belleview High School in Belleview, FL, for the first time ever, Dory Funk Jr. (who is 79 years old) will team with Rick & Scott Steiner to face three of the wrestlers Funk has trained, Shane Chung & Blain Rage & Jake Logan
AAW ran 2/21 at Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago before 475 fans. Mance Warner, the current AAW champion, came out with a keg of beer. Then Sami Callihan hit the ring and attacked Warner and slammed a chair into his head on the keg trying to basically do the Randy Orton stuff from Raw. Callihan then stole the title belt. This led to a title match later in the show which Warner won by throwing a chair at him and hitting him with a running knee. Kris Statlander kept the women’s title over Jody Threat with the Big Bang Theory in 15:29. The Hyan, who had won a three-way earlier in the show, challenged Statlander for a shot after. Fred Yehi won a four-way over Hakim Zane, Jordan Oliver and Josh Briggs by making Oliver submit in a match where the winner would get a title shot. The Warner vs. Yehi title match will take place on the 16th anniversary show on 3/20. The Besties in the World, Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega, retained the tag titles over Myron Reed & AR Fox when Fitchett pined Fox. Taurus, Aramis and Arez will be starting as regulars with AAW on 3/20 with Taurus & Gringo Loco forming a tag team. That takes Taurus, who is also working the 16 Carat Gold tournament, out of his scheduled AAA March dates and why he wasn’t booked for Rey de Reyes.
EUROPE: With Will Ospreay not in this year’s Super Junior tournament, he will headline the 5/3 RevPro show at York Hall in London. RevPro ran 2/20 in Portsmouth with Mark Haskins over Shota Umino in the main event, and 2/23 in Southampton, with Michael Oku over Connor Mills in the main event
wXw ran a show on 2/21 in Hamburg, Germany before a sellout of 700 fans as the last show before the 16 Carat Gold tournament. Absolute Andy & Jay Skillet won a top contenders bout for the tag titles beating Jordan Devlin & Scotty Davis. David Starr beat Ilja Dragunov in a non-sanctioned match. The Pretty Bastards, Maggot & Prince Ahura, retained the tag titles over Julian Pace & Leon van Gasteren and Bobby Gunns beat Avalanche in the main event
Progress ran 2/23 in London with Cara Noir over Mark Andrews for their world title in the main event, plus Dragunov over Malik, Millie McKenzie over Toni Storm, Paul Robinson keeping the Proteus title over Kyle Fletcher via reef decision. Anthony Henry & JD Drake from Evolve were brought in and lost to Eddie Kingston & Scotty Davis
A correction from last week. Ricky Knight Jr. who we listed as the brother of Paige, is actually the nephew of Paige and the son of Paige’s sister Roy. Knight Jr., is 19 years old and Revolution Pro promoter Andy Quildan compared him to Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll and Zack Sabre Jr., at the same stages of their career. Knight Jr., is definitely someone to keep on your radar
Dirty Dick Swales, a 1950s U.K. star, passed away on 1/23 at the age of 90. He was born September 16, 1929, so he was one of the oldest wrestlers still alive until the time of his death. The Cauliflower Alley Club reported his death, noting that Swales wrestled such legends as Mick McManus, George Kidd and Bernard Murray. They said he remained interested in wrestling after his career was over and his name came up as attending a number of U.K. wrestling reunions.
MLW: The card announced for the 3/13 tapings in Tijuana, which is a joint show with AAA and EMW, has Octagon Jr. & Myzteziz Jr. & El Hijo del Vikingo defending the AAA trios titles against Myron Reed & Jordan Oliver & Kotto Brazil (Injustice), Xtreme Tiger & Puma King vs. Tom Lawlor & Dominic Garrini, Averno & Chessman vs. Gino Medina & Richard Holliday, Black Destiny & Rayo Star & Fantastik vs. Mocho Cota Jr. & Carta Brava Jr & Tito Santana, Alex Hammerstone vs. Laredo Kid for the National title, Brian Pillman Jr. & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. El Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion, Psycho Clown & Nino Hamburguesa & Nicho (original Psicosis) vs. L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park & L.A. Park Jr., and Pagano & Mortiz vs. Savio Vega & Mance Warner in an extreme rules match
They are writing MJF out as his contract is expiring and he’ll be full-time with AEW from this point forward. He’ll be written out in an angle with Hammerstone
Demus debuts on 4/18 in Chicago. The Demus debut means MLW is going to start a minis division according to the release announcing his arrival, with him being one of the cornerstones.
ROH: The relationship with New Japan, which seemed nearly dead a few months ago, looks to have changed, whether that’s because of Marty Scurll being in charge of creative, it’s hard to say. Scurll was attempting to shore up relations with New Japan and open relations with AEW when he started. While no names have been announced, ROH announced a War of the Worlds tour featuring New Japan talent will take place with shows on 5/6 in Buffalo, 5/7 in Toronto at the Ted Reeve Arena, 5/9 in Kalamazoo, MI and 5/10 in Villa Park (Chicago), IL at th Odeum Expo Center
Session Moth Martina vs. Nicole Savoy has been added to the 3/13 PPV show from Las Vegas
Clark Connors, Ren Narita and Paul London have been added to the 3/14 show. Also added to the show is Mark Haskins vs. John Walters
Doug Williams is coming out of retirement for more than just one show, as he, Rocky Romero and Jonathan Gresham were the first names announced for the Pure Wrestling title tournament which starts 4/10 in Columbus, OH and 4/11 in Pittsburgh. Alex Shelley was also announced
Angelina Love, Kellyanne (Salter) from Australia and Sumie Sakai have been announced for their upcoming women’s title tournament
They have two shows this weekend on Honor Club. The 2/28 show in Nashville at 8:30 p.m. Eastern has Vincent & Bateman vs. Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry vs. PJ Black & Brian Johnson, Nicole Savoy vs. Angelina Love, Alex Shelley vs. Rey Horus, Rush & Kenny King vs. Flip Gordon & Brody King, Slex vs. Marty Scurll vs. Bandido, Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe, Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Silas Young & Josh Woods for the tag titles and PCO vs. Dragon Lee for the ROH title
2/29 at the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO, at 8 p.m. Eastern has Love vs. Martina, Maff vs. Shelley, Vincent & Bateman vs. Woods & Young, Briscoes & Slex vs. Scurll & Gordon & Brody King, Lethal & Gresham vs. Bandido & Horus non-title, Lee vs. Dak Draper for the TV title and PCO vs Rush vs. Mark Haskins.
IMPACT: They had two shows over the weekend. They had a live Twitch show on 2/21 from Lexington, KY, which was watched by about 700 people on average. Not much to this show. Tessa Blanchard & Daga beat Ace Austin & Jake Crist in the main event when Blanchard pinned Crist after a DDT. Daga sold almost the entire match before hot tagging his girlfriend, who cleaned house and won. Jessicka Havok won a four-way over champ Jordynne Grace, Kiera Hogan and Megan Bayne when Havok beat Bayne. Rhino pinned Mad Man Fulton in a weapons match with a gore when Rhino ducked a chair shot after a ref bump and a low blow by Fulton. Tag champs Josh Alexander & Ethan Page beat Acey Romero & Larry D
The second show on 2/22 drew a sellout of 500 fans to the Davis Arena in Louisville. They had a non-title battle of champions as Impact champ Tessa Blanchard beat X Division champ Ace Austin with a DDT off the top rope. Match was strong. In the prematch promos the idea was that whoever won would then get to challenge the loser for the losers’ title belt. Knockouts champ Grace beat Havok via ref stoppage after a choke. Joey Ryan pinned Johnny Swinger. Moose pinned Rhino after a spear through a table in a no DQ match
They announced TV tapings on 4/24 and 4/25 in Columbus, OH at the Expo Center.
AEW: Cody suffered a broken big toe in his landing after the moonsault on the 2/19 Impact show in Atlanta. It could have been worse. He’s not missing any time over it
He also talked to Sports Illustrated about the moonsault. “I thought about it all day. Tony Khan was adamant that I didn’t do it. I’ve never seen a boss like him and how he leads, and the way he cares about his investments. Too many people were trying to talk me out of it. Typically, I’m by the `Go position’ during our show, but I stayed away.
.Regarding the emotion from his post-match promo that didn’t air on television, but may have been the best promo of the year, he said, about Baker Street, which was where fans gathered after shows at the old Omni Arena in Atlanta to get autographs from the wrestlers leaving, including Cody when he was about eight years old and his father took him to a show, “That street is where all the fans collect before and after the show. When I was a kid, up until that moment, I literally didn’t have a clue how popular Dusty was. Sting was my favorite wrestler, but Dusty got a pop as big as his. That was when I started to realize his significance, and it happened right there on that street in that same spot. Getting in that building is hard and complicated and everyone is always late, but I know that Baker Street spot.
Chris Jericho spoke to the New York Post about when he believed he was a guy who could carry a promotion. “Could I have done more in WCW in a headlining position? Would I have been good? I didn’t know. In my mind I’d be great. The first time I was put in a headlining position in WWF, I wasn’t ready, and in WCW, it was a couple years earlier. So maybe I wasn’t ready. And as the career goes forward, I can tell you the exact moment when I knew I had become a legit, headlining, main-event guy and the exact moment where I became the top guy, which was in New Japan Jan. 4, 2018 (the Kenny Omega match), which led to being the top guy here in AEW.” As far as what he sees his role as, he said, “When you’re the top guy, you don’t hide and stop others from getting in there because then it just becomes stale and it dies. Your job as the top guy is to help everyone else up on top of the mountain so that there are 15 top guys and everybody is making money and everyone’s having a great time, people are enjoying the show and the product.
A correction from last week. We wrote that Tony Khan first met Jeff Cobb at the show in Atlanta last week but they actually met in Austin first the week before, even though Khan had been at PWG shows that Cobb wrestled on
The debut in Houston will be 4/29 at the University of Houston’s Fertitta Center, which should hold about 6,000. It was known for most of its existence as the Hofheinz Pavilion and was really famous in the days that the University of Houston had a killer college basketball program. The Fertitta name comes from Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire owner of Landry’s Restaurants and a ton of other businesses, as well a the Houston Rockets, who is the third cousin of Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. One would think for a Houston debut they should come close to filling the place, but Houston just had the Rumble and didn’t do well for the Takeover the night before
The 3/4 show in Broomfield, CO, is in danger of being the lowest attendance in company history. They had sold about 2,500 tickets one week out. The record low is 2,950. Lance Archer debuts on this show. They are also giving away two tickets to everyone who makes a $50 red cross donation
Omega was interviewed by The Sporting News and asked about people who say he’s not as good because he’s not having the kind of matches he had in New Japan. “It's funny because I feel like when people … I could compare it to when your favorite player perhaps gets traded to another team. When your favorite player gets traded to another team, and he's initially not the top scorer or leading in assists or playing the way that he used to play like he did for the home team, your team, it's easy to criticize them and say that you made a big mistake, and that you'll never be the same guy again and that it's all downhill. Because I decided to take a different path in my career, because I'm not doing these long, drawn-out 45 (-minute) to one-hour matches in singles competition, it doesn't mean that I'm not the same guy. This isn't about tooting my own horn, but it's like I'm now helping run a company that has live television every Wednesday. I'm part of a very successful tag team with "Hangman" Adam Page, a guy that I have a lot of chemistry with, and I'm existing within a division of guys that are amongst the top of all the tag teams on all of the planet and showing that it takes more than just having a good long singles match to be called the best in the world. You got to be a good tag team wrestler. You have to be a good six-man tag team wrestler. You have to be good at your gimmick matches. You have to be able to appeal to the non-wrestling fan. So, I'm not only proud of sure, "The Best Bout Machine" version of Kenny Omega that had the wrestlers wrestling matches the 60-minutes classics with (Kazuchika) Okada (in New Japan Pro Wrestling). I'm just as proud of that as I am with my mixed tag team with Riho (former AEW women's champion) as a tag team partner. I'm just as proud of those matches as I am as the lights out match with Jon Moxley. In ways, this is all me in my creative peak. I mean, I'm talking about my storyline with Kota Ibushi. I don't know if you call that "The Best Bout Machine" Kenny Omega or not. But to me, that's something different. It's these layers of these things that go into making what I think makes a true best in the world — not just one guy that has the same kind of match over and over and over again. Because I do not have that same match over and over again, does that not make me just as good? It just makes me something different. I'm trying to round out. I'm trying to fill the gaps around the edges and make myself a complete package in all of professional wrestling. That even goes beyond what I do in the ring, but actually behind the scenes too. There's a business aspect to it — to balance all of that and still trying to kind of check off these boxes. Now, I even have a belt in AAA (Mexican-based promotion). I've went to a country that I never thought I'd be able to perform in and won "Match of the Year." I went back to my first promotion in DDT and go into Soloreal Goku when they haven't been able to do high numbers there and did a good number. These are all things I can hang my hat on, and I'm very, very proud of it. My critics will say I have done nothing, and that's OK. They can say it, but the truth is far from it
The Young Bucks spoke to Steve Muehlhausen of The Sporting News on their decision to get off Twitter. Nick Jackson said, “Things like that, the negativity. We've been getting it our whole career, and it's funny that people pointed to that situation. That was far from the truth because we could care less. I had no clue there is even outrage about the Dark Order punch thing until Brandon Cutler told us at a Christmas party that Twitter was going nuts, and we're like, `What? Really?’ To that point, we were just about done with social media. We were done with it anyway. So one morning, Matt and I decided to delete it, and we had been talking about it forever. I was like, `You know what, since you want to delete it, that means I can delete it.’ So we removed it at the same exact time, and we didn't look back. That platform helped us get to where we were. But at this point, we didn't need it anymore. We got what we needed out of it. And that was it. Another reason was, we were spending too much time on it. While we were home, we would be reading things about us good or bad. There's one particular moment where it hit me where I was reading stuff about the show, and my kids were playing, and they were like, `Daddy come play with me.’ And I wasn't listening to them. They had to shake me and said, `Daddy, come play with me.’ And then I looked at my phone and was like, `What am I doing? I'm wasting time on this fake thing that doesn't matter. It doesn't affect my life. I'm taking time doing this instead of playing with my children at home. How selfish of a human being am I to do this?’ It hit me. I was like, `You know what, that's it. I'm done with it.’ It's been a few months now that I haven't even looked at it. It's really changed my life in that regard.” “I was going to add that it's also helped spark our creativity,” said Matt. “I think the shows have been a lot better since we got off because when you read something and whether you're going to believe it or not, it's still in the back of your mind, and maybe subconsciously, you're thinking about it. It started to start changing the way you feel about the shows and your creativity. For me, it stifled me. You'd have a great match or great show, and I would read a comment, and I'd be hot rolling my eyes. But then again, like, maybe it did play a factor and certain ways I saw it and perhaps I misjudged it, and I'm like, `Wait, did we not have a good show?’ I thought it was, and then I realized, `Wait a minute now, like, you're never going to be able to make everybody happy. It's absolutely impossible.’ On the same breath, though, it's also not good mentally to read the extreme good about yourself. It's like this emotional roller-coaster ride, and you put yourself through it. It's just not a healthy thing to sit there and read about yourself. We still are on social media. We do have a presence, and I still do have a Twitter account. I'm not controlling it anymore. I still have Instagram, and we still have "Being The Elite" which, in my eyes, is what truly brought us to the dance. That's where I communicate with my fans the most, and that's where I express myself the most. We're still available to our fans. We're the most accessible wrestlers in the world. We're going to maintain that and be like that forever.
Some notes from this week’s BTE. They made the official announcement of the new Young Bucks autobiography “Young Bucks: Killing the Business from the backyards to the big leagues,” which is being published by Harper Collins and comes out 9/29. They also pushed the action figure line. On the action figures, the MJF figure is so accurate it’s scary. They did a skit with Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander that looked like the start of something but I have no idea what. Christopher Daniels had a nightmare that Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky were shunning him because they thought he had joined the Dark Order. John Silver & Alex Reynolds teased that the Exalted One is coming. Matt Jackson was all excited to meet Tony Schiavone not to talk about the product but for tips on how to make coffee. Schiavone was furious, gave a speech about how yes he worked for Starbucks to help feed his family and said “Matt Jackson, you can go to hell” in a spoof of what he said when Hulk Hogan joined the NWO. Nick magically made new ring gear for Matt & Kenny Omega. They showed Omega rehabbing his torn right labrum that he’s been working on for several months. They also showed Omega walking the streets of New York while Matt Jackson sang his entrance music. The idea was he was walking like he does in his video entrance where he’s walking in Tokyo and they were telling him to not live in the past and get a new entrance video. They did a few spots with Brandon Cutler. In one, he was getting mad at Matt & Nick because they told him to call an Uber in Atlanta. Matt ended up learning from Schiavone how to make good coffee and Cutler was holding a sign to go into Matt’s office for the best coffee in AEW. Peter Avalon and Leva Bates showed up. Bates loved the coffee and Avalon called Cutler a loser and they argued over who had more losses. The last segment was Omega & Adam Page. Page was pouring his heart out saying that Omega was the best wrestler in the world, that Cody was the best talker in the world and that the Young Bucks were the best tag team in the world, and where does he fit in. Omega gave him a pep talk about how they are the tag team champions and it’s 50/50 and he needs to quit feeling sorry for himself and get his head back in the game for the tag title match
Notes from the 2/26 tapings in Independence, MO. This was another in the string of great shows, particularly the first hour and the closing Jericho/Moxley weigh-in segment. The first part of the show was the Omega vs. Pac Iron Man match, which to me was either the third or fourth best match in company history, and beat out the Nick Jackson vs. Fenix and last week’s Omega & Adam Page vs. Pentagon Jr.& Fenix match as the best match in the history of the Dynamite television show. The show drew 3,700 fans, which was announced as a sellout. Technically they were about 140 tickets shy. The crowd was very hot all night, especially for the Iron Man match. People in the building took that match as being something special before it even started, and both wrestlers more than lived up to expectations. For Dark, the opener saw Dr. Luther (Len Olson), 51, who hasn’t wrestled regularly in nearly two decades but did indies in the Calgary area from time to time at least until a few years ago, pin Sonny Kiss. Slow paced. Luther beat him down after the match until Jimmy Havoc made the save. So looks like Luther vs. Havoc. Omega beat Pac in a match that went 32:12 of real time. They were doing the opposite of shaving time, as they froze the clock between falls, which is normally not what is done in pro wrestling. They also tied 1-1 in falls and went into sudden death. The keys were that Pac got DQ’d in a fall, so they did have a DQ to establish it can be done, but it wasn’t a DQ finish of a match that would be flat. Pac scored the only clean fall and had Omega beaten at the end of the time limit. But they went into a sudden death which Omega won. So they left the door open for another match or for Pac to claim he scored the only actual fall and the bell saved Omega from it being 2-0, and he never knew there would be an overtime. I went ****3/4 for the match. The place popped when Justin Roberts announced the Iron Man match was first. Omega came out with The Young Bucks, which was a play off all of Omega’s biggest singles matches in New Japan when they would be in his corner, so they finally did the authentic Omega New Japan classic. They did everything under the sun. Omega did the Terminator dive. Pac escaped from you can’t escape. It was super hard hitting, to the point Pac was bleeding from his chest from the chops. Pac did a moonsault off the apron, Omega caught him and then Pac turned it into a tornado DDT with Omega’s head missing the mats and hitting the floor. Pac did a top rope brainbuster. That was nuts. Pac did a great missile dropkick and an in and out cutter. Pac did a brutal kick to the head that made Omega’s head snap. There were so many spots where it looked like Omega was hurt, but he suffered no serious injuries, but it’s still crazy that he’s got the tag title match on Saturday. Omega used an awesome teep kick that sent Pac flying into the corner. Pac kicked out of the Jay driller and out of Croyt’s Wrath. Omega went for a one winged angel off the top rope but Pac blocked that and used a sunset flip power bomb. Pac used a chair to the head to get DQ’d in 15:57. He did a second chair shot to the head and then when the second fall started, immediately hit the black arrow for the pin at 16:39 (actually 17:16 but the clock was frozen between falls). Pac went to the top for another black arrow but Omega rolled out of the ring. Pac used a falcon arrow on Omega off the apron to the floor. Pac dropkicked Omega into ref Paul Turner. Dr. Michael Sampson came out to check if Omega could continue. Pac kept looking under the ring until he finally found a table. So, this is a bad part of wrestling, but it won’t change. The match was going along more than great. Fans were into it as a contest, but the minute Pac went looking under the ring, the fans went from the drama of a contest to flipping the switch away from the drama of the match to just wanting to see a table break. The reality is they’ve been weaned on this for 24 years now, it’s an easy crowd reaction and it’s not going away so wrestlers will use it forever. But it changed the dynamic of the crowd from the match and the struggle to win, to the who cares about the match or the people, we just want a table to break. It really felt like wrestling could use a moratorium on tables in the U.S., but that can’t and won’t happen. Pac came off the top rope outside the ring with a shooting star press putting Omega through the table. Omega was nearly counted out but Matt Jackson threw him in the ring to beat the count. Pac went for the black arrow, but Omega at the last second got his knees up. Omega did two V triggers, went for the One Winged Angel, but Pac countered with a poison rana. Pac hit a tornado DDT and put on the brutalizer with just under three minutes left. Omega finally made the ropes. Pac got the brutalizer on again but Omega held on until the bell rang at 31:10. Pac then decked ref Paul Turner. Justin Roberts announced a sudden death period. Aubrey Edwards came out. She’s become exactly what she didn’t want, which is a huge star to the live crowd. The crowd started chanting for her, which means she became the focus and not the wrestlers or the match. Omega hit two V triggers, a kamagoye and Pac kicked out. Omega finally hit the One Winged Angel 1:02 into overtime for the win. So the story was that Pac and Omega survived everything including Pac surviving the finishing move of Kota Ibushi. The crowd gave both a standing ovation. When Tony Schiavone interviewed Pac and brought up him making the challenge to Omega and then failing, the crowd booed Schiavone. Orange Cassidy came out and Pac attacked him to set up a PPV match. Lexy Nair wanted to talk to Jericho. Jake Hager answered the door and wouldn’t talk to her and slammed the door in her face. No way anybody slams a door in that woman’s face. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt beat Santana & Ortiz & Sammy Guevara in 9:04. Crowd was super hot here. Jungle Boy did a tope on Santana and another on Ortiz. Most of the match was the heel beating up on Stunt. There was a triple superkick on Guevara spot. Luchasaurus did a moonsault off the apron onto everyone but Guevara and Jungle Boy, who were in the ring. Guevara went to use the loaded sock, but Darby Allin came down and took it away. Jungle Boy pinned Guevara with a snap rana. It ended with Allin backdropping Guevara over the top rope onto Santana & Ortiz. Allin, who can’t speak, then held up signs for his promo. He wrote that at Revolution, the coffin will drop. Chuck Taylor & Trent beat Butcher & Blade in 8:07. This was a fun match. They set up a spot with Cassidy in the ring with Bunny. She stole his sunglasses. She went for another low blow on him but he blocked it. He stole her bunny ears. He then, with her bunny ears on, hit Butcher with a tope. They did strong zero on Blade for the pin. Hikaru Shida won a four-way over Big Swole, Yuka Sakazaki and Shanna in 9:11. This match wasn’t smooth. Sakazaki was clearly the biggest star to the fans. Some big moves including Shanna doing a double Del Rio double foot stomp on Shida and Sakazaki at the same time. Shida pinned Swole with the shining wizard. Evil Uno said that The Exalted One is near. He also said that Christopher Daniels will find out that he is obsolete. They showed a tape of Jim Ross interviewing Omega, Page and the Young Bucks. This was great. Page was drinking. Omega tried to explain them winning the tag titles before the Young Bucks was just time and place. Page got mad that he was trying to downplay what they did. The idea is Omega was torn between his partner, who had a short fuse, and his friends, who he has to fight. Page said that he tried to quit The Elite and they wouldn’t let him. Finally Nick Jackson blew up and said that “You were a jobber in ROH” and basically that they picked him for Bullet Club and put him on BTE and made him a star. Page said that everyone is downplaying him being tag team champion but this is the biggest accomplishment of his career and the Young Bucks, first chance they have, are trying to take it from him. Page then said his glass is empty and he’s out, and he walked off. The final segment was the weigh-ins. They brought in Gary Michael Cappetta, the former WWF and WCW ring announcer. The Inner Circle came out like a 1990s Gracie train and they were all wearing Painmaker Posse ring jackets. The fans sang Jericho’s song probably the loudest since the boat. Moxley weighed in at 234. Jericho was stalling and never weighed in. Moxley head-butted him. Jericho came up bloody and legit needed seven stitches around his nose. There was a big brawl with everyone beating up Moxley. Dustin Rhodes made the save and he and Jake Hager brawled to the back. Allin came out again but he was beaten down and Guevara broke Allin’s skateboard on him. Moxley made a comeback but Santana gave him a low blow and Jericho hit the Judas effect, and then used Moxley’s own paradigm shift on him onto the scale. For Dark, Britt Baker beat Miranda Alize under a mask. The crowd was dead as this came right after the hot weigh-in angle. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno beat Michael Nakazawa & Peter Avalon. The Dark Order was really over to the crowd. Private Party beat Shawn Spears & Brandon Cutler. Sloppy but the fans liked it.
UFC: The expected bantamweight title fight with Henry Cejudo defending against Jose Aldo will be the main event of UFC 250 on 5/9 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Cejudo has been out with a shoulder injury. This match has been heavily criticized, for obvious reasons. Aldo has only fought once at 135, and lost a close decision to Marlon Moraes. But Petr Yan has looked like a killer and has gone 6-0 in UFC including dominant wins over Urijah Faber, Jimmie Rivera and John Dodson. Aljamain Sterling has also won six of his last seven in the division. In the old days, you could answer this that they have a show in Sao Paulo and that Aldo is a big star with more name value. But Aldo in the main event isn’t going to make any difference in PPV buys over Yan or Sterling, and the finances are very different now anyway. It’s one thing when you are building a sport and you need shows to do as much business as possible. It’s very different when the business won’t be any different and you are swimming in guaranteed money so marquee value of PPVs isn’t making any difference. That said, Cejudo vs. Aldo should be a good fight as Aldo did look very competitive with Moraes, and could have gotten the decision, and Moraes had looked great in his recent fights. That show also has Aleksei Oleinik vs. Fabricio Werdum, Augusto Sakai vs. Blagoy Ivanov and Mauricio Shogun Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and goes head-to-head with the San Jose Bellator show with Ryan Bader vs. Vadim Nemkov for the light heavyweight title and Gegard Mousasi vs. Douglas Lima for the vacant middleweight title
Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanne Calderwood for the women’s flyweight title will take place on 6/7 (6/6 U.S. time) on a PPV show from Perth, Western Australia. Alexander Volkanovski defending the featherweight title against Max Holloway is being worked on to be the main event
Israel Adesayna was heavily criticized for making a very bad attempt at humor with a joke about 9/11 that didn’t go over well. He said he was rambling and his mouth worked faster than his brain and he apologized for it
Philipe Lins, who won the PFL heavyweight tournament for $1 million in 2018, has signed here and will debut on 5/2 in Oklahoma City against Andrei Arlovski. Lins was injured last year and unable to compete in the tournament. Ed Herman vs. Da Un Jung of South Korea is also on that show. . There are planned shows on 6/20 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and 6/27 in Austin, TX
This week’s show is 2/29 from the Chartway Arena in Norfolk, VA. It’s an ESPN+ show that starts at 5 p.m. Eastern with Ismail Naurdiev (19-3) vs. Sean Brady (11-0), Aalon Cruz (8-2) vs. Spike Carlyle (8-1), Jordan Griffin (17-7) vs. T.J. Brown (14-6), Marcin Tybura (17-6) vs Serghei Spivac (10-1), Luis Pena (7-2) vs. Steve Garcia (11-3), Tom Breese (11-1) vs. Brendan Allen (13-3), Gabriel Silva (8-1) vs. Kyler Phillps (6-1), Darrick Minner (24-10) vs. Grant Dawson (14-1), Norma Dumont (4-0) vs. Megan Anderson (10-4), Ion Cutelaba (15-4) vs. Magomed Ankalaev (12-1), Felicia Spencer (7-1) vs. Zarah Fairn (6-3) and the main event of this one-fight show has Joseph Benavidez (28-5) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (17-1) for the vacant fly weight title. Benavidez. 35. has been the top contender for the title for most of the period since its inception in late 2012 when he lost a split decision to Demetrious Johnson. He go a rematch on December 14, 2013, which Johnson won via knockout in 2:08. From that point forward, no matter who he beat, they never considered him for another fight. He’d gone 9-1 since the second Johnson loss, with the only loss via split decision to Sergio Pettis. But he had wins over Henry Cejudo, Jussier Formiga and other top contenders. Cejudo vacated the title after winning the bantamweight title. Figueiredo’s only loss was via decision to Formiga on March 23, 2019
Garcia is a late replacement against Pena when Alex Munoz pulled out due to injury
The Eric Spicely vs. Puma Soriano fight scheduled for 3/28 in Columbus, OH is now off. Spicely, who also does independent pro wrestling, will now face Roman Kopylov on that show. Soriano has been moved to the 5/16 show in San Diego where he will face Anthony Hernandez
The Edmen Shahbayzyan vs,. Derek Brunson fight that was scheduled for the 3/7 show in Las Vegas was moved to 4/11 in Portland, OR since Brunson has been dealing with an illness
Ariane Lipski, a former KSW women’s flyweight champion, faces Luana Carolina on the 5/16 show which is believed to be in San Diego.
BELLATOR: They had two weekend shows. The 2/21 show in Thackerville, OK saw Yuroslav Amasov move to 23-0 beating former three-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth (8-2) on straight 29-28 scores. Myles Jury (18-5) beat Brandon Girtz (16-9) also via straight 29-28 scores. The most talk was Tyrell Fortune, who was a 13-to-1 favorite and came in at 8-0 and was talked of as a major heavyweight prospect, getting tagged and knocked out in just 2:35 by Tim Johnson (13-6). It was easily the biggest upset so far this year on the U.S. MMA scene. Valentin Moldavsky (9-1) beat Javy Ayala (11-8) on scores of 30-25, 30-24 and 30-24 in a one-sided heavyweight fight
They also ran on 2/22 in Dublin, Ireland with Oliver Enkamp over Lewis Long via knockout at 4:10 in the first round in the main event, while Ricky Bandejas knocked out Frans Mlambo at 1:25 of the second round. Former UFC fighter Bec Rawlings beat Elina Kalionidou via decision on 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scores. The main event saw Brent Primus beat Chris Bungard via first round choke.
OTHER MMA: The Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder fight on 2/22 did what is now estimated at 800,000 to 850,000 buys on PPV. That number would be right at break-even for the promoters and was a huge disappointment given Bob Arum had first predicted 2 million buys, and later changed that to saying it would do Mayweather-Pacquiao numbers (4.6 million range). With all of the promotion from both FOX and ESPN, particularly it being pushed as a major event on ESPN, with tons of hype everywhere, commercials everywhere including at the Super Bowl, the number shocked everyone on the low end as 1 million buys was considered a conservative estimate based on the hype. I think the key is what has happened in wrestling. Due to DAZN, the consumer base now sees $20 as the fair price for a blockbuster event. While a few years ago, you could charge $100 and do record numbers, as Floyd Mayweather’s bouts with both Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor showed, now, at least a percentage of viewers are balking at the price tag, which in this case was $79.99. Some of it is also overestimating how over Fury and Wilder’s names are to the mainstream, because at the end of the day, if people don’t know who you are, they aren’t spending that kind of money to see you fight. But they actually did less between television and streaming than McGregor and Donald Cerrone, not even a title fight, did on streaming alone. ESPN and FS 1 both aired the prelim fights to 862,000 viewers on ESPN and 441,000 on FS 1. The show sold out the MGM Grand Garden Arena with 15,210 paid and 84 comps for a gate of $16,916,440. It also did 22,000 tickets in theaters around the U.S., which is considered good for this day and age. The live gate did break the record of $16,860,300 set by Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield on November 13, 1999, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. This would be the first era ever in the U.S. where the pro wrestling gate record beat the heavyweight boxing record. In the 1920s, Jack Dempsey did two $1 million gates for title defenses against Georges Carpentier (and yes, Edouard Carpentier was named after him) and Luis Firpo (Pampero Firpo was named after him) while the pro wrestling record was $80,000. Pro wrestling never hit $100,000 until Lou Thesz vs. Baron Leone in 1952 and didn’t hit $1 million U.S. until WrestleMania III in 1987. WrestleMania did that number at AT&T Stadium and WrestleMania did nearly that number last year. Actually because WWE adds in the service charges from ticket outlets to the gate which boxing doesn’t, this would be higher than any Mania but they are in the same ballpark. Granted, heavyweight boxing isn’t big money boxing to this generation as it was for most of boxing’s history. Boxing’s all-time gate record was Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao at $72,198,160, way out of touch of pro wrestling. Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is the second largest at $55,414,866
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has overturned Tito Ortiz’s win over Alberto Rodriguez (Alberto El Patron) on the Combate Americas PPV show on 12/7 in McAllen, TX. The match is now ruled a no contest. Ortiz won the match in 3:10 with a choke. No reason has been given but it would have to be some kind of a rule infraction that would have to do with Ortiz for such a decision to be made. It’s a surprise that it would be publicly overturned prior to the completion of the investigation into whatever the issue is. ESPN reported Ortiz tested positive for a banned substance, which was not a PED, and that Ortiz is attempting to get the win back claiming that he had told the Department of Licensing and Regulations that he was using the substance prior to the fight
Former UFC and Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, 33, is now pregnant with a boy, which would be her second child.
WWE: While nothing has been announced, the belief is that the television deal in India is either finalized or close to. The contract expired at the end of the year and they were hoping to have a new deal last year. WWE had remained on television under the terms of the old deal. They were getting about $34 million from the market, and expectations were they would have a huge increase, with some estimating as much as $125 million per year, making it the No. 2 market behind the U.S. They are the No. 2 market, as the belief is that BT Sports paid less for WWE rights than Sky (which was paying around $35 million per year). However, India is getting an increase, with the belief the number will fall around $60-61 million. It’s a solid increase but probably won’t help the stock since so many expected significantly better
Regarding the WWE Network, they had a new commercial for it in Canada and there was a price raise from $12.99 per month to $14.99. It should be noted that if WWE makes a deal with ESPN+ or Peacock that neither would apply to Canada
For the XFL ratings, numbers were down, as expected in week three, but would still be healthy as the third weeks drops weren’t bad. The 2 p.m. Saturday game on ABC did 1,914,000 viewers, down ten percent from last week. The 5 p.m. FOX game did 2,051,000 viewers , down 11.7 percent from last week. The Sunday 3 p.m. game on ESPN did 1,473,000 viewers, down 38.5 percent, but the Sunday 3 p.m. game last week was on ABC so you are going to get a drop from ABC to ESPN. It was actually higher than the 6 p.m. game last week on ESPN. The 6 p.m. game this week was on FS 1 and did 1,004,000 viewers, down 26.1 percent, but again, you’d expect a drop like that from ESPN to FS 1. The drops not being bad in the third week as far as at least comparing the same stations indicates they can stay above 1.5 million viewers for the network shows and 750,000 on FS 1 and 1 million on ESPN which would be considered a success. Even though the numbers were lower, this was the most promising week because the first week was going to be misleading and the second week was going to drop big. But the third week seems to indicate the big declines are over and where they are leveling out is at a successful point
Samoa Joe (Nuufulao Joel Seanoa), 40, was suspended for 30 days for violation of the Wellness policy. This story is interesting. About three weeks ago, the twitter account Wrestlevotes listed that there was a drug test failure and strongly hinted it was Joe, if not said. At the time, those in WWE denied there was any test failure. It should be noted that other than Vince McMahon, and maybe Paul Levesque, nobody knows about drug test failure within the company. The creative team doesn’t know, even though they have to figure how to write people out. Wrestlevotes then apologized for the story being wrong. And as it turns out, it wasn’t wrong. WWE does delay suspensions and announcing suspensions until it fits better. In this case, Joe, with his second concussion in a short period of time meaning he could be out for a while, is serving the suspension at a time he couldn’t wrestle either way. The suspension went into effect on 2/24 and was announced the same day, so he would be eligible for WrestleMania. He was not scheduled for a featured bout at the time of the suspension, but that could have changed with the participants in multiple-man matches subject to flux. But with the latest concussion, there is no word on when he can return because it’s about passing his concussion testing
Sari Fujimura, 23, better known as Saree, announced at the DIANA promotion show in Tokyo on 2/22 that she has signed with WWE and would be moving to the U.S. next month. We had reported the WWE and Saree deal some time back. She’s been wrestling for nine years. She was trained by Kyoko Inoue as well as former Olympic medalist Kyoko Hamaguchi
Cathy Kelly said that she left WWE for a number of reasons in an interview with Maria Menounos’ channel, which is where she originally came from. Kelly said that she was looking to do other projects that her WWE contract and schedule wouldn’t allow her to do, and also said she had gotten tired of the travel schedule
There will be a significant debut on Smackdown which was teased on the show this weekend with static and a symbol. The best bet seems to be Killer Kross only because of the word Kross was going to be fast-tracked as compared to most signings and because of the war with AEW, they are not as apt to move key people that have been established on NXT television. The Shayna Baszler vs. Becky Lynch match was planned before NXT got television so that would be the exception
Kairi Sane, real name Kaori Housako, 31, was married on 2/22. She said it was to someone she has of late had a long distance relationship with as he lives in Japan
Add Jordan Devlin to the injured list. He had bursitis in the elbow and had to pull out of his Progress date this past weekend. He is expected to be ready in about a week
Booker Huffman, better known as Booker T, has a lawsuit against Activision in U.S. District Court in Texas. Huffman’s contends that the character “Prophet” in the “Call of Duty”video game franchise is a copy of the G.I. Bro comic book action hero character that he created and copyrighted. Booker also started his career using the name G.I. Bro for a Houston-based promotion run by Ivan Putski, and later used the name in 2000 during the dying days of WCW. Activision’s attempt to get the lawsuit thrown out was rebuked by Judge Robert Schroeder, who said that both characters have the same muscular build, same skin tone, nearly identical facial features and facial expressions, same dreads, same clothing, same ammo holders strapped to their lower body, same assault rifles held in a similar fashion with the end of the gun positioned near the character’s right shoulder. The judge said that side-by-side comparisons are sufficiently similar to keep the lawsuit open
Some updated Canadian numbers. Smackdown on 2/14 did 131,000 viewers with 64,500 in 25-54. Raw on 2/17 did 234,500 viewers with 131,500 in 25-54. AEW on 2/19 did 115,500 viewers, its best numbers so far this year, with 60,000 in 25-54. NXT and Main Event didn’t register. Curling did huge numbers against all three wrestling shows. Smackdown on 2/21 did 210,700 viewers and 79,200 in 25-54. Raw on 2/24 did 242,000 viewers, which on a week night for sports in Canada, made it the No. 1 sports show in the country on television that night, and also did 124,500 in 25-54. Nothing from the XFL or UFC cracked the top ten on Saturdays or Sundays
Ric Flair, on his 71st birthday, was at the Staples Center to give the introductions to the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James before their game with the New Orleans Pelicans. Flair called James the greatest athlete in the world
The Revival has filed for trademarks for the terms “Top Guys,” “Say Yeah,” and “No flips. Just fists.” They already filed for the term “Forever the Revival,” which means they can use the FTR branding that the Young Bucks used years ago on BTE and in ROH when they would have people chant “F*** the Revival” based on the idea at that time The Revival was the team people were considering as possibly better than the Young Bucks. Well, main roster booking has made people no longer think that. They’ve continued to turn down WWE offers
Some notes on the Raw audience decline from February 2017 to February 2020, or over the past three years. Viewership has declined 26.9 percent during that period. Overall 18-49 viewership is down 33.9 percent. Males 18-49 is down 30.7 percent and Women 18-49 is down 41.9 percent. 18-34 overall is down 42,4 percent. The steady age group is over 50 which is down 14.2 percent
Nakamura needed nine staples to the back of his head when it crashed against the piano in the Symphony of Mayhem match on the 2/21 Smackdown show
Edge is being advertised to return on the 3/9 Raw in Washington, DC. Undertaker is also at this point scheduled to do an angle with Styles on that show. The Edge return will build from the appearance of Phoenix on the 3/2 Raw in Brooklyn, and the Phoenix return could have a double purpose in setting up the Kabuki Warriors vs. Natalya & Phoenix tag title match at WrestleMania
Matt Hardy is teasing going everywhere, but WWE doesn’t want anyone leaving, and he’s also teasing NXT along with Impact and AEW
Styles vs. Black and Mysterio & Carrillo vs. Andrade & Garza are also on the show in Brooklyn
Banks is still out of action with an ankle injury but should be back soon. She was listed for a non-wrestling spot on the pre-torn up WrestleMania show, although she may have also wrestled in the Battle Royal
Jeff Hardy, who underwent knee surgery in May, was backstage at Smackdown in Glendale, AZ. From a time line standpoint, he should be just about ready to return
Similarly, Nia Jax, who had double knee surgery and has been out since WrestleMania, should also be ready to return soon
Another name who should be ready but whose future is uncertain is Lars Sullivan. Sullivan underwent knee reconstruction surgery in June, so should be ready fairly soon. His name hasn’t been mentioned at all of late. He was scheduled for a monster push when he got hurt, but nobody has talked about him in months, since his name surfaced as doing a gay porn movie which would have been when he was younger and prior to signing. He is still under contract and there was no company reaction to the story surfacing, so not a hint how that affects his future and if Vince McMahon would bring him back and if so, how far he’d go with him. He was likely beating John Cena at last year’s WrestleMania before a series of issues, starting with an anxiety attack and later reaction some troll posts he made years earlier that were racist that he apologized for just prior to his injury. He was legitimately fined $100,000 for the posts and it seemed like the company was going to give him a major push when his knee blew out shortly after his Raw debut
Sheamus was on “The Bump” and said that he wanted to make his latest return using his original music. He was told that “nobody remembers it.
Tino Sabbatelli returned to the ring on 2/22 in Cocoa, FL, after being out since the end of April 2018 after undergoing surgery for a torn pec. Even for a serious surgery like that, nearly two years out is a long time as that’s usually six to nine months and John Cena did it in like three, so there must have been complications. He’s an interesting case study. He was a legit NFL player who played from 2007 to 2011 after being All-Pac 10 at Oregon State and a second round draft choice. He started in 2015. He had the look, maybe best physique in the company and some charisma. His mechanics weren’t great but he and Riddick Moss were a good tag team by 80s standards, certainly not great, but good. But granted the injury held him back, but he’s now 36 and there’s a long line of guys waiting to just get on NXT television. Whether this is good or bad is subject to your own interpretation, but a guy like that would have been a main event heel within a year of his debut just based on look and football credentials and today he is waiting to get on television. It shows the emphasis on mechanical working ability today that wasn’t there in the past, above look and charisma. He was also the best actual athlete when they did their athletic drills in the company before he was hurt
For the 3/4 NXT Takeover show, going head-to-head with AEW’s first show after its PPV, they’ve announced two cage matches, Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong and Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox
The first match for the 4/4 Takeover in Tampa announced is a ladder match where the winner becomes the top contender for the NXT women’s title. It appears that Rhea Ripley and the women’s title won’t be wrestled for on that show since Ripley faces Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania. So this will be the key women’s match. It also appears Finn Balor will face either Walter or Adam Cole for either the UK or NXT titles. A stipulation match with Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa match looks like almost a sure thing
The grandfather of Charlotte Flair, which would be on her mother’s side of the family, passed away over the weekend, which is why she was off Raw and the weekend house show
Neither Vince McMahon nor Kevin Dunn were at Raw in Winnipeg, so it really was Paul Heyman running the show as much as anyone could that works for Vince
NXT referee Tom Castor returned to action on the 2/26 NXT show. Ten months ago, Castor was officiating the main event of a show in Omaha between Velveteen Dream and Tyler Breeze. Castor took a planned bump from a superkick from Breeze, but in doing so, somehow ended up breaking his leg. Neither wrestler knew it and continued the match. Drake Wuertz ran in, as was planned, to do the spot where the second ref comes in but the guy kicks out. Castor was throwing up the “X” for himself. The talent still didn’t know what was happening and kept working. The next planned spot was Wuertz taking a spinning kick from Breeze. This was to lead to Castor counting the pin. Wuertz knew Castor was hurt and was going to, on the fly, jump in and count the pin when it happened, but Castor told him not to and he counted the pin since that was planned and the idea that the referee of the match was supposed to count the pin. At the time there was fear Castor wouldn’t be able to return to refereeing due to the injury
Evolve announced two tournaments, called Accelerate, will take place with WWE talent on 4/2 in Tampa as part of Mania weekend. For men, there will be six singles matches and the six winners will have a six-way elimination match. Of the 12 guys, five have been announced as Austin Theory, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah Scott, Josh Briggs and Kushida. For women, they have two different four-way matches with the winners meeting in a singles match to determine the tournament winner. Names announced are Brandi Lauren, Deonna Purrazzo, Mercedes Martinez, Santana Garrett and Taynara. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy is on the show along with Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel
An interesting sports business note is that Facebook, which did not have success withe streaming baseball or with the WWE mixed match challenge series, has inked a deal with the International Cricket Council for $25 million per year for four years to air highlights of matches. It’s notable with the belief that an international sport like the NBA could follow suit and monetize all the streaming clips, and that could eventually be a way for WWE to better monetize the clips. The NBA has the same belief as some with WWE, that teenagers watch the clips rather than the games and shows and that the younger audience is stronger than ratings indicate. But it’s a double-edge sword because the money is all in television, and really, everything else is minor, meaning anything that decreases television viewing if they really believe that’s the case, is not a good thing financially. If it was the old business relying on PPV buys or house show attendance, you could say that people watching those clips that may not watch television, if that’s even the case, would spend money elsewhere, but those numbers (network, PPV, house shows, merch and licensing) are all down and also far less significant. So if they truly believe that is hurting ratings, there should be a cutback in that. Which is why I believe they don’t truly believe that, not in the NBA nor WWE, because that’s logic and they don’t cut back, and it’s just something people pull out as an excuse with ratings down for both
WWE announced a tour running 8/6 in Melbourne, Australia, 8/7 in Sydney and 8/8 in Auckland, New Zealand
Regarding business, the upcoming tapings in Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Worth and Boston are selling well. Fort Worth is set up for 8,000 for Raw and may sell out. Boston has sold 10,000 tickets for Smackdown this week for Cena’s return in his home city. It’s also expected to be the highest rated Smackdown episode so far this year. It will be interesting how his return draws as compared to recent return of Goldberg and Hogan. Some of the other cities aren’t doing so well. January through March is usually WWE’s strong season for live attendance
The 3/11 NXT tapings, which had to be moved out of Full Sail since the college is doing its Hall of Fame week and the building is being used for that, instead of renting an arena, they will be taping live from the Performance Center in front of a very small crowd
Riddick Moss said in an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he took his name because Riddick sounded like a cool name (his real name is Mike Rallis and he was a former linebacker at the University of Minnesota and one of the best all-around athletes in the company) and the last name was named after Randy Moss, a Hall of Fame wide receiver with the Minnesota Vikings who was his favorite player growing up. He also noted that he got started in 2013 when he realized he wasn’t going to play in the NFL and contacted Jim Ross
Kenny McIntosh’s Inside the Ropes worked through WWE to do a one-night talk show with Owens which will take place on 3/20 in Glasgow. Scotland
Jessamyn Duke has been out of action with an elbow injury
At press time as of the close of business on 2/26, the stock was at $48.41 per share, giving the company a $3.743 billion value. The stock topped $50 on 2/21 actually due to the report in last week’s issue of the talks with ESPN about streaming PPVs. That added an instant $200 million in stock value that day. But with the stock market collapse across the board from 2/24 to 2/26, WWE fell, although not nearly as much as the market as a whole
The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Ruthless Aggression episode three; 2. Broken Skull Sessions with Big Show; 3. Ruthless Aggression episode two; 4. Ruthless Aggression episode one; 5. Royal Rumble 2020; 6. NXT Takeover Portland; 7. NXT from 2/19
Notes from the 2/21 Smackdown tapings in Glendale, AZ. The show was built around the appearance of Goldberg in the final quarter hour for his angle with The Fiend. It was well done as it was the first angle Fiend has done where he really didn’t make the babyface look bad. It was also the announcement of the Bellas into the Hall of Fame. The show drew 6,300 fans. Crews pinned Metalik in the dark match opener. I was told they had a great match given the limitations of a dark match and crowd was very into them. The show opened with the Usos out. They were building up the advertised eight-man tag. The New Day came out. They put over the Usos. This was one of those promos where they listed how many times each team has held the titles. When you talk about Usos holding them six times and New Day holding them seven, you’re kind of telling fans how easy it is to win them and it makes it less important. The storyline idea is that New Day has won them seven times, Usos six, so the New Day teased that made them the better team. Then they all laughed like the idea they were just messing with each. At this point in time, both teams were to be in a multiple person tag title match at Mania but that was not locked in, nor is anything really on the Smackdown side aside from the top two bouts. But it was a tease for that direction. All action good match. The Usos pushed the idea of a superkick party and it looks like they are pushing that as their finisher. Ziggler hit a zig zag on Jey and Jimmy saved. Roode hit his glorious DDT on Jimmy for a near fall. It ended when Jimmy superkicked Roode for the pin at 11:37. They seem to be teasing something with Bryan and Gulak. They have potential for great matches if they are given time and if Gulak is allowed to look credible. The build started with Gulak coming to Bryan and saying that he’s found holes in his game and was going to make a power point presentation on what Bryan is doing wrong. Slater was there while this was going on and his name came up. Slater told Bryan that he made his kids cried and complained about Bryan stomping him into the ground. Slater also said he wasn’t ready when the last match started. He wanted a rematch and Bryan agreed to it. Rose & Deville were backstage. Rose thought Otis was nice and couldn’t figure out why he no-showed the date. Deville said that Ziggler was more her style. Tucker came out and was mad that Rose broke Otis’ heart and that Otis is a great guy. She said Ziggler just showed up and they talked because Otis was late. He said that you texted Otis saying you were running late. She knew nothing about it. So either she’s playing a game or somebody used her phone. So either Ziggler or Deville made that text. So one or the other, or both, are going to have a thing for Rose as this story plays out, as will Otis. Renee Young did a sit down interview with Lacey Evans. In her face turn after calling everyone nasties, she said that nasty was a term of endearment. It was said in a semi-serious way. She said that when she came to WWE she was a bully, and when she saw how Bayley and Banks have behaved and that her child watches she realized that she had been a bully and had to change. She said that there’s a saying if you’re pen stinks, you’re probably the pig. Not sure I buy that one. I see plenty of people who aren’t the pig ending up in a pen that stinks. She talked about the elimination chamber. Next as an ill-advised Symphony of Destruction match. It was a comedy street fight with weapons being musical instruments. Given that musical instruments weren’t created to be used in pro wrestling, everyone in the match ended up banged up and Nakamura was hurt the worst of the four since the top of a piano isn’t constructed to break on impact. Elias & Strowman beat Nakamura & Cesaro in 10:30. Elias used a tambourine as a weapon which wasn’t bad. Strowman broke a drum over the head of Cesaro. Zayn hit Strowman with a ukelele and Strowman didn’t sell it. Nakamura hit Strowman with a guitar. Nakamura kicked Elias off the apron and through a table. Strowman choke slammed Cesaro on the apron. Zayn hit Strowman with a laptop computer and he did sell that. Nakamura & Cesaro suplexed Strowman on a huge bass guitar. Elias and Strowman both ended up bleeding from the back and with bruises on their backs from bumping on non-smooth surfaces. Elias threw Nakamura into a gong. Elias broke a guitar on Cesaro. Elias came off the top rope outside the ring to put Cesaro through a table. The ending was Strowman powerslamming Nakamura on a piano. Corbin did an interview. He said that Reigns was hiding behind his hoodlum cousins and how Reigns has never beaten him in a one-on-one match. Heels lie. He said when he beat Reigns this week that FOX will replace Reigns with him on their ads and on stadiums and everyone will bow down to the king. Bliss was out. For whatever reason, the decision was made to remove Cross from the Moment of Bliss stuff. This was made at the last minute as Cross was advertised for the segment and then pulled from the advertising. The segment was to announce the Bellas for the Hall of Fame. For a WWE Hall of Fame, Nikki Bella really is a no-brainer. Some won’t like that but she became a reality show star from WWE and did help bring in a younger women’s fan base. And Brie was also a star and they were linked together. As far as all-time great female workers, that’s very different but this is the WWE Hall of Fame, and even if we don’t acknowledge the reality is there are no standards other than Vince either likes you or thinks you are marketable and fall into the different quotas that day, that for a WWE Hall of Fame they do belong. And they did work at being better wrestlers when they already had the spots based on the early success of the show. And they brought in younger cute women to the show to eventually be the new faces and they never worked out. They brought up that this announcement was made in their home town, noted that they were both pregnant just a few weeks apart. Bryan then brought out Birdie, the daughter of himself and Brie, which was a very cute moment. Bryan beat Slater in 2:44. Gulak was calling the match with Michael Cole. Slater went to the top rope and Gulak started yelling at him like he wasn’t following the game plan. Slater jumped off and missed and Bryan kicked in the head and pinned hi after a busaiku knee. During the show there was static in points. They seemed to be teasing a new character debuting in a few weeks. Killer Kross seems like the betting line favorite. Rose was about to leave the building and was waiting for her ride. Ziggler offered her a ride and she left with him. Otis wasn’t supposed to be there as he was supposed to be all depressed, but they showed that he was hiding and saw all of this and now was even more depressed. Sheamus talked about being in the Chamber match. Shorty G & Crews were backstage. Shorty called Sheamus a bully. Where I come from, when two guys try to fight one guy and the one guy beats up both, the one guy is not the bully. Shorty said he wasn’t going to back down. Crews told him he’s on his own and walked out on him, so Crews may be going heel. G’s facial reactions like he’s going to cry like a little kid whenever something like this happens may make Vince laugh, but it is just another step in killing his career. Naomi beat Carmella in 12:42 to get the women’s title shot in Saudi Arabia. Bayley was at ringside. The match was good. Carmella has been much better in recent weeks and Naomi is great athlete. Bayley distracted Naomi and Carmella hit a tope. Although at one point Naomi missed a kick so badly that Carmella still sold that Corey Graves called attention to the fact it missed. Naomi did a twisting dive although landed short, but Carmella still broke her fall. They traded finishers until Naomi hit the split-legged moonsault. The final segment saw Goldberg out. He got a huge reaction, which he’ll get forever as long as he looks the part and isn’t overexposed. The lights went out and Wyatt was in the ring. Goldberg showed no fear and speared him. Goldberg wanted him to get up to spear him again, but the lights went out and Wyatt was gone. Goldberg showed no fear of the disappearing. This would be Wyatt’s biggest match to date with more of a build because the babyface wasn’t portrayed as not having a chance. But it’s in Saudi and that limits the upside of interest and viewership. For 205 Live, Raul Mendoza beat Joaquin Wilde with a jumping ushigoroshi. Tyler Breeze pinned Samir Singh with a superkick. They pushed a ten-man tag team elimination match for next week between 205 Live regulars and NXT cruiserweights with Tony Nese and Lio Rush as captains. Aren’t they both 205 Live regulars? Main event saw Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat Ariya Daivari & Brian Kendrick in a no DQ match. They did the usual chairs and tables and ladders. It’s so overdone when you do it on a show like this. Lorcan & Butch used duct tape. Lorcan & Burch did their double-team snapshot on Daivari on the announcers table, which didn’t break. So they had to do it again in the ring for the pin. The match itself was great but on 205 Live, because viewership is so low and heat is low, it doesn’t resonate. Reigns pinned Corbin with a spear in the dark match main event
Notes from the 2/24 Raw show in Winnipeg. This was the first time Winnipeg has hosted Raw in 15 years, and like Smackdown in Vancouver last week, it made for a large hot crowd. The show drew 11,000. I’d heard late that they were hoping for a sellout, and it was pretty much packed but not quite sold out. The show flowed better then most three hour shows. One of the things is that the matches in general seem better. Jake Clemons debuted as the heel ref disciple of Rollins. Heel ref gimmicks are part of more cartoony wrestling like in AAA and other places in Mexico, and other promotions at times. It’s easy heat and all but it often feels like a crutch. Right now the plan was for him to just be a one week thing as a way to do Orton vs. Owens as a match with the idea of getting Orton over by not losing and Owens, who is more important than ever because he’s positioned as the No. 2 face behind McIntyre, to lose while in the end come across stronger because he was so obviously cheated, and to further Rollins vs. Owens with Rollins as the guy behind it. Whether it was the hot crowd, or just stuff catching on, but it felt like a lot of the newer talent but getting known more. Main Event opened with Benjamin pinning No Way Jose. Riddick Moss retained the 24/7 title over Alexander. We were told there was only one Y2J chant during the show, during the Orton promo, and Orton wouldn’t stop talking to make sure it didn’t pick up momentum. The show opened with Orton out. He said that he needed to apologize. He said his emotions have become unbalanced. He said he was told it had been 15 years since Raw had been in Winnipeg and he was 24 years old at the time. He said that he looked things up and on that Raw he was IC champion and he was punched in the nose by a certain man. This is where the Y2J chant started. He said that the man saved him from his self destructive tendencies. He said the man’s name was Adam but you know him as Edge. There were loud chants for Edge. He said he was very sorry for what he did. Owens came out. Fans were chanting for him heavily. Owens said that he doesn’t believe Orton is sorry and he’s been dealing with delusional people like AOP, Murphy and the Monday Night Moron, Rollins, but tonight he’s putting that aside because he’s got an issue with Orton. He told Orton to drop the act and tell us why you did it. Orton said that you don’t want to go down that road. Owens said he did. Owens said he was a fan all his life and his goal was to get into WWE. He said he remembered watching TV when Edge had to retire. He said it sucked for Edge and it sucked for him because he always wanted to share the ring with Edge. Owens said he thinks the people are sick of watching us talk and want to see us fight. Orton agreed to the match, but said not right this minute and left. Garza & Vega did an interview. Vega said that Garza has to put his awkward cousin (Carrillo) where he belongs and kick him to the curb. Garza then started hitting on Charlie Caruso who acted all excited about that. Garza pinned Carrillo in 14:41. Really good match, but the television presentation was hurt by eight minutes of commercials in the first 12 minutes of the match. But what aired was really good. The announcers talked about how the Garza name in wrestling dates back to WCW. Ugh. That’s like saying the McMahon name in wrestling dates back to the Attitude Era and the Guerrero name dates back to WCW. All kinds of great flying moves and dives and the crowd loved it. As they were trading near falls, Garza blocked a sunset flip, sat down and grabbed the trunks for the win. Ricochet pinned Gallows in 4:37. They had hinted it would be Ricochet and Styles, which would be a great win for Ricochet headed into the PPV, but Styles has to be protected since he’s Undertaker’s Mania opponent. Ricochet did a flip dive. There were fans in the front row dressed like Hulk Hogan and Hillbilly Jim, but the Hillbilly Jim guy looked real. Ricochet won after a standing shooting star press, the recoil and a shooting star press. Backstage Styles told Gallows & Anderson to act like they are the best tag team in the world. They talked about how a miracle could happen and that Ricochet could beat Lesnar at Super Showdown. Styles said that if he does, he’ll take the title from Ricochet. Black walked by. Styles told Black that they were the OC, the official, the original, the only club that matters. They all beat up Black and Styles laughed at him. Lesnar & Heyman came out. Heyman said that Lesnar doesn’t need a catch phrase, because since 2002, every time he wanted to reign as WWE champion, he did. He said that if Ricochet wins it’ll change everything about WrestleMania, but that “if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle, but she doesn’t so she’s not.” Lawler started laughing and said that was awesome. Lesnar was laughing as well, even though that’s not exactly a line that hasn’t been said before. Heyman said he’s only been wrong on one spoiler (I think it’s two, a Rollins win and the Rumble this year) but at WrestleMania, Lesnar will make mince meat out of McIntyre and that’s not a prediction, it’s a spoiler. It was curious that Lesnar and Ricochet were on this show a few days before a title match and there was no interaction between the two of them, and that’s for a match that nobody believed Ricochet was winning in, which in theory means it needs to be pushed harder than usual. Black pinned Rowan in 10:42. Black came in limping and hurting from his beating. He sold most of the way. It made the match interesting because it was worked with the idea Black would sell like crazy and never give up but probably wouldn’t win, but he ended up winning. Black kicked out of a jackhammer. Rowan missed a tackle and ran into the steps. In doing so, he knocked his cage off the steps. Rowan beat on Black on the floor and power bombed him into the post. Rowan went to the cage, then it looked like he’d be counted out because he wasn’t paying attention. He jumped in before the count of ten, but Black hit him with two black masses for the pin. After the match Black said that next week he wants to fight Styles. They did a big thing on Tyson Fury beating Deontay Wilder. McIntyre did a sit down interview with Charly Caruso. When she asked who between Lesnar and Ricochet that he’d rather face, he said he didn’t care. He just wants to win he title. He told a story that 13 years ago he debuted in WWE at the age of 21 and Vince said he was the chosen one, the future of the company and would be a future world champion. “Guess how many world titles I’ve won. Zero.” That’s notable because it’s the first scripted admission that in WWE that the NXT title doesn’t count. He said the only person he could blame for that is himself. He said he lost his passion, had become a liability to the company at times, and got fired and deservedly so. He said that when he got fired, he got very angry and very bitter and carried a chip on his shoulder. He said that when he was fired he never thought he would ever be back. He said that ever since he was 15, he was labeled somebody with potential, but you can’t live on potential forever. He said he was concerned that people would call him a future star, and then one day, he’d be one of those guys from the past, but he would never be he present. He said that whether it’s Lesnar or Ricochet, WrestleMania is when he truly fulfills his destiny. R-Truth was doing an interview segment with Lashley and Lana. Lana said that they weren’t there for his talk show. It was a spoof as R-Truth talked about how Lashley was really big and then asked Lashley if he had seen “Sonic The Hedgehog.” Lana just screamed to ring the bell. Lashley pinned R-Truth in 1:54 with a spear. R-Truth did all of the Cena trademark spots, because his hero as a child was Cena, at least in comedy since he was already in he business long before Cena. Next was the women’s Elimination Chamber contract signing. Asuka and Natalya got musical entrances. Morgan, Logan and Riott didn’t. Baszler wasn’t there at first. Asuka was great doing her Japanese promos with the great delivery, asking where is Shayna. Everyone signed. Natalya got a big reaction, partially due to being in Canada, and also wearing a late 80s Hart Foundation style ring jacket and wearing a T-shirt of herself with her father. Morgan got a reaction for signing as well. Baszler finally came out and stared down everyone, focusing on Natalya. Asuka told Baszler, “bite me.” Natalya attacked Asuka. Morgan dove over the table onto Riott. Baszler and Asuka were fighting. Lynch came after Baszler. Baszler gave Lynch a spinebuster and it ended with a pull-apart with Lynch and Baszler. Crowd was very hot for that. Angelo Dawkins beat Murphy via DQ in 1:06 when Dawkins hit the spinebuster and Rollins interfered. Ford joked that Dawkins hit Murphy so hard that he removed his first name. Ford challenged Rollins to a match. The only weird part of this is at the start of the show when they were running it down, they had announced a Ford vs. Rollins match. The announcers acted all surprised about this match and they were the ones who had plugged t when the show started. Rollins pinned Ford in 15:12. Ford is a great athlete, and does great flying stuff like a high dropkick and flip dive. He’s still green but Rollins was carrying him through this and it was a good match. The ref kicked out Murphy and Dawkins. Rollins used a buckle bomb. Rollins also power bombed him into the barricade. Rollins tried another buckle bomb but Ford reversed into a huracanrana. Ford power bombed Rollins off the top rope, but missed a frog splash. Rollins got the clean pin with a curb stomp. Orton pinned Owens in 8:09. Rollins, Murphy, AOP and the Viking Raiders were all brawling at ringside. Orton used a draping DDT and ref Jake Clemons gave a super fast count. Nobody really knew what to make of it. Orton acted like he didn’t know what was going on. Rollins threw chairs in the ring to Orton to finish off Owens. But Orton didn’t do it. Owens recovered and grabbed a chair. Clemons took the chair from Owens. Orton rolled out of the ring. Owens threw Clemons out of the ring and tore his ref shirt and he had a Rollins T-shirt on. Rollins then said he had nothing to do with this. He was doing the Montreal Shawn Michaels. Owens teased hitting Clemons with a chair but threw down the chair. The fans booed that, but popped when he hit Clemons with a stunner and power bombed Clemons through a table. After Raw went off the air, Murphy & AOP & Rollins came out and all attacked Owens four-on-one. McIntyre came out and McIntyre and Owens cleaned house. McIntyre challenged Rollins to a match. McIntyre and Owens got the crowd to chant “tiny balls” loudly. AOP just left. Owens knocked Murphy out of the ring and they brawled to the back. McIntyre pinned Rollins in 5:00 with the Claymore kick. The show ended with McIntyre doing a promo thanking the crowd for staying so hot all night, that the next time he’s in Winnipeg he will be WWE champion, and he promised they would have a TV taping in Winnipeg in less than 15 years
Notes on the 2/26 NXT tapings. The show was built around Charlotte Flair returning for her first match at Full Sail University in more than four years. They noted that Flair and Natalya had a match in the building in 2014 on the first Takeover special. That match was one of the key matches, probably the key match, in the changes in marketing the women wrestlers and allowing the style to change and be more serious. You could argue it was the most important match in that evolution, because it was the one that led to the reevaluating of the thinking about what works in women’s wrestling because the match got over so strong live and got such a great reaction, predating the Flair vs. Banks and Banks vs. Bayley matches which built from that one. The dark matches saw Shotzi Blackheart beat Aliyah and Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle won a non-title match over Shane Thorne & Dorian Mak. Before the show went on the air, they had Ric Flair come out and cut a promo. He said that he watches the show on television every week and put over the Orlando fans. With Ric at the show, it was strange that they didn’t show him on television or have him do the promo on television since it would have garnered viewers. Cameron Grimes pinned Dominik Dijakovic in 12:37. Grimes is such a great underrated worker. He’s far above Dijakovic, who is more a great tall athlete who can do cool things. Dijakovic gave Grimes a twisting slam over the top rope. Dijakovic did a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor. Damien Priest came out and hit Dijakovic in the knee with a retractable baton. Dijakovic sold it like he was going to be counted out, but jumped in at the last second. Grimes then hit him with a double foot stomp for the pin. William Regal announced a women’s ladder match for Takeover. Finn Balor came out. He said that he wasn’t a moves guy, that he’s not an Internet guy and he’s not a sneaky stooge to the office politics guy. I wonder who he was talking about. Those politics references in promos are always cringe, as they’re right out of the Russo playbook and make the babyface come across like a whiner. He’s also now a babyface without a turn. He said that all these guys in WWE are training to peak at WrestleMania, but he’s been at his peak for 20 years. He dated himself badly because he looks so much younger than a 20-year veteran. Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel came out. They said that Walter sends his regards. Balor attacked both of them and was doing well until they started double-teaming him. Aichner drove his knee into Balor’s head knocking his head into the steps. There was a video of some mysterious guy on the way. Xia Li beat Mia Yim in 2:42. Yim used eat defeat, I guess no longer being called protect ya neck. So she had the match won when Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez came out. This allowed Li to schoolboy Yim for the pin. Gonzalez attacked Yim. Li tried to make the save by attacking Gonzalez, but Gonzalez laid her out with a clothesline. Velveteen Dream cut a promo wanting Roderick Strong in a cage match next week. Tommaso Ciampa pinned Austin Theory in 12:40. You could see they’ve got big hopes for Theory. He’s young and has a good look. He’s very green and not at the level in the ring as virtually all the guys here on television. He does have some good moves. Ciampa sold a ton for him and the announcers were very careful to protect him. Ciampa won clean with the draping DDT and fairy tale ending. Johnny Gargano then attacked Ciampa. Ciampa turned things around in the brawl and was getting the better of it when Theory attacked Ciampa. This allowed Gargano to superkick Ciampa. The Undisputed Era did a backstage promo. Strong said that he also wanted the match with Dream to be a cage match. Adam Cole said that Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly would get the belts back and Strong would get the North American belt back so they would all be champions. Killian Dain pinned Bronson Reed in 6:15. Tom Castor returned as ref here. Reed tried a dropkick. He’s got to be around 300 pounds at maybe 5-foot-9. It wasn’t the greatest dropkick, but he followed with a great looking tope. Reed bodyslammed Dain and gave him a Lou Thesz style back suplex. Dain used a Samoan drop. Reed got near falls after a Death Valley bomb and a DDT off the middle rope. Dain won after three sentons and a Vader bomb. If this match was designed to be the first match in a program, Dain winning makes sense. If it’s just a one-and-done thing, it makes less since Reed is the more marketable of the two. Zack Gibson & James Drake, the Grizzled Young Veterans, beat The Forgotten Sons of Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler, with Jaxson Ryker in their corner, in 13:03. It should be noted that the Forgotten Sons have been billed as three former U.S. servicemen who were bitter on how people treated them after they returned home. But they are now babyfaces feuding with the anti-Americans from the U.K. They also now bill only two of the three (Cutler and Ryker) as being former servicemen. Gibson made fun of the red, white and blue, saying the Full Sail crowd were REDnecks, WHITE trash and BLUE collar workers. Blake & Cutler pressed Drake and threw him over the top rope to the floor on Gibson. Drake did a tope on Ryker and threw him into the steps. It turned into a good match. Blake missed a moonsault and Gibson & Drake pressed him overhead and threw him over the top rope. Drake did a tope on Ryker and threw him into the steps. Gibson pinned Blake after the ticket to mayhem. It dragged and went too long for guys who haven’t had enough TV time to get their personalities over. Tegan Nox did an interview saying that Dakota Kai started this in a cage, and next week she’s ending it in a cage. Priest was leaving the arena with two women, one of which was Brandi Lauren, who seems to be the regular cameo person they go with when they need a hot woman for a cameo in skits. Priest said the attack was nothing personal on Dijakovic, and said the only reason it happened was because Dijakovic stood in the way of something he wanted. Charlotte Flair beat Bianca Belair in the main event in 12:03. There were dueling chants. Belair was the face in storyline and the crowd got behind her. Belair did some cool athletic stuff. Flair used an abdominal stretch, which Belair reversed into one of her own. Flair also used a Boston crab and stretch muffler, as well as a power bomb. Belair used a spear, and Flair came back with a spear and natural selection. You could see that they were running late and were rushing to the finish. A lot of people complained about Flair beating Belair but the storyline makes no sense for Flair to lose to Belair and then get a shot at Rhea Ripley’s title. Belair’s role here was to be the set up person to put Flair over, particularly since Belair literally just lost her title match to Ripley which, based on the angle at the end, made her the most logical person to put over Flair. The only way Belair should have won was if the idea was to do a three-way at Mania, which is not on the schedule, and if that was the case, Belair shouldn’t have lost to Ripley. Flair Pillmanized Belair’s ankle. I hate when they Pillmanize body parts and it means nothing, like they just did with Keith Lee and he was running in a skit outside an hour later. That should be saved. Flair followed putting Belair in the figure eight. Ripley’s music played. The show was down to its final seconds. Ripley came out, and instead of running down and making the save, she did her pose to her music and normal ring entrance. I don’t know who allowed that to happen but that was awful quality control. It basically killed Flair’s heat because if the person making the save isn’t selling the fright or concern and keeping the beating going, the person saving shouldn’t be posing and should be making the save. It made the whole segment feel like cartoon wrestling, and that’s a waste of the beatdown. Ripley got to the ring and Flair bailed out and they cut out of the show since they had to start Miz & Mrs
