DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
WWE Cincinnati live results: The Fiend vs. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
WWE MSG live results: Andrade wins U.S. title, Owens vs. Rollins
NJPW no longer airing on AXS TV
AEW announces new women’s title match for January 1st Dynamite
NXT ratings increase five percent for Christmas night episode
Taz to make guest appearance on New Year’s Day AEW Dynamite
Moment of Bliss segment announced for WWE SmackDown
Andrade wins US title at WWE Madison Square Garden house show
Latest Audio:
Wrestling Weekly: 2019 year in review show 12/27
Left My Wallet: “The Patriot” Del Wilkes 12/27
B&V&G: Granny, NXT, WWF Superstars of Wrestling from 1992! 12/26
WOL: News, Brady Roberts on Amazon show, Keith Lipinski on AAW, more! 12/26
WOR: Dave heading to Japan, Tokyo Dome, Raw ratings, NXT, more! 12/26
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s WWE show with Raw in Pittsburgh and for reports from Detroit where Smackdown takes place We’re looking for the NXT taping results and any dark matches to [email protected]
Smackdown tonight is headlined by Daniel Bryan vs. Miz vs. King Corbin for the Royal Rumble title shot with Bray Wyatt, plus a Moment of Bliss interview segment.
Saturday we’re looking for reports from Raw in Baltimore and Smackdown in Toronto.
BELLATOR SATURDAY NIGHT ON PARAMOUNT AT 10 P.M. EASTERN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA
Goiti Yamauchi (24-4) of Bellator vs. Daron Cruickshank (22-12, 1 no contest) of Rizin
Ilara Joanne (9-4) of Bellator vs.; Kana Watanabe (8-0-1) of Rizin
Lorenz Larkin (21-7,1 no contest) of Bellator vs. K-Taro Nakamura (35-10-2, 1 no contest) of Rizin
Michael Venom Page (16-1) of Bellator vs. Shinsho Anzai (11-3) of Rizin
Michael Chandler (19-5) vs. Sidney Outlaw (14-3)
Fedor Emelianenko (38-6, 1 no contest) vs. Rampage Jackson (38-13)
Sunday has Raw in Hershey, PA and Smackdown in Montreal.
Raw on Monday will be from Hartford, CT, while Smackdown has a house show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
F4W NEWSLETTER: Recapping WWE TLC 2019 Joseph Currier gives his thoughts on WWE’s final PPV of the decade.
WWE’s final pay-per-view of the decade took place on Sunday night and exemplified some of the changes we’ve seen over the past 10 years.
TLC 2019 was very much a B-level PPV in the WWE Network era. Not only were the top men’s and women’s singles titles from each brand not defended, there were no singles titles on the line at all. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton seemed like they were being built up as non-title matches that would help anchor the card, but they didn’t end up getting added. The show even ended with an angle instead of a match. After Asuka & Kairi Sane’s tables, ladders, and chairs match against Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, a locker room brawl that featured Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin continued. The image that closed the show was Reigns spearing Corbin from an elevated area onto a pile of bodies. It felt like the ending of an episode of Raw or SmackDown instead of a major event.
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WON NEWSLETTER: December 30, 2019 Observer Newsletter: 2019 in review, more
A look at the industry as a whole as we end 2019 and go into 2020 is the lead story of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. We go into the birth of AEW and its numbers thus far, the situation with Impact, ROH, New Japan in the U.S., value of AXS to New Japan, UFC moving to streaming PPV and the key to a value in this not talked about, why the big companies are falling upwards, Bellator numbers, AEW’s interest level peak and PPV demand, the change over the last two years in the non-WWE U.S. business, NXT business, shows with strong advances, ideas for AEW, NXT skewing older, the Wednesday night wars, attempts to make new stars, live viewing on Wednesday and where all the other shows with weekly TV stand at this point.
The issue also covers:
A feature on the career of Mr. Niebla, his death, his troubles, and his biggest matches.
Live event business and how things changed from 2018 to 2019, looking at numbers of big shows, and average attendance for the different groups.
Royal Rumble show and ticket demand.
WWE injuries, a new football league with a name awfully close to XFL, a look at names at WWE tryouts, new events over WrestleMania week, current WWE market value and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network.
WrestleKingdom shows, the controversy over the women’s match on the card, why the match won’t air on New Japan World, the lineups, the main selling points, and the angles on the final show with full coverage of New Japan’s last event of the year.
UFC show in South Korea, the Korean Zombie, with match-by-match coverage.
Career of Rene Goulet, with his highlights, how he faded out, his bitterness over being let go by WWE, his career title history and highlights.
Biggest kickboxing match in years, and the back story that drew one of the largest television ratings for sports ever in Holland. We look at The Baddest vs. The King and what happened.
This past week’s PWG show, including notes showing how the business is changing.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Regarding the change in the AEW women’s title match, there was a communications issue in the sense because AEW runs Wednesdays and normally indies don’t run Wednesdays, they usually book talent without worrying about other dates. And obviously they didn’t know about the other date. Kris Statlander had just started and was booked for both Tuesday and Wednesday this coming week for Bar Wrestling. Based on her contract, they could have done what WWE does when it comes to things like this all the time and just pulled the talent, but Statlander asked for the favor and they were able to work it in a way where they’ll do title matches the next two weeks, with Riho vs. Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose for the title on 1/1, and Statlander getting her shot on 1/8. Statlander is scheduled on New Year’s Eve to face Priscilla Kelly and on 1/1 to face Gisele Shaw for shows in the Los Angeles area.
Taz is on Wednesday’s AEW show to announce with Jim Ross and Excalibur because Tony Schiavone will be announcing the Sugar Bowl game for radio that day. Regarding stories that came out like Taz would be introduced as an authority figure, AEW has no plans for a television authority figure.
Regarding the New Japan/AXS relationship ending one year early, AXS had lost interest in promoting a rival company to the company they own. In this case, ratings weren’t an issue. New Japan runs the same market as Impact. It was the logical conclusion. It’s not good at all for New Japan, but as soon as AXS let go of all the key people who made the New Japan deal, it was a question of when, not if.
I’m doing a Q&A show on 1/4 in Tokyo at Toudoukhan’s Wrestling store at 11 a.m. before the Tokyo Dome show. More details here.
WWE
At last night’s WWE show in Cincinnati, Dash Wilder was off the card and Scott Dawson teamed with Curtis Axel in a three-way title match against the Lucha House Party and champs New Day. The only thing we were told is Wilder was held off for precautionary reasons and was expected to be cleared for television tonight.
An interview with Xavier Woods with CBS Radio.
An interview with Lacey Evans, also with CBS Radio.
UFC
Jussier Formiga vs. Brandon Moreno in a match that could determine a flyweight title contender was announced for a 3/14 show in Brasilia, Brazil. Also announced for the show was Enrique Barzola vs. Rani Yahya and Veronica Macedo vs. Bea Malecki.
Added to a 2/22 show in Auckland, New Zealand is Kai Kara France vs. Tyson Nam, Callan Potter vs. Song Kenan and Jamie Mullarkey vs. Jlin Turner.
AEW
A match announced for Wednesday night’s show, airing on Dark, will be Billy Gunn and son Austin as a tag team against Ortiz & Santana.
MISCELLANEOUS
AAW tomorrow night at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL and live on FITE TV has Josh Alexander vs. Jacob Fatu for the AAW title, Jessicka Havok vs. Kris Statlander for the AAW women’s title, Paco vs. Hakim Zane for the Heritage title, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett vs. Sami Callihan & Jake Crist for the tag titles, Jimmy Jacobs vs. Good Brother #3 in a dog collar match, Eddie Kingston & David Starr vs. Curt Stallion & Jake Something in a street fight, Killer Kross vs. Matt Justice and Kimber Lee vs Hyan.
MCW tonight at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore features Rhett Titus defending the MCW title against Kekoa and Brandon Scott, plus Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson vs. Rayo & King McBride, Private Party vs. Joe Keys & Joe Gacy and Renee Michelle vs. Aria Palmer vs. Gia Scott in a triple threat match.
Pro Wrestling Eve on 1/4 in Bethnal, Green, London with champion Rhia O’Reilly vs. Sky Smitson. WrestleQueendom 3 on 1/11 at The Venue on Great Portland Street in London is now sold out, with O’Reilly vs. Laura Di matteo for the title plus Gisele Shaw & Sammii Jayne vs. Woke Queens vs. Medusa Complex in an elimination match for the tag title, Nina Samuels vs. Jinny and Maki Itoh vs Session Moth Martina.
Rob Van Dam was announced for the 2/21 Qatar Pro Wrestling show in Doha, Qatar. Announced for the show thus far are Eric Bischoff, Alberto El Patron, Matt Sydal and nZo vs. Brian Pillman Jr.
CWE on 12/27 in Winnipeg at Rookies SportsBar with The Godfather & ? vs. AJ Sanchez & Kevin O’Doyle vs. Mike Mission & Dragneel, plus Danny Duggan vs. Mentallo.
Defy announced a 1/31 show at Washington Hall in Seattle with Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt, T-Hawk, Cima and Lindaman.
A cool story on Muhammad Ali, Rocky Johnson, and other wrestling stuff uncovered in the Washington commission records. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Goldberg’s streak ends
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