THE ROUND-UP
The Latest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
UFC on FOX 25 live results: Weidman vs. Gastelum
NJPW G1 Climax 27 night four results: Okada vs. Elgin
NXT Daytona Beach, FL, live results: Six-man tag main event
AUDIO
WOR: Kevin Kiley talks GLOW, Alex Riley WWE run, more! 7/22
WOL: WWE Battleground, Jinder Mahal, John Cena future, more! 7/21
DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Marathon: Eric Darsie returns 7/21
We’re looking for reports from the WWE Raw show in Hampton, VA, WWE Smackdown show in Wildwood, NJ and NXT in Tampa to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.
NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT DAY FIVE FROM MACHIDA CITY GYM ON SUNDAY AT 5 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Michael Elgin & Katsuya Kitamura
Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Hirai Kawato vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Desperado
Tama Tonga & Chase Owens vs. Evil & Hiromu Takahashi
Toru Yano & Jado vs. Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi
Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Seiya Sanada & Bushi
Yoshi-Hashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata
Bad Luck Fale vs. Tetsuya Naito
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi
Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto
Sunday has a WWE Raw house show in Sailsbury, MD.
WWE BATTLEGROUND AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME ON THE WWE NETWORK
Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton for WWE title in a Punjabi prison match
John Cena vs. Rusev in a flag match
A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens for U.S.title
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Usos vs. New Day for tag titles
Charlotte Flair vs. Tamina vs. Lana vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya in an elimination match for a title shot
Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English (pre-show match)
Reveal of who has been attacking Breezaengo
Raw will be Monday in Washington, DC. Matches announced are Finn Balor vs. Elias Samson in a no DQ match, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for a women’s title shot, Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs. The Miz & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas 2 vs. 3. There is also a Smackdown brand house show in Newark, DE.
NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT DAY SIX FROM FUKUSHIMA BIG PALETTE ON TUESDAY AT 5:30 EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Togi Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kota Ibushi & Shota Umino
Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi
Yuji Nagata & Hirai Kawato vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto & Jado
Satoshi Kojima vs. Michael Elgin
Tama Tonga vs. Evil
Minoru Suzuki vs. Juice Robinson
Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano
Kazuchika Okada vs. Seiya Sanada
Smackdown and 205 Live will be Tuesday from Richmond, VA. Announced is Rich Swann & ? vs. TJP & ?
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 7/17/2017: Mayweather vs. McGregor hype fails to meet expectations
While the superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor was bound to endlessly be compared to something out of WWE, the grandiose four-show world tour of press conferences to promote it felt more like a parody of pro wrestling. They made stops in Los Angeles, Toronto, Brooklyn, and London in an attempt to get the hype for their boxing match seen in as many relevant media markets as possible.
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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: July 24, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Brock Lesnar UFC return rumors, WWE Battleground preview, more
What exactly is going on with Brock Lesnar is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer.
Look at Lesnar rumors as far as UFC goes, what is and isn’t reality, what steps he has to take before he can be in a match and why he won’t be fighting in UFC any time soon. Look at the UFC and WWE schedules and how murky certain things are, Lesnar’s WWE contract, how this is similar to 2015, as well as looking at potential Lesnar opponents in UFC. Find out how this plays into WWE bookings, with thoughts on SummerSlam, and the booking of SummerSlam and Battleground.
Check out the G-1 Climax tournament, run down the first night, New Japan’s business, the matches coming up this week along with match-by-match coverage and star ratings from Sapporo.
Examine Kurt Angle’s new angle with Jason Jordan, and look at the story, how it doesn’t fit into the original story, fan reaction and long-term potential.
Go in-depth into the Mae Young Classic, the Ronda Rousey involvement, Shayna Baszler push, behind-the-scenes, reactions to it and match-by-match coverage.
Look at a promotion that claims it has gotten $100 million in investment money to start competing on a worldwide basis.
Find out about the cancellation of the weekly version of Talking Smack. Look at the show, what worked, what didn’t work, why it’s continuing in a limited form, and the idea that WWE forgot to tell the hosts the show was being canceled. There is also an update of the latest PPV numbers.
Find out about the Shane McMahon helicopter crash, an update on the negotiations for the Hardys to get the broken gimmick, Bruno Sammartino being honored, Stephanie McMahon being honored, Jinder Mahal talks India market, UFC fighter and WWE star doing their own angle, TV station that aired WWE closes its doors, notes on an upcoming WWE movie release, WWE scouting, upcoming Raw house show lineups, plus the most-watched network shows over the past week and a look at every WWE and NXT arena event over the past week with highlights and business notes.
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ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to Dave@WrestlingObserver.com.
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WON BACK ISSUE: June 26, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Birth of NOAH, Vince Russo quits WCW, tons of news
Mitsuharu Misawa announced officially the formation of his new promotion, Nippon TV officially announced cancellation of the All Japan television show and Toshiaki Kawada talked about attempting to go to New Japan were highlights of the aftermath of the All Japan split. Misawa held his press conference on 6/16 at Diffa Ariake, the new building in the Ariake suburb of Tokyo, which was built specifically for pro wrestling to replace Korakuen Hall as the small show mecca in the Tokyo area and which, ironically enough, has its first show on 7/1 booked by the All Japan promotion.
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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
WWE uploaded a video with all 32 Mae Young Classic participants introducing themselves.
Kurt Angle answered a question about how he prepared himself for the Jason Jordan reveal on Raw: “I thought to myself what it would be like to see my son Kody for the first time ever, and didn’t know it for 20 years. I thought if it were real, how would I feel?” He also wrote about Austin Aries’ release: “I’m sure that neither side was happy. Austin is a very very talented wrestler. Love his style.”
Dave Meltzer joined Chris Jericho on this week’s episode of Talk is Jericho to reflect on Chris Benoit’s career 10 years after the tragedy and Chris’ despicable actions.
NBC News has an article on Jinder Mahal and him wanting to make Indian fans proud.
A new episode of “Table for Three” with Renee Young, Lita, and Corey Graves will air after Raw on Monday.
Triple H wished Shawn Michaels a happy birthday as Michaels turns 52 years old today.
Noelle Foley interviewed Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Nikki and Brie Bella, and Bayley for Ringside Collectibles while at San Diego Comic-Con.
Johnny Gargano tweeted a reflection about getting his first WWE action figure. In a less sentimental post, Tommaso Ciampa wrote: “Step 1: buy my figure Step 2: beat up Johnny’s figure”
“Shocking confessions” are the subject of this week’s WWE top 10 list on YouTube.
Pro Wrestling
Ratings for this week’s episode of Impact were down, which is probably to be expected a week after the post-Slammiversary show. It averaged 322,000 viewers on Thursday night, down from 374,000.
The dispute between Johnny Mundo/Taya and Vampiro is apparently being turned into an angle. At a show for EMW last night, Mundo threw his three AAA titles at Vampiro and teased coming to the next AAA TV tapings if they pay him. (thanks to Chris Aiken)
CMLL announced Sam Adonis will face Blue Panther in a hair vs. hair match on August 4th.
The fourth G1 show in as many days will take place at the Tokyo Machida Gymnasium overnight. The tournament matches are Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto, Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Tetsuya Naito vs. Bad Luck Fale, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata, and YOSHI-HASHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Daryl, the stuffed cat that Hiromu Takahashi has been carrying around, was ripped to shreds by Fale at this morning’s G1 show. Fale posted an edited tribute video to Daryl, with it ending with him destroying the cat. Kenny Omega tweeted: “An extremely emotional and touching tribute. Bullet Club offers to cover any and all funeral expenses for your… ummm… thing. #RIPDARYL”
After an injury scare on an attempted move from the top rope to the floor at AIW’s Absolution show last night, Flip Kendrick updated his status and said that he didn’t have any broken bones and only received a couple of stitches at the ER.
Kelly Klein, Bea Priestley, and Scarlett Bordeaux will be debuting for Stardom in October.
UFC/MMA
Showtime released the official poster for Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor.
McGregor completed the community service requirements that he was given for the bottle-throwing incident prior to UFC 202.
BT Sport uploaded a documentary on McGregor in advance of his fight against Mayweather.
Ariel Helwani tweeted that there’s been “serious talks” of making Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch as the main event of the UFC’s September 16th show in Pittsburgh. Helwani noted that Yoel Romero has also been mentioned as a potential opponent for Rockhold’s return fight, though Branch is the front-runner.
Newsday ran a story about Dominick Cruz being a rising star in the UFC broadcast booth.
Today in Pro Wrestling History: WWF Invasion
F4W Online / Wrestling Observer Vegas Convention Event Info
August 17-21; All times are TBA; Full information on the group Facebook page; Activities subject to change
For ticketing information go to https://f4wvegas.brownpapertickets.com/
Thursday: Meet at the High Roller for Bowling at the Link; Party at Carnival Court at Hurrah’s
Friday: Kiss Mini Golf tournament at the Rio; Dinner at Texas de Brazil; Suite party (location TBA)
Saturday: Burgers with Granny for lunch; Future Stars of Wrestling show featuring Stephan Bonnar & Phil Baron, and co-main events: 3-way match with Leva Bates vs. Mia Yim vs. Hudson Envy, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Thomas Santell (f.k.a. Antonio “The Promise” Thomas); NXT viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
Sunday: SUPER CHINA BUFFET DAY at the Wicked Spoon Buffet at 1pm; SummerSlam viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
Monday: Goodbye lunch at Chen Chen at NY NY
All website members will also receive a 15% discount on any purchases from the Las Vegas Fight Shop for the entirety of the convention
Texas de Brazil, Wicked Spoon, NXT and Summer Slam will all be sign up and pre-paid events, prices and collection begin in mid July~!
Pro Wrestling Tees is now carrying our latest line of F4W shirts. Support the Empire~! Grab yours today!
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