THE ROUND-UP
The Latest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
UFC Fight Night 110 live results: Lewis vs. Hunt
CMLL Arena Mexico results: La Gran Alternativa tournament continues
Emma returns to the ring at WWE house show
WWE Ft. Lauderdale, FL, live results: Orton & Styles vs. Mahal & Owens
AUDIO
WOL: Lucha Underground, Ron Starr death, Dr. Lucha, more! 6/9
Wrestling Weekly: Harley Race, Masked Superstar, Rip Hawk 6/9
B&V&G: NXT, Lucha Underground, Granny’s Wrestling Report, more! 6/9
WOL: WWE popularity, career of Kazushi Sakuraba, more! 6/8
We’re looking for reports on WWE Raw in Alexandria, LA, Smackdown in Panama City, Panama, NXT in Derby, UK., AAW in Merrionette Park, IL (Sami Callihan vs. Michael Elgin, Trevor Lee vs. Penta 0M, John Morrison vs. Brian Cage, Abyss vs. Low Ki, War Machine vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mat Fitchet, Eddie Kingston vs. Jeff Cobb) and Northeast Wrestling in Pomona, NY (Rey Mysterio Jr. & Flip Gordon vs. Sami Callihan & Vinny Marseglia, Keith Lee vs. Dijak, Jerry Lawler vs. Sam Adonis.)
UFC FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Fight Pass at 7 p.m. Eastern time
J.J. Aldrich (116) vs. Chan-Mi Jeon (118) — Jeon missed weight and will forfeit 20 percent of her purse to Aldrich
FS1 at 8 p.m.
Kiichi Kunimoto (170) vs. Zak Ottow (171)
Ashkan Mokhtarian (125) vs. John Moraga (126)
Luke Juneau (170) vs. Dominique Steele (170.5)
Damien Brown (155) vs. Vinc Pichel (156)
Mizuto Hirota (146) vs Alex Volkanovski (145)
Tim Elliott (126) vs. Ben Nguyen (126)
Ion Cutelaba (204) vs. Henrique da Silva (206)
Dan Hooker (156) vs. Ross Pearson (155)
Derek Brunson (186) vs. Daniel Kelly (186)
Derrick Lewis (265) vs. Mark Hunt (265)
NEW JAPAN DOMINION FROM OSAKA JO HALL AT 2:40 A.M. EASTERN AND 11:40 P.M. PACIFIC TIME ON SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD (both English and Japanese language feeds available)
David Finlay & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi & Katsuya Kitamura & Hirai Kawato
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) & Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Liger & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Gauntlet series of matches for the Never Open Weight trios titles: Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi vs. Ricochet & Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Rocky Romero & Baretta vs Young Bucks for IWGP jr. tag titles
War Machine vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa for IWGP tag team titles
Michael Elgin vs. Cody
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title
Minoru Suzuki vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title in a lumberjack death match
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title
Sunday has WWE Raw in Beaumont, TX, Smackdown in San Jose, Costa Rica, and NXT in Derby, UK.
Raw will be Monday in Lafayette, LA, featuring the return of Brock Lesnar with a likely confrontation with Samoa Joe. There will be no Monday night Smackdown show as that’s a traveling day to return from Costa Rica.
Smackdown and 205 Live will be on Tuesday night in New Orleans.
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 6/5/2017: Looking at the timing of the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe dream match
Like with most things in pro wrestling, the most important part of a dream match is getting the timing right. It was almost a year ago that Kurt Angle wrestled Zack Sabre Jr. for Revolution Pro Wrestling during an overseas trip at York Hall in London. The live crowd appreciated Angle’s work and loved seeing him. The match itself was fine, mostly sticking to a formula that Angle had perfected during the latter stages of his career.
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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: June 12, 2017: Extreme Rules and Best of the Super Juniors finals reviewed, tons of news
It’s a huge double issue week of the Observer, which includes a look at how the aging of the pro wrestling television audience is like that in other sports, but aging so much faster than any other, as well as the latest on the WWE summer direction, Extreme Rules coverage, Best of the Super Juniors coverage and major features on Kazushi Sakuraba and Joe Silva and how both have impacted the history of MMA.
Look at the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match, the Lesnar direction between now and WrestleMania, the problems with the logic and finishes at Extreme Rules plus full coverage of the event including poll results and star ratings.
Examine the aging of the sports audience and where pro wrestling and MMA fit in, breaking down WWF vs. WCW in the heyday, where things stood ten years ago and where they stand now. Also, look at how that relates to other sports as well as how wrestling’s younger audience breakdown compares with that of other sports and how it has changed.
Check out the last shows of this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, lessons from the tournament, business of the tournament, the epic last match, preview the Dominion show, Kenny Omega’s thoughts on his match with Okada this week, how this compares with other legendary series of matches, the Okada title reign, history of Super Juniors, a chart on how all the wrestlers in the tournament did and star ratings and poll on the last day.
This issue has Frank Deford’s autobiography and his views on Vince McMahon, more on the U.K. proposed network show, an update on Ric Flair 30 for 30, WWE star films movie over the weekend, notes on a lot of new talent signed to contracts that are starting in Orlando soon, WWE loading up the MSG house show, an update on the women’s tournament, Jack Swagger talks leaving WWE, the strongest power lifter ever in WWE, and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week.
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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 [email protected].
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If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON BACK ISSUE: May 15, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW Slamboree review, drug testing for wrestling in NY, more
The bill in New York written by State Senator Tom Libous of Binghamton, which would require state mandated drug testing of all pro wrestlers that work in New York, if it passes, would without question wind up in some form or fashion completely changing the pro wrestling industry as we know it. Whether that’s good or bad depends upon your point of view. There are a few things clear about pro wrestling. Even if some promoters can argue that they can regulate their own companies, the fact is, this business is largely a total failure at regulating itself.
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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
With the Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Golden State Warriors last night, Monday’s episode of Raw will officially have competition from game five of the NBA finals. The Warriors could’ve closed out the finals with a sweep by beating the Cavs in game four, but they’ll have another chance to end the series on Monday night. Raw has the return of Brock Lesnar to television scheduled, which was advertised in advance and should help the rating.
Cesaro & Sheamus will be defending their tag titles against The Hardys on Monday’s Raw. Matt Hardy tweeted that The Hardys will be wrestling at the Raw house show in Beaumont, Texas on Sunday as well. Matt’s wife Rebecca gave birth to the couple’s second son on Thursday night.
There was an angle where Pete Dunne attacked Mark Andrews while Andrews’ band was playing at Download Festival to hype the UK title match that the two had at the event today. Andrews did a flip dive off of the stage onto Dunne after the attack.
A match between Asuka and Ruby Riot at Download Festival was stopped yesterday due to Riot getting busted open. She required stitches, but WWE posted that she’s “ready to rock.”
Austin Aries clarified that he’s not taking time off from WWE after comments that he had made on Busted Open Radio led to some reports that he was.
John Cena discussed proposing to Nikki Bella and promoted American Grit while appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night.
WWE uploaded a video of Ricky Morton talking about his time as a guest coach at the Performance Center.
This week’s WWE top 10 list on YouTube looks at spots where people have jumped off of ladders during Money in the Bank matches.
Pro Wrestling
NJPW’s biggest show since Wrestle Kingdom takes place overnight, and the card looks similar to the Tokyo Dome show. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega will meet in their first singles match since their classic earlier this year, with IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA also being rematches from Wrestle Kingdom.
New Japan World has uploaded free interviews (with English subtitles for those done in Japanese) from Okada, Omega, Naito, Tanahashi, and War Machine ahead of their matches at Dominion.
ESPN ran a story on The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega’s “Being the Elite” series.
Impact Wrestling has gotten some publicity for officially announcing that NFL free agent running back DeAngelo Williams will be appearing at their Slammiversary pay-per-view on July 2nd. Williams will team with former NFL player Moose against Eli Drake & Chris Adonis. Williams played with the Pittsburgh Steelers last season and was formerly a star on the Carolina Panthers. Dave Meltzer had confirmed that the tag match would be happening at Slammiversary in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
ROH announced a six-man tag title match for their Best in the World PPV. Bully Ray & The Briscoes will defend against Dalton Castle & The Boys on June 23rd.
Defy Wrestling and The Crash have entered into a working relationship. Defy will be bringing events from The Crash to the Pacific Northwest and the two companies will be exchanging talent as part of the agreement.
Actor Adam West (who was famous in part for playing Batman) passed away at 88 years old today. West once appeared in a segment with Jerry Lawler on Memphis wrestling.
Jesse Ventura will be starring in a reality show called “The World According to Jesse” on RT America, which is funded by the Russian government.
UFC/MMA
The Thibault Gouti vs. Dong Hyun “Maestro” Kim fight that was scheduled to take place on the prelims for tonight’s UFC Fight Night show in Auckland, New Zealand is off due to Gouti coming down with an illness.
Dana White responded to Demetrious Johnson and said that he thinks Conor McGregor is the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world because of his willingness to take on anybody at any place or time.
After talking to White, Georges St-Pierre believes that his fight against Michael Bisping will still happen.
Kelvin Gastelum said that Anderson Silva turned down a match against him at UFC on Fox 25 in Long Island. Gastelum is facing Chris Weidman in the main event of that show.
Bellator has released the full countdown special for Bellator NYC.
Today in Pro Wrestling History (6/10): Harley Race wins NWA title from Ric Flair
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