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DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Jericho puts up AEW title shot in Tanahashi Wrestle Kingdom match
WWE SmackDown ratings steady with last few weeks
Jon Moxley vs. Trent added to New Year’s Day AEW Dynamite
SmackDown off-air results: Reigns vs. Ziggler taped for New Year’s Eve
WWE SmackDown video highlights: Bryan vs. Miz vs. Corbin
Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan confirmed for WWE Royal Rumble
Roman Reigns vs. Dolph Ziggler set for FOX’s New Year’s Eve special
WWE SmackDown live results: Number one contender’s match
Latest Audio:
WOL Saturday: Stardom, WK14, Jim’s story of beating death four times 12/28
Pacific Rim: Stardom at Wrestle Kingdom 14, the decade in review 12/28
Wrestling Weekly: 2019 year in review show 12/27
Left My Wallet: “The Patriot” Del Wilkes 12/27
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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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
WWE Network News reported that this is the match list for WWE’s Top 10 Matches of 2019 special that will air on the Network starting at 3:25 p.m. Eastern time on Monday:
Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston (WrestleMania 35)
Hell in a Cell match: Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks (Hell in a Cell)
Two-out-of-three falls match: Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole (NXT TakeOver: New York)
Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles (Money in the Bank)
Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks (Royal Rumble)
Money in the Bank ladder match: Randy Orton vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Andrade vs. Baron Corbin vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor vs. Ricochet (Money in the Bank)
Pete Dunne vs. WALTER (NXT TakeOver: New York)
Elimination Chamber match: Daniel Bryan vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton (Elimination Chamber)
Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch (WrestleMania 35)
Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins (SummerSlam)
Mike Rome briefly became the 24/7 Champion at last night’s house show in Pittsburgh before being pinned by Sunil Singh. R-Truth then pinned Singh to regain the title.
WWE uploaded a Day Of video from last month’s Mexico City house show.
Bray Wyatt wrote about facing Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble: “In 2014 I had one of my favorite bouts of my career against Daniel Bryan at The Royal Rumble. Bryan was red hot, it was his time. He went on to main event WrestleMania and become the champ. Deservedly so, Bryan is without a doubt the best I’ve ever been in the ring with. Fast forward to 2020…… The Fiend vs Daniel Bryan at The Royal Rumble. Bryan is like myself in the fact that no one said, “This is a guy we should build our companies future around!”, the first time we walked in the door. WE had to scratch and claw, outwork, out talk, out perform everyone on the pedestal in front of us. Daniel Bryan is one of the greatest of all time. But this is not his time, it’s mine. This is when my name becomes synonymous with the industry I have given my life to. I want to thank you Bryan for the blood we’ve spilled together over the years. But understand, for me, this is my war worth dying for. The choice isn’t mine to make. Good luck #Fiend”
The latest WWE Playlist video looks at Cesaro’s feats of strengths.
Pro Wrestling
MLW announced that Middleweight Champion Myron Reed has signed a new long-term deal with them.
Cody Rhodes posted a tweet teasing a change to his in-ring presentation: “Excited to make a big change and apply a new strategy to my personal in-ring presentation in 2020. Hopefully I can share the good news soon!”
After Cody’s attempt to trademark his father’s name was refused for being too similar to Dustin Rhodes, an attorney handling the process for Cody told Pro Wrestling Sheet that they’re confident they’ll still be able to get the trademark.
Ahead of their rematch on Wednesday, AEW’s YouTube channel uploaded Cody vs. Darby Allin from Fyter Fest.
Bar Wrestling tweeted about Kris Statlander missing Wednesday’s Dynamite to keep her commitment with them: “Losing @callmekrisstat would’ve been a big blow to us not only financially with travel and replacement costs but also quality of talent loss. Thank you to Kris for keeping your bookings next week with @beyondwrestling and with us and to @AEWrestling for caring about independents.”
Kenny Omega & Xavier Woods and Excalibur ranked their top 10 video games of the year for Giant Bomb.
Sports Illustrated named Jon Moxley their Male Wrestler of the Year.
MMA
Fedor Emelianenko was asked about potentially fighting after his retirement tour: “That’s what we discussed, and that’s what we agreed on, but let’s see how I feel. Right now, the plan is just like Scott laid out. There’s going to be three fights, and it’s kind of a retirement tour, but when the tour is over, he said let’s see how I feel. We’ll go from there.”
Mickey Gall vs. Alex Oliveira has been pulled from the UFC’s Fight Night show in Norfolk, Virginia on February 29.
Greg Hardy will face Yorgan De Castro at the UFC’s ESPN show in Columbus, Ohio on March 28.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Sting wins WCW title at Starrcade 1997
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