THE ROUND-UP
The Lastest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
WWE pulls contracted UK talents from FloSlam broadcast
The Hardys vs. Young Bucks set for ROH’s WrestleMania weekend show
SmackDown ratings up a bit for Women’s title steel cage main event
January 23, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Jimmy Snuka, WWE UK tournament review, more
Two more matches set for NXT TakeOver: San Antonio
WWE NXT results: Nakamura & Roode make their TakeOver match official
Raw ratings bounce back strong without football competition
HHH confirms WWE women’s tournament, not a fan of intergender matches
AUDIO
WOR: Kenny Omega talks Tokyo Dome, G-1, more! 1/19
WOL: WWE business with Dave Meltzer, Raw and Smackdown, weekend schedule, more! 1/19
WOR: New Japan and WWE Network plans, Smackdown, Chael vs. Tito, more! 1/19
F4D: BJ Penn’s doom, Smackdown, Impact, Geek of the Week, more! 1/18
There will be an NXT tour show tonight in Orlando.
TNA IMPACT AT 8 P.M. ON POP TV
Race for the Case match
Moose vs. Drew Galloway for the Grand championship
FANSTASTICA MANIA AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN TIME FRIDAY MORNING/THURSDAY NIGHT FROM KORAKUEN HALL IN TOKYO
Ephesto & Will Ospreay vs. Blue Panther Jr. & Henare
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Soberano Jr. vs. Raziel & Gedo & Jado
Maximo Sexy & Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero & Okumura
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Atlantis & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Rush & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
Mistico & Volador Jr. & Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada & Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Titan
Dragon Lee vs. Cavernario Barbaro for CMLL lightweight title
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 1/16/2017 WWE’s path forward in the United Kingdom
While the specifics of what’s to come remain uncertain, it was clear as Tyler Bate stood in the ring alongside Triple H, William Regal, Finn Balor, and Fit Finlay at the conclusion of the United Kingdom Championship tournament that WWE has a legitimate path forward in the country… Subscribers click here to continue.
WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 23, 2017 Death of Jimmy Snuka, WWE UK tournament review, more
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who was the WWF’s biggest star in 1982-83 and the supreme American high flyer of his era, but whose names brings up a number of different connotations and emotions, passed away on 1/15 at the age of 73, just 12 days after third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped against him. The charges were dropped due to Judge Kelly Banach ruling that dementia had set in to the point he was not mentally competent to stand trial. This came one month after his attorneys stated he was in hospice care, battling stomach cancer and infections, and was not likely to live another six months.
We may look back at the WWE’s United Kingdom championship tournament, held on 1/14 and 1/15 in Blackpool, as the start of an interesting chapter in a new era of pro wrestling. This was far more than a tournament to create a remake of the formerly comedic European title. This constituted the beginnings of ideas to test market localized promotions running an area. It constituted very publicly opening the door to work with other promotions, which, historically has happened in the past but this is also 33 years away from the first inception.
New Japan owner Takaaki Kidani gave an interview to Weekly Pro Wrestling which emphasized an expansion into the U.S. market in 2018, with a regional territory based in Southern California. The interview, translated by Chris Charlton, included these key notes: “We’re preparing a lot of steps to ensure that 2017 is a big year for us. Firstly, Wrestle Kingdom was a great success. For the first time this millennium, TV-Asahi gave us access to a two-and-a-half hour time slot, the same day, to show a version of the event.
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WON BACK ISSUE: December 27, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW Starrcade review, NWO reforms, tons more
The idea to turn WCW around is–the same idea Eric Bischoff came up with that helped turn WCW around three-and-a-half years ago. The most important thing about the revival of the NWO with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett, all holding the major WCW title belts, as the final act of the 12/20 Nitro in Baltimore is not whether it was just copying something from the past. Of course it was nothing original, but the object of wrestling is not originality… Subscribers click here to continue.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
We have a tremendous interview with Kenny Omega up on the site today.
Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing for her position as the administrator of the Small Business Administration in Donald Trump’s cabinet takes place on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
Congratulations to Trish Status on the birth of her baby girl, Madison Patricia today.
UFC announced Chris Weidman vs. Gegard Mousasi in a major middleweight fight for the 4/8 show in Buffalo, which will be the UFC 210 PPV show.
A.J. Styles was robbed on Monday while wrestling in Jonesboro, AR. Police at Arkansas State University are investigating a theft case as Allan Jones (A.J. Styles) reported a bag with $1,000 in U.S. cash and 700,000 yen, as well as an iPhone, a set of Beats headphones, a small screen TV an Xbox 360 and six Xbox 360 games were stolen from him.
WWE
Even though the claim up until yesterday is that this wouldn’t happen, WWE has started to tell its UK talent that there are more promotions they can’t work for. Pete Dunne was pulled from the FloSlam broadcast of the 4/17 Lucha Forever UK show in Birmingham, England because it will air on Flo Sports. Yes, they are pulling talent from a company they own a percentage of. And I’m not surprised in the least. Dunne has also been moved to a dark match on Sunday’s IPW UK show and Joseph Conners, who was headlining, was pulled from the card.
There is a pre-sale for the 3/27 Raw show in Philadelphia, the last Raw before WrestleMania, at the Wells Fargo Center, ending tomorrow at 11 p.m. Brock Lesnar will be featured on the show.
The WWE website had an interview with Seth Rollins saying he wished Kenny Omega would be in the Royal Rumble. It was taken down from the site, and then put back up.
The Huffington Post has a note on Kurt Angle.
UFC/MMA
Amanda Nunes appeared this morning on Live with Kelly. Among the things she did was put Christian Slater in a rear naked choke.
Tickets for UFC 209 on 3/4 at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas go on sale to the public tomorrow. Tickets are $600 down to $75. This is the current lineup for the show:
Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson for welterweight title
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson for interim lightweight title (I know)
Alistair Overeem vs. Mark Hunt
Darren Elkins vs. Mirsad Bektic
Lando Vannata vs. David Teymur
Todd Duffee vs. Mark Godbeer
Ed Herman vs. Igor Pokrajac
Added to the 3/18 show in London at the O2 Arena is Jimi Manuwa vs. Corey Anderson, Joseph Duffy vs. Raza Madadi, Lina Landsberg vs. Veronica Macedo and Daniel Omielanczyk vs. Timothy Johnson.
James Kimball was promoted to Vice President of Operations of the new 30,000 square foot Performance Institute that is being built in Las Vegas. He will be involved in the planning, strategy and day-to-day operations of the new facility.
Bellator has video of the press conference from today in Los Angeles. The line where Sonnen said the only person who used their mouth to make money was Tito’s ex-wife has been repeated throughout the day.
Former Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers is now facing sex crimes charges.
MISCELLANEOUS
Dwayne Johnson has signed on to play Black Adam is a movie that will be come out in 2019.
We’re sorry to report that Paul Jackiewicz, known as The Jackal, the television announcer for the Century Wrestling Alliance and NW New England from 1993 to 1999, passed away this past Thursday at the age of 51. His funeral will be this coming Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Church in Revere, MA. He also worked with Dan Mirade in building the Millennium Wrestling Federation with John Cena Sr., and did commentary that promotion from 2001 to the present.
Matt & Jeff Hardy appear for Broken Anniversary on 1/28 in Joppa, MD at the MCW Arena, facing The Ecktourage, Dirty Money & Eric Chapel. Melina also faces Brittany Blake on that show.
Revolution Pro, which has a big show on Saturday night, will return to York Hall in London on 4/13 for a show featuring IWGP jr. champion Hiromu Takahashi.
Flo Sports announced a deal with the Northern California based Pro Wrestling Revolucion promotion, which features Caristico as their current champion and uses wrestlers from Mexico and California.
Hangman Adam Page has signed a new deal with ROH.
Northeast Wrestling on Saturday night in Waterbury, CT at the PAL Building with TK O’Ryan defending the NEW title against Sami Callihan, Ricochet vs. Travis Gordon, Keith Lee vs. Dijak plus Michael Bennett, Matt Traven, Vinny Marseglia and Mandy Leon appear.
Evolve announced the signing of Austin Theory, who will debut on the 2/24 Evolve show in Joppa, MD.
PWX on 2/19 in Concord, NC at the Cabarrus Arena.
AIW Girls Night Out on 3/11 in Cleveland at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel with Shayna Baszler, Veda Scott, Ray Lyn, Faye Jackson, Britt Baker, Alexia Nicole, Keira Hogan and Solo Darling.
Alexander Shlemenko will headline for M-1 on 3/3 in Moscow, Russia. Shlemenko is still under contract to Bellator but he’s been allowed to fight for M-1 on this show.
ECWA on 1/21 in Woodbury Heights, NJ at the Community Center.
Regarding an item in the new Observer on Matt Cross being advertised for the WrestleCircus show in Austin, TX last weekend and not wrestling, Cross was there but with his opponent not being there, he didn’t wrestle, but he was at the building. (thanks to Pete Schirmacher)
Best in the West TV taping on Sunday in Fresno, CA at the VFW Hall at 3585 N. Blythe featuring Jeff Cobb vs. Joey Ryan and Mustafa a Saed vs. JR Kratos. They also have an iPPV show on 3/12 featuring Lio Rush from ROH. (thanks to Jon Southerland)
The Legacy Fighting Alliance announced that Legacy Fighting featherweight champion Kevin Aguilar will face Resurrection Fighting featherweight champion Raoni Barcelos to unify the championships, and Legacy women’s flyweight champoin Andrea Lee defends against Heather Bassett to create the first LFA champion on a show on 2/17 in Bossier City, LA at the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel. The card will be airing live on AXS TV.
AAW tomorrow night in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Dave & Jake Crist vs. Eddie Kingston & Homicide in a cage match, Sami Callihan defends the AAW heavyweight title, ACH & Rey Fenix vs. Brian Cage & Michael Elgin, Andrew Everett &Jack Evans vs. Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett for the AAW tag titles, Mercedes Martinez vs. Angelina Love, Drew Galloway vs. Silas Young, Abyss vs. Colt Cabana, Matt Sydal vs. Davey Richards and Moose vs. AR Fox vs. Dezmond Xavier vs. DJZ.
Glen Jeffries has an interesting article on Perry Saturn.
A former GLOW wrestler has made her living doing wrestling in hotel rooms.
Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/19): Ric Flair wins the 1992 Royal Rumble
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