After a week of controversy, Jim Cornette has resigned from his position as television announcer for the NWA Powerrr promotion.

Cornette, 58, to his credit, was arguably the best announcer as far as all aspects were concerned in the business at this point, if you figure in smoothness of delivery, ability to turn a phrase when warranted, knowledge of the moves as well as match and announcing psychology, and the key job of all, getting over new talent and storylines.

Ironically, it was that second aspect, turning a phrase, that led to his departure.

On the 11/19 show, during a match with NWA champion Nick Aldis vs. Trevor Murdoch, in an attempt to get Murdoch over, Cornette said that Murdoch was so tough that he “could strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and drive a motor scooter through Ethiopia.” The commentary, and the show itself, were done live in Atlanta at the PBS Studio on 9/30.

Cornette has used that line in interviews in the past to talk about how tough someone is, dating back to 1985, without anyone batting an eye. I can’t remember if Jerry Lawler said it in the 70s, and many of Cornette’s lines come from Lawler’s best promos or from comedians he saw as a kid. But things very similar to that phrase had been used in wrestling by him and others dating back decades. But what was fine in 1985 and 1995 isn’t fine today, both actions and verbiage. Even though it also came out this week that Randy Orton used the N word on a Twitch video, something a few people knew but nobody said a word about until it came up in a Twitter battle with Tony Khan, and it was then forgotten almost immediately, Cornette’s line didn’t play well. As much as anything, it’s more an example of changes in society. The reality is that while people look fondly on the past in wrestling, a large part of the old wrestling lifestyle and promotion of numerous angles, as well as the treatment of minorities in the way they were promoted would never work today.

The line itself didn’t play well. On the flip side, I’m certain Cornette was not thinking anything of it when he said it. David Lagana, who edits the show, obviously didn’t either as it could have been edited out.

As soon as the controversy hit, Lagana pulled down the show, edited the line out, and put it back up, and issued an apology.

“On tonight’s episode of NWA Powerrr airing on November 19, 2019, one of our talents made comments which some viewers found offensive. We deeply regret the error and apologize. We have temporarily taken the program down while we correct the error.”

The next day, the NWA released a second statement: “Effective immediately: Jim Cornette has resigned from the National Wrestling Alliance. As an announcer on the November 19th edition of NWA Power, Jim made remarks during a singles match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch that were both offensive and do not meet the high standard of decency and good faith of the National Wrestling Alliance. To ensure that such an error can never happen again, we've established new procedures of review for all NWA programming going forward. We sincerely regret our failure in this regard.”

Clearly that was a tough decision, but one they probably would have had a hard time proceeding with the company trying to ride out the storm. It was clear Cornette loved the spot and for the NWA, he may have been the most valuable on-camera presence on the show (he or Nick Aldis were the most valuable television performers and they have two very different roles) and no replacement will be able to bring to them what he brought. That is how good his work was on that show.

Clearly there was no evil intent, and one can argue double standards, a line used before and all, and others having done worse, but like everything, it’s about time and place. The same lines were said before and nobody batted an eye, which didn’t make them right then, but the fact nobody cared then is about a combination of societal differences and a changing culture. If Cornette hadn’t become a lightning rod of late, someone who in a sense worked at being controversial and loved making enemies, it’s very probable nothing would have transpired to lead to a mob mentality that led to what happened, with the examples in recent months of both Jerry Lawler and Randy Orton, and before that Eric Bischoff, all being proof. This is not a defense of what he said, but simply a rational look at it. His comments just days earlier about AEW announcer Justin Roberts didn’t help when it comes to this.

After 37 years of on-and-off work in the industry, this could be the end of Cornette’s career. If there was a smidgen of a chance of Cornette parlaying his gimmick into becoming the ultimate heel on AEW television, it would appear, even in a never-say-never world, that it is on life support now if the plug hasn’t been already pulled.

People who talk a lot and who make enemies, due to having opinions that rub a group the wrong way, are going to have their words twisted, and overplayed, which to a degree happened to Cornette earlier in the week. And if they talk a lot, they are going to, if they are lightning rods, as Cornette made himself out to be, at times say something ill-advised inadvertently. And really, that is what this line was. This isn’t to say that other lines both on his podcast and Twitter feed aren’t meant to be insulting and often veer into a bad look in 2019.

The line didn’t play well with today’s standards. Cornette should recognize that and apologize, and then move on. Given his reaction, that probably isn’t going to happen, and in fact, it was the fact he wouldn’t that seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for his NWA job.

“Morning everybody! Heard any good jokes lately? This coming Friday’s Jim Cornette Experience (wherever you find your favorite podcasts) is liable to be a good one if you like hearing stupid people told what they can do with their stupidity.”

Aldis, the NWA champion and top star of the company said, “This is in no way speaking on behalf of the NWA, I am absolutely just speaking for myself. I thought the comment was in poor taste and unnecessary. I totally understand why it caused many to be upset. It was a lack of judgment or sensitivity. I have worked really hard along with many others on this team to make this brand mean something again, and this is now how I want the NWA to be trending.”

David Marquez, who handled the interviews on the show, said on Facebook, “The following are my views and not those of any companies I'm affiliated with. I've known and worked with Jim Cornette for over 20 years. He and I have had our differences for sure. He, like myself, are a lot of things, but being a racist is not one of them (look at his record in promoting Black talent). It's pointless to try and paint a different picture of the man because let's face it, the majority of the public dislikes him. What he said on the show is a dated, throwaway comedic line that everyone from Bob Hope to George Carlin to Dave Chapelle has said. But since it's JC it's deemed "bad" and is spotlighted. It's unfortunate that he won't be on the broadcast any longer. A lot of what you enjoyed was because of his suggestion behind the scenes. And for those casting stones, make sure your history is as squeaky clean, on the up and safe as possible because when news about your past hits don't look for sympathy when you're shown the door and the crowd turns on you.”

Marquez had hinted that he may also be leaving the show, but made it clear it had nothing to do with this situation, but because he would be affiliated with a new Circle Squared promotion.

According to one person very close to the situation, Lagana held himself accountable for his mistake in not editing the line out. This was blamed on simply exhaustion. But it was also noted that there have been other lines said on the NWA shows that Lagana has edited out that would also qualify as poor taste stuff.

The real issue as far as the NWA was concerned was that Cornette refused to apologize.

It was also noted that there were those there who weren’t happy that he had become so anti-AEW on his podcast which, as their announcer, was something that led to negativity from some toward their product. The reality is that the NWA Powerrr audience on YouTube had very significant crossover with that of AEW Dark, so they have similar fan bases. Even if they didn’t, while a voice of one promotion can criticize the other, it needs to be reasoned and Cornette’s way over-the-top criticisms of AEW were not a good look for the NWA. The only reason he could get away with it up to this point is because everyone recognized how talented he was at his job.

Even before that line, Cornette was already the center of controversy. He delivered a line about AEW ring announcer Justin Roberts when he was asked about Roberts being nice to a kid that got hurt at a show and made a flippant remark about Roberts, saying “Justin Roberts looks like he ought to be registered somewhere to be around children. He’s so happy. You see a f***ing guy dressed up like that with that big smile coming across his face coming towards your kids, run,”

I have no clue what Roberts did to deserve that, although like everything, it did get blown up into Cornette calls Justin Roberts a pedophile, when he was making a joke. It wasn’t a very tasteful or classy joke, it was just Cornette doing promos, which is what he does. Cornette’s entire shtick for decades has been Don Rickles-style insulting people, similar to that of Bobby Heenan, who he grew up idolizing. Cornette as a WCW announcer in that era was positively tame when it came to racial and ethnic jokes as compared to Heenan and Jesse Ventura, and Cornette’s commentary, more for better, although in the case of that line, sometimes for worse, has really not changed a bit from what he did 30 years ago. Many people, as times change and they use the same style sense of humor as was considered fine when they were younger, can fall into this trap. A large percentage of the most famous comedians in another era played upon race, ethnicity and/or sex in their comedy, at levels so far more offensive than that. And if they did the same routine today, would risk outrage.

That said, Roberts to me is not enough of a public figure in wrestling, nor did he ever do anything that warranted that line. To me, I didn’t find the line funny at all, nor did I find funny the way people blew the line out of proportion later. And this line absolutely played a part in the atmosphere that led to the reaction to the Murdoch line.

I’ve had people say basically the same thing about me, Eric Bischoff in particular, and it was not delivered humorously. This got no reaction in social media because it was just somebody saying something stupid, and like everything, the people who choose sides only choose sides. When it happened, I didn’t give it a second of thought, kind of thought it was pathetic, but expected no better, and moved on. Nobody else did either because it fell into the category of bitter old man says stupid things. Now, about two decades ago, Bischoff said something similar, but worse, about Bruce Mitchell, a wrestling reporter who doubles as an elementary school teacher, comparing him to a pedophile who was known in the wrestling industry and was serving time. Mitchell filed a lawsuit which ended up being very quickly and privately settled out of court since Bischoff was clearly dead-to-rights on that one.

I never thought about the deal with me again until the Cornette furor over Roberts came out. The huge reaction it caused to people, many of whom read the same line before and didn’t care, was because of who said it unless they also reacted equally to the same situation from Bischoff. The funny thing is, I didn’t care when it was said about me, but was a lot more unhappy it was said about Roberts. I didn’t think he was enough of a public figure, even though he’s written a very good book about his experiences in WWE, and had a long run as ring announcer with the largest company and is the key ring announcer of the No. 2 company today.

Cornette then made fun of people who criticized him for it, noting he said nothing close to what people claimed he said, and believe me, the accounts of what people claimed he said and listening for myself were very different. He pretty much blamed it on AEW fans who were mad that he continually knocks The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and others. Had he made those remarks about any of those three, while no better in reality, it probably wouldn’t have got a reaction because they are celebrities. It would be the usual choose sides and don’t care about the actual facts or truth that has become a sad part of modern society. But in his case, yes people blew it way out of proportion, and he was being the over-the-top person that his followers enjoy, but Roberts simply didn’t deserve what he really did say either.

The bad part of social media, and this story is twofold, both a guy who became a celebrity by insulting people with almost no boundaries and that being what made him a celebrity, is now living in a world where enemies are looking to twist words and get outraged. Again, no defense, in particular of the Murdoch line, because it shouldn’t have been said today, shouldn’t have made the air and he should have apologized because even to people not looking to get him, the line was inappropriate in today’s environment.

The reality is that as much as people rightly criticized the line, their selectivity in going after him and not others tells you in the end, the moral of the story is people were out to get him and what he said was an excuse.

Randy Orton using the n word on Twitch no less in 2019 was far worse, and we are just weeks away from Jerry Lawler calling Humberto Carrillo a Mexican jumping bean. While Cornette did use the n word in the 80s, and unfortunately, that term was used frequently in wrestling, in the 70s it was actually a business term in wrestling used by members of every race, he’d have been destroyed far worse for either line and both came out unscathed. Similarly, Bischoff came out unscathed for virtually identical remarks as Cornette’s about Roberts this past year.

Cornette, one of the greatest wrestling managers and promo guys in wrestling history, has had temper issues throughout his career, although in this case that wasn’t what did him in. It has underlied his unquestioned talent at numerous aspects of the business.

Cornette started his career in wrestling at the age of 14, doing photography for national wrestling magazines from shows in Louisville. He later expanded his business into selling photos at shows and handling the programs sold in the Jarrett territory. In time, his mother and local promoter Christine Jarrett became close friends. In 1982, at the age of 20, by which point he was very successful in his side wrestling endeavors, Jerry Jarrett picked him to be a heel manager, feeling he had a personality people could easily hate. Cornette played a rich mama’s boy, using a tennis racket as his gimmick.

He worked the Tennessee territory, as well as Georgia, before his big career break when Bill Watts brought him, Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey to Mid South Wrestling, as the Midnight Express. Cornette would obnoxiously ring announce his teams’ entrance.

Cornette was so successful at getting heat that Watts, at that pint the retired television announcer, put together a program based around the two of them. After Cornette insulted Watts’ son, Watts slapped him and Condrey and Eaton beat Watts down. This led to The Last Stampede, with Watts coming ut of retirement to team with Stagger Lee (Junkyard Dog under a mask) against The Midnight Express. It was the most successful program in the history of pro wrestling in that part of the country, setting records in most major cities in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas and selling out the Sam Houston Coliseum. It drew 25,000 fans to the SuperDome in New Orleans and 15,000 to the Myriad Center in Oklahoma City, the latter setting a record for business that held up for more than a decade and the former being the second biggest in that building until nearly 15 years later.

The team became even more famous working for Jim Crockett Promotions, particularly in programs with The Rock & Roll Express, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes & Magnum T.A., and The Fantastics. The Midnight Express vs. Road Warriors scaffold match was the key selling point of the 1986 Starrcade show, which was the most successful non-WWF event up to that point in the U.S.

By 1989, Cornette was a key member of the World Championship Wrestling booking team, as well as a television announcer.

He left the promotion after a dispute with Jim Herd to form Smoky Mountain Wrestling, which ran from 1991 to 1995. There were key economic issues that killed regional wrestling, mostly related to having to pay high prices for television time because stations could make money from infommercials and the television business recognized wrestling needed television so felt they should paid for that time. Having to pay for television time was a key reason for the deaths of Mid South Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, SMW and ECW, combined with difficulty in drawing fans from 1992 to 1995, when the popularity of wrestling was the lowest since the late 50s.

He worked for WWF, including being part of the creative team in 1997, which was the year the company turned its fortunes around and started drawing again on the back of people like Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker. He was eventually taking off the team, and ended up working out a deal with Jim Ross where he’d return to Louisville and run the Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory.

OVW turned out WWE’s four key new stars of that era, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Dave Bautista and Randy Orton. Cornette’s temper did him in, as he was so mad at Anthony Carelli (later Santino Marella) when he was stationed as a plant in the crowd who was supposed to be scared of the Boogeyman, and instead smiled, that he started slapping Carelli around. When the word got back to WWE, he was let go.

Cornette worked for TNA from 2006 to 2009, but was let go after Vince Russo wanted to bring in Ed Ferrara as a co-writer and told Dixie Carter that due to a past incident (Cornette losing his temper on Ferrara because of the role Ferrara played in WCW mocking Cornette’s close friend Jim Ross and his Bell’s Palsy) that Ferrara wouldn’t come in unless Cornette was gone. Cornette didn’t like Russo previously, but this was the breaking point as it was a job Cornette enjoyed at the time.

Cornette was also instrumental in saving ROH. ROH was losing money at a significant rate and owner Cary Silkin was looking to shut it down. Cornette, through a friend from the 80s, Gary Juster, were able to open negotiations to lead to Sinclair Broadcasting buying the promotion. Cornette was the original booker. While Cornette’s booking in WCW was strong, and while in OVW, he was probably the best creative person in the game, in ROH, the fan base wanted a certain style of wrestling and Cornette had a different philosophy. A lot of the younger talent felt his ideas were outdated and he had issues with a slew of talent, including Kevin Steen (Owens), El Generico (Sami Zayn), Colt Cabana, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Austin Aries, Kenny King and others. Cornette eventually left the promotion in 2012 after issues with Greg Gilleland, the General Manager.

Cornette was upset from day one because he had been told Sinclair would fund a first-rate television production, and instead they went in on the cheap, which also included a number of iPPV misfires that hurt business.

He worked for TNA for a second stint and became a podcast host. It was clear from his podcasts that his knowledge of wrestling history was some of the best in the world, and aspects of his mind for wrestling were excellent. But as times changed and the business and fans changed, he didn’t keep up, not learning the lesson of Watts, who was a genius in 1987 and had fallen out of touch by not following the product by 1992. With Cornette, this came in a period where the business changed greatly, not all for the better, but not all for the worst either.

Cornette was voted Manager of the Year 12 times between 1984 and 1996, Booker of the Year in 1993, 2001 and 2003, and Best on Interviews five times between 1985 and 1993, the latter of which is most impressive considering the quality of talkers in that era was at its zenith.

The wrestling world converges on Chicago next week with five major events in six days.

The WWE runs four shows at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont while AEW finishes the week with the 11/27 Dynamite show at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates.

At this point Survivor Series on 11/24 lists eight matches with three title matches and the rest being multiple brand matches. Survivor Series was virtually sold out at press time, with a few ringside seats priced at $250 and up still available.

The secondary market remains strong with a $79.22 get in price and 910 tickets available.

The three title matches have Brock Lesnar defending the WWE title in a no DQ, no holds barred match with Rey Mysterio, The Fiend Bray Wyatt defends the Universal title against Daniel Bryan, and Adam Cole defends with NXT title against the winner of a three-way between Pete Dunne, Killian Dain and Damien Priest.

There are three non-title battle of brand champions. The women’s match has Becky Lynch vs. Bayley vs,. Shayna Baszler. The tag team match has The Viking Raiders, New Day and Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly. The secondary title battle has A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Roderick Strong.

There are also two 15 person elimination matches.

The men’s match has Team Raw of Seth Rollins & Drew McIntyre & Kevin Owens & Randy Orton & Ricochet vs. Team Smackdown of roman Reigns & Braun Strowman & Mustafa Ali & Shorty G& King Corbin) vs. Team NXT, which did not announce a team. On televison, Tommaso Ciampa was pushed on television as the star with Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic and Matt Riddle also in the key brawls.

The women’s match has Team Raw of Charlotte Flair & Natalya & Asuka & Kairi Sane & Sarah Logan vs. Team Smackdown of Sasha Banks & Carmella & Dana Brooke & Lacey Evans & Nikki Cross vs. Team NXT. Again nobody was announced but women in the various brawls from the NXT side have been Bianca Belair, Marina Shafir, Jessamyn Duke, Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and others.

Smackdown had 43 percent of the lower bowl and 50 percent of the upper bowl not for sale. Smackdown had a $29.55 price for entry and 1,020 secondary market tickets left. Raw was set up similarly, with a $22.55 get in price and 1,700 tickets left.

NXT has the Dunne vs. Dain vs. Priest match for the title shot the next day, a men’s War Games match with the Undisputed Era of Cole & Fish & O’Reilly & Strong vs. Ciampa & Lee & Dijakovic and a fourth man to be announced at the show. Paul Levesque indicated a big surprise for that spot. The women’s match has Baszler & Belair & Shirai & Kay Lee Ray vs. Ripley & LeRae & Mia Yim & Nox. The other announced match is Finn Balor vs. Riddle.

NXT had 1,000 secondary market tickets with a get in price of $25.

AEW has a major show with Chris Jericho vs. Scorpio Sky for the AEW title, Kenny Omega vs. Pac and MJF vs. Adam Page for the for a diamond ring with the two being the last survivors of a 12 man Battle Royal this past week. Cody’s return was also announced.

That show had 430 secondary market tickets left with a $37.97 get-in price. Ticket sales are unavailable but the show is not sold out.

C.M. Punk’s first full-night with WWE affiliation led WWE Backstage to an 80 percent increase in viewers with an 0.17 rating and 180,000 viewers (1.25 viewers per home).

While the show had done far bigger number piggybacking off major events, it debuted on 11/5 in its regular 11 p.m. Tuesday night time slot to only 49,000 viewers. Punk showed up at the end of the second show, which drew an 0.08 rating and100,000 viewers. The four quarters were 195,000, 184,000, 175,000 and 165,000. If the show can maintain numbers close to 125,000 it would have to be considered a solid success given the station and the time slot. Reviews were positive of the show, largely built around him. Punk came across as honest, and not at all a shill. It was very clear the show still didn’t broach any serious topics, such as wrestlers who were wanting out or the Saudi Arabia trip which led to a number of wrestlers vowing to never go back.

At first Punk talked about taking the job, saying when it came to him, his initial idea is that the idea didn’t suck, and based on that, explored doing so. He noted that he was under contract to FOX and has not had talks with WWE. He didn’t rule out wrestling again, but indicated it also wasn’t something he was looking at doing right now. He teased stuff with Seth Rollins, which may have been legit to a degree, but he quickly made the point he wasn’t looking at building a match with him.

He was critical of WWE, and also praised things. He spoke positively about the women wrestlers, while knocking the Women’s Evolution branding. He liked NXT. His other criticisms were hardly controversial but they came across like they were his honest feelings.

He felt the product was overly produced and far too micro-managed, which is no different from what he said when he was in and leaving the company. He mentioned the opening segment on Smackdown with King Corbin a few days earlier was garbage and made him question taking the job. When the subject of The Shield’s 7th year anniversary of their debut was brought up, he asked Renee Young who her favorite member of the group was (she’s married to Jon Moxley with AEW) and she said she liked them all equally. The Shield was talked about but the name Dean Ambrose was never mentioned. He was critical of Rollins, telling him to stay off Twitter, and cut a promo on actor/comedian Tom Arnold, who had made fun of Punk. There was no mention of his UFC career. He portrayed himself as the voice of the voiceless, the idea that he’s saying things that fans believe but that aren’t listened to. He came across well and it made for a good character on a show that didn’t appear to be going anywhere until he jump-started interest.

Ben Askren, one of the greatest college wrestlers of all-time, who used that wrestling pedigree to win MMA world titles on Bellator and ONE, announced his retirement on 11/18 on Ariel Helwani’s MMA show.

Askren told Helwani that he needed a left hip replacement, not a complete replacement but a new procedure, and that will end his career as far as fighting, wrestling or submission grappling.

He said he had hip and back issues for as long as he can remember, but the hip issues have been bad for three to five years. He noted that he had retired in November 2017, only to come back because he got an offer to fight in UFC a year later. His goal was to win the welterweight title in UFC, but after a five second knockout loss to Jorge Masvidal and a submission loss to Demian Maia, that wasn’t going to happen.

Askren’s wrestling career dated back to winning two state titles in Wisconsin in high school and placing second at nationals as a senior. He competed for the University of Missouri at 174 pounds and placed second in the NCAA tournament in 2004 and 2005, going 66-8 in his first two seasons. He then won his last 87 collegiate matches, winning NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, as well as becoming one of the few men in history to win two Hodge trophies, at the time the second, with Cael Sanderson (2000, 2001 and 2002) being the first. He also won two Schalles Awards those seasons as the best pinner in college wrestling. He defeated future Olympic silver medalist Jake Hebert to win the 2006 tournament. In 2007, he was nominated for an ESPY award for best college athlete.

He went to the 2008 Olympics, but lost in the second round and didn’t place, and switched to MMA in 2009.

Gerald Brisco of WWE has said in the past when scouting amateur wrestlers that he felt the two most charismatic wrestlers he saw in that time period were Askren and Johny Hendricks. Askren, with his Funky style and crazy hair was the biggest star in amateur wrestling his junior and senior year. Brisco noted that at the time he was told only to scout for big guys, so WWE never made Askren an offer.

Askren had the charisma and was a great talker, who loved to play the heel in MMA. His style was boring to casual fans at first, as he would turn the MMA fight into a wrestling match and he was so good at it, that he never lost. People would boo his fights and he’d mock the crowd for booing him while he dominated, or not understanding wrestling. He and Dana White went at it often in the press because Askren was undefeated and champion in Bellator so the question was always what would happen in with UFC welterweight stars like Hendricks, Georges St-Pierre and others. White constantly claimed Askren didn’t want to be in UFC.

White missed the boat because Askren was a major personality, as he showed when he came to UFC and all three of his fights had major interest. Even with Lawler, who he liked and didn’t want to say anything bad about, it turned into a pretty big fight. With Masvidal, it was even bigger, but he suffered a terrible knockout from a flying knee in that bout right out of the gates.

After scoring his 12th win in a row, over Andrey Koreschkov in 2013, Askren quit the promotion with the idea of going to UFC. White declined signing him, saying that when Ambien gets tired, it watches Ben Askren fights.

He ended up taking a lucrative offer from ONE and became the company’s signature star from 2014 through 2017, where he went 7-0 and held its welterweight championship for more than three years.

In a deal where ONE signed Demetrious Johnson, who still had fights left on his UFC deal, and in exchange, ONE allowed UFC to sign Askren, he debuted in March against Robbie Lawler. He was nearly knocked out instantly, but turned it around and had Lawler in a bulldog choke. The ref stopped the fight, likely prematurely although Lawler was in a bad position. This led to the 7/6 loss to Masvidal in five seconds, the fastest fight in UFC history.

Askren noted that he didn’t want to make any excuses for his two losses, saying that both times he lost to a better man. He noted he had injuries as long as he can remember and the hip has been bad for three to five years, but never wanted to say anything because he didn’t want it as an excuse. He said it was very hard to train on it during this run and noted that was why he retired at the end of 2017.

Askren noted that he had retired from fighting and was fine with it, but always would have looked back and regretted not fighting in UFC and challenging at the highest level. He said that because in 2019 he wasn’t the best doesn’t minimize to him the rest of his athletic career. He noted that when he came to UFC he only expected it would be a short run, but felt that if he beat Masvidal he would get a shot at Kamaru Usman in Madison Square Garden in November, and his storybook ending would have been to beat Usman and then retire, but that didn’t happen. But he said that the hip replacement does change things as he expected to compete in some wrestling and grappling tournaments for fun after retirement, but he’s not going to be able to do that.

Askren also competed in submission grappling where he was a 2009 FILA world champion, beating Jacob Volkmann in the finals. He was also one of the best in Professional Disc Golf, a sport that combined Frisbee, which he was an expert at and known for in college besides his wrestling, but played on a golf course. He placed high in some of the biggest tournaments in that sport including second place in 2011's U.S. championships.

He also attempted to form a professional circuit for amateur wrestlers, a promotion called AGON, where he was the top star. But that promotion only lasted a short period of time.

After four shows, there is only one team left unbeaten in the 16-team New Japan World Tag League, Evil & Sanada.

The team would be one of the heavy favorites in a tournament where the winners face IWGP tag team champions Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa at one of the Tokyo Dome shows.

The tournament has been fine with steady good matches but no off the charts matches. And that’s typical as New Japan really hasn’t ever focused on a tag team division at the same level as the singles.

The standings after the 11/21 show are: 1. Evil & Sanada 3-0; 2. Colt Cabana & Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi 3-1; 4. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa 2-1; 5. Juice Robinson & David Finlay and Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima 3-2; 7. KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi and Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer 2-2; 9. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare, Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi and Shingo Takagi & El Terrible 2-3; 15. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens and Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi 1-4.

The tournament opened on 11/16 in Fujisawa before a sellout of 2,018 fans. Robinson & Finlay beat Goto & Fredericks in 11:18 when Finlay pinned Fredericks after the acid drop. Cobb & Nicholls beat Yano & Cabana in 8:22 when Cobb pinned Yano after a Tour of the Islands. Tenzan & Kojima beat Takagi & Terrible in 10:16 when Kojima pinned Terrible after a lariat. KENTA & Takahashi beat Nagata & Nakanishi in 10:41 when Tanahashi pinned Nakanishi after pimp juice. Suzuki & Archer beat Fale & Owens in 9:03 when Archer pinned Owens using the claw. Tanahashi & Henare beat Makabe & Honma in 12:01 when Tanahashi pinned Honma after a high fly flow. The main event saw Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi beat Sabre & Taichi in 11:48 when Ishii pinned Taichi after a brainbuster.

The second show was the biggest so far, on 11/17 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo before a sellout of 1,725 fans.

1. Finlay & Robinson beat Kojima & Tenzan in 11:10 when Finlay hit the stunner on Kojima and Robinson followed with pulp friction for the pin. It was all action and Kojima was quite good. ***

2. Makabe & Honma beat Nagata & Nakanishi in 9:45. It was good when Nagata was in with Makabe. It was not good when Nakanishi in. Makabe pinned Nakanishi after a kneedrop off the top rope. *1/4

3. Fale & Owens beat Tanahashi & Henare in 10:20 when Owens pinned Henare after a package piledriver. The crowd was hot for Tanahashi and while he works very safe on shows like this, all of his stuff gets over. Henare is this company’s most underutilized talent, like their Chad Gable, not quite as good, but still his stuff looks great, he looks believable, has great stamina and fire. ***

4. Goto & Fredericks upset KENTA & Takahashi in 11:38. KENTA wears a shirt that reads “Go 2 sleep Club.” Fredericks mostly sold. He looked good and did an Okada level dropkick on Takahashi. Look, athletics and smoothness of work, Fredericks is a superstar waiting to happen in New Japan. He just needs to add a little personality, but as a Young Lion, you’re really supposed to concentrate on the basics. But if he gets that, the sky is the limit for him. Goto pinned KENTA clean with an ushigoroshi and GTR. This makes it close to a lock that KENTA vs. Goto for the Never title is happening at the Tokyo Dome. It would make sense to have Katsuyori Shibata in Goto’s corner. Goto & Fredericks were the surprise in how good they are together. ***½

5. Cabana & Yano beat tag champs Tonga & Loa in 10:10. Cabana showed tanned and in his best shape. Yano undid the turnbuckle padding. Cabana used it and then the ref got mad. So he threw the turnbuckle pad at the ref, which distracted him and he missed Yano giving Tonga & Loa both low blows at the same time, and Cabana jumped on Loa with a Superman press. **½

6. Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi beat Cobb & Nicholls in 12:30. Cobb used some cool suplexes. Ishii makes everyone look good but he moves like he’s hurting and he’s shrinking and losing muscle tone, which is not a good sign. All these years working the way he does was going to start catching up to him. Ishii pinned Nicholls after a brainbuster. ***1/4

7. Sabre & Taichi beat Suzuki & Archer in 14:50. This was the best match on the biggest show of the week. Archer was scaring Miho Abe to death at one point. Sabre vs. Suzuki was great stuff. Each would put their hands behind their back and dare the other to hit them. Sabre went down on every Suzuki blow while Suzuki stayed up and would only stumble from Sabre. There were great submission exchanges. Sabre escaped from Suzuki’s choke and cradled Suzuki for the win. They went at it hard but since they are all from the same group, when it was over they all fist-bumped each other. ***3/4

8. Evil & Sanada beat Takagi & Terrible in 12:26. Terrible didn’t impress me much. He’s in because Takagi needed a heavyweight partner and since Naito is in the final four, he’s out and Bushi is a junior heavyweight and they have that line that is silly today (similar to why Sho & Yoh aren’t in this tournament when they should be). Terrible was an LIJ member at one point in Mexico and Rush isn’t really a big fan of working New Japan so Terrible was the best LIJ guy in Mexico they could come up with. Takagi and Sanada showed glimpses of brilliance together. But the match was overall good, but never reached the level of other bouts on the show. Evil pinned Terrible with It’s Evil. ***1/4

1/18 at Korakuen Hall drew a non-sellout of 1,504 fans. Makabe & Honma beat Goto & Fredericks in 10:43 when Makabe pinned Fredericks with a King Kong kneedrop. Cobb & Nicholls beat Nagata & Nakanishi in 9:56 when Cobb pinned Nakanishi after Tour of the Islands. Tenzan & Kojima beat Tanahashi & Henare in 10:43 when Kojima pinned Honma after a lariat. Yano & Cabana beat Suzuki & Archer in 10:44 when Yano pinned Archer after a schoolboy. KENTA & Takahashi beat Fale & Owens in 7:08 when KENTA made Owens submit to Game Over, which is the move Daniel Bryan took from him as the LeBell or Yes lock. Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi beat Takagi & Terrible in 12:34 when Ishii pinned Terrible after a brainbuster. Sabre Jr. & Taichi beat Finlay & Robinson in 17:04 when Taichi pinned Finlay.

1/19 in Fukushima drew 1,160 fans. Goto & Fredericks beat Tenzan & Kojima in 11:39 when Goto pinned Kojima with the GTR. Tanahashi & Henare beat Nagata & Nakanishi in 10:37 when Tanahashi pinned Nakanishi with the high fly flow. Robinson & Finlay beat Makabe & Honma in 11:49 when Robinson pinned Honma after pulp friction. Takagi & Terrible beat Fale & Owens in 9:28 when Takagi pinned Owens after Made in Japan. Yano & Cabana beat Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi in 10:02 when Cabana pinned Yoshi-Hashi after a Superman pin. Tonga & Loa beat Sabre Jr. & Taichi in 11:31 when Tonga pinned Taichi after a schoolboy. The main event saw Evil & Sanada beat Cobb & Nicholls in 13:06 when Sanada pinned Nicholls after the magic killer.

1/21 in Yamanashi before 1,320 fans saw Nagata & Nakanishi get their first win over Goto & Fredericks in 11:27 when Nagata pinned Fredericks with a bridging back suplex. Tenzan & Kojima beat Makabe & Honma in 11:37 when Kojima pinned Honma after a lariat. Suzuki & Archer beat Cobb & Nicholls in 9:05 when Archer pinned Nicholls using the claw. Robinson & Finlay beat Tanahashi & Henare in 11:31 when Finlay pinned Henare after a stunner. Tonga & Loa beat KENTA & Takahashi in a battle of Bullet Club in 9:00 when Tonga pinned Takahashi with a schoolboy. Evil & Sanada beat Fale & Owens in 12:10 when Sanada pinned Owens with the O’Connor roll. Main event saw Takagi & Terrible over Sabre & Taichi in 15:28 when Takagi pinned Taichi with Last of the Dragon.

UFC on 11/18 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

By Ryan Frederick

Jan Blachowicz entered the main event of the UFC's yearly trip to Sao Paulo on 11/16 looking to score an impressive win and state his claim as the next man to challenge Jon Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Instead, he won a razor-thin split decision in a dud main event that only hurt, not helped, his case.

Blachowicz defeated Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza in the headliner in one of the most boring UFC main events in quite some time. It capped off a rather uneventful event in Brazil. Blachowicz won three of the five rounds on two scorecards to get the decision but did not look impressive in doing so. He did land more strikes but it was mostly battles in the clinch that were not exciting and that repeated constantly over the 25 minutes. It was a fight that could have gone either way and it was close on the media scores with Blachowicz having just a slight edge, which shows the closeness of the fight.

Blachowicz is now 6-1 in his last seven fights. His lone loss came to Thiago Santos, who got a title shot against Jones after beating him. Blachowicz had a lot of momentum coming off of a knockout win over Luke Rockhold in July, and he was getting another former middleweight moving up to 205 pounds in Souza here. Another finish could have put him in prime position to make a realistic case to being next for Jones.

It might not have mattered anyways as far as how this fight went. Dominick Reyes is next for Jones as that fight is currently in the works to headline the 2/8 pay-per-view event in Houston, and has been the fight targeted before this show even took place. Blachowicz now has an uphill battle to being the next in line after that and will likely have to fight again to even be thought of. He did ask for a title fight in his post-fight interview, but there is no way anyone should even ask for a title fight after an abysmal fight like that, especially one you just barely won.

Souza was moving up to the light heavyweight division searching for that elusive UFC title shot that he has never gotten. He has been on the cusp several times only to lose, and some of them have been close decision losses. He could have put himself right in the mix for Jones with a win here, but he gave the fight away. He was up on all three scorecards after three rounds, but he gave away the last two rounds by doing literally nothing as he only landed two significant strikes over the final ten minutes. He got real tired in the fight and had no real game plan after it became obvious he wasn't going to be able to get Blachowicz down.

There was a controversial decision in the co-main event between former UFC champion Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua and Paul Craig. Craig was taking the fight on short notice after Rua's original opponent, Sam Alvey, was forced out. Craig won the first round rather easily as he landed a lot more strikes over Rua and busted him up. It wasn't a total one-sided round nor complete domination and he didn't come close to finish Rua, but he did win it. Rua took over the last two rounds, winning the second round as clearly as Craig won the first, and winning the third round.

When the scorecards were announced, one was 29-28 for Rua, and another one was 29-28 for Craig, which wasn't a bad scorecard. However, the deciding scorecard from Guilherme Bravo had it a 28-28 draw, so the fight was declared a split draw. Bravo gave the first round a 10-8 for Craig, which no one else in the world had as a score. It's hard to say it was a bad score, just one that no one else had, and it did rob Rua from a win. Rua and Craig were both asking for a rematch after the fight.

The most-exciting moment on this show came in the form of Charles Oliveira delivering a first-round knockout win over Jared Gordon on the main card. Oliveira, who holds the UFC record for most wins by submission, has shown improved striking recently and this is his second straight win by knockout. He now has the second-most finishes in UFC history with 15 and is still only 30-years-old. This was his sixth straight win, and after years of flashing potential, he has seemed to finally put it all together in making himself one of the most dangerous fights in the tough lightweight division. He called out Conor McGregor, which he won't get, but also called out Paul Felder, who was the last man to beat him two years ago. The rest of the show was a real mixed bag. It was one of those shows that if you skipped it, you didn't really miss much, and if you watched it, it was a chore at times even though the 12-fight card went by rather quickly.

One of the more notable prelim fights was the continued fall of former UFC Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao. Barao was going back up to 145 pounds this time, but lost a decision to Douglas Silva de Andrade. After winning 32 of his first 34 career fights and winning a UFC title, Barao is now 2-8 in his last ten fights, including five straight losses. He has not looked the same since T.J. Dillashaw took him apart, and even moreso since USADA came into the sport.

There were a couple of issues at the scale during weigh-ins. Originally, Vanessa Melo and Tracy Cortez were both announced as missing weight by half-a-pound for their fight against each other. However, hours later, the Brazilian Commission announced there was an issue with the calibration of the scale, and both women were cleared of missing weight and corrections were issued. One fighter who did miss weight was the debuting Isabella de Padua, who missed the flyweight mark by four pounds. However, she took her fight on less than 48 hours' notice, replacing Veronica Macedo against Ariane Lipski after doctors pulled Macedo from the fight after she said she was experiencing severe headaches.

The show at the Ginasio de Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil drew an announced sell-out crowd of 10,344 fans. As usual, there was no gate announced. It was the second-most attended UFC event in Sao Paulo, trailing only a November 2015 event headlined by Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson. There have been stronger cards with lower attendances in Sao Paulo, so the show should be viewed as a success.

The entire show was streamed on ESPN+, so there are no viewership totals. It went against a full slate of college football games, and was broadcast at night against some big games, so it's doubtful that viewership was high. Nothing showed up on Google Searches for the night and there didn't seem to be much interest outside of the hardcore audience.

They gave out four Performance Of The Night bonuses with Charles Oliveira, James Krause, Ricardo Ramos and Randy Brown all taking home the extra $50,000. They were also the only four fighters to score a finish on the card, and with no real exciting fights, it made it easy to pick the bonus winners.
1. Tracy Cortez (7-1) beat Vanessa Melo (10-7) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in a women's bantamweight fight. Cortez was making her UFC debut and was a name coming off of Dana White's Contender Series from this summer due to her story of losing her brother to cancer and her taking up his dream of becoming a UFC fighter. The first round was all on the feet with Cortez outlanding Melo but it was far from exciting. The second round was all pressure from Cortez. She had the back of Melo and wasn't scoring with a lot of offense but was staying busy and scored a late takedown. Melo rocked Cortez early in the third but Cortez just took her down and controlled the rest of the fight from the top and blocked a couple of submission attempts by Melo. I had it 30-27 for Cortez and all media scores had her winning all three rounds. It was far from an exciting fight.
2. Ariane Lipski (12-5) beat Isabella de Padua (5-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 29-27 in what was scheduled to be a women's flyweight fight. de Padua took this fight on less than 48 hours' notice after Veronica Macedo was forced out due to severe headaches. She missed weight by four pounds but that wasn't a real surprise. Lipski came out firing big punches and dropped de Padua early. They got up and Lipski was landing hard punches until de Padua took her down and ended the round on top. Lipski was landing early in the second before they went to the ground. de Padua landed a clearly illegal upkick to the face of Lipski and got a point deducted. They went back to work and de Padua almost had a reverse triangle locked in but time ran out. de Padua needed a finish in the third and took Lipski down right away. Lipski was able to reverse to the top by the end of the round after de Padua did work on the top but not enough to finish it. I had it 29-27 for Lipski but she really could have been given all three rounds. All media scores had it for Lipski.
3. Douglas Silva de Andrade (26-3 1 NC) beat Renan Barao (34-9 1 NC) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 in a featherweight fight. Both men were moving back up to 145 pounds for this fight. Andrade looks like a mini-Vitor Belfort during Belfort's TRT days. Barao looks like he wishes he could get on TRT because his body has changed since USADA came along. Andrade was throwing with power early and landed some. Barao took him down but they were stood up rather quickly. It was a real bad stand-up by the referee. Andrade landed more late. The bad stand-up cost Barao the chance to win the round. They traded to start the second and Barao scored another takedown. Barao was staying busy with body punches but they were again stood up, which was bad again. They traded late and Barao was cut over his left eye. Both were tired in the third but Andrade was a little more fresh. He was landing big punches on Barao and Barao was eating them. Andrade hurt Barao late with a hard elbow and a spin kick to the body. I had it 29-28 for Silva de Andrade giving him the first and third rounds. All media scores had it for him as well. Barao looks completely shot as a fighter.
4. Randy Brown (12-3) beat Warlley Alves (13-4) in 1:22 in the second round in a welterweight fight. This was one of the more anticipated fights on the card. They both scored early takedowns. Alves got another takedown and Brown gave up his back and Alves was working for a rear-naked choke but was unable to get it fully in and Brown made it to the end of the round. Alves got a takedown in the first minute of the second but Brown was landing elbows from the bottom. Brown then got a triangle choke locked in and got Alves to tap. This was a massive win for Brown, who has shown lots of improvement of late.
5. Francisco Trinaldo (24-7) beat Bobby Green (24-10-1) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in a lightweight fight. This was another fight that hardcores were looking forward to. Trinaldo stunned Green early with a punch and got Green down and tried for a choke but Green was able to reverse to the top. They got up and Trinaldo had a big slam and Green again reversed to the top and ended the first on top. Green again was landing more strikes in the second but was being way too conservative at times. Green was ducking under a lot of Trinaldo punches and was countering well. They were trading in the third with it pretty even but Green ended up taking Trinaldo down twice in the final round. He didn't do much with the top and they got up and traded late. All of the rounds were close but Green outlanded Trinaldo in every round and negated a lot of Trinaldo's offense and takedowns. I had it 30-27 for Green. The fight could have gone either way but no way did Trinaldo win all three rounds. It seemed like Green should have won but he can be frustrating to watch as he is talented but tends to give close fights away and keeps fights he should win easily too close. Media scores were 33% for Trinaldo and 67% for Green, so that shows who everyone thought won.
6. Ricardo Ramos (14-2) beat Eduardo Garagorri (13-1) in 3:57 in a featherweight fight. Ramos was moving up in weight for this one. They were trading early and Ramos got a takedown but they got up. Ramos got the back and took Garagorri down again but they stood up and Ramos still had back control standing. Ramos jumped up on the back of Garagorri and locked in a standing rear-naked choke. They fell to the mat and it got locked in tighter and Garagorri tapped. This was super impressive by Ramos.
7. James Krause (27-7) beat Sergio Moraes (14-6-1) in 4:19 in the third round in a welterweight fight. Moraes got an immediate takedown but did nothing with the top before they scrambled up. The rest of the first was slow on the feet with Krause landing more, but not much landed. Moraes was looking tired right away in the second. Krause was battering him early and dropped him but let him back up. The rest of the round was Krause hitting Moraes and Moraes flopping to the mat trying to bait Krause to the ground but he was having none of it. The ref should have taken points away from Moraes here but didn't. Krause did rock Moraes late and almost finished it but Moraes stalled on the ground. Krause was again battering Moraes in the third and Moraes was running away for lots of the round. Krause was landing combos and then finally knocked Moraes down with a hard right hand and the fight was stopped. Krause just dominated this fight from the start. It is Krause's sixth straight win and arguably his most complete performance during that streak.
8. Wellington Turman (16-3) beat Markus Perez (11-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. The story of the first round was Perez landing slightly more strikes while defending all five of Turman's takedown attempts. Perez landed some good shots in the first. Turman took Perez down in the second and was landing some hard elbows that cut Perez open. Turman landed more in the second. Turman got another takedown in the third and got full mount at one point but Perez was able to escape. Turman stayed on top and landed but Perez was able to get up and landed some good shots in the clinch late. I had it 29-28 for Turman with him winning the last two rounds. All media scores had it for Turman. It wasn't the most exciting fight.
9. Andre Muniz (19-4) beat Antonio Arroyo (9-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. The first round was fairly even on the feet and both men scored takedowns. There was an interesting moment where a timeout was called as it looked like Muniz landed an illegal knee, but the replays showed that Arroyo didn't have a knee on the mat so the knee was legal. He was selling it big time like it was illegal. They were trading in the second round and Muniz took Arroyo down and almost had a rear-naked choke locked in but Arroyo escaped. Not much happened at the end of the second. The third round was absolutely horrendous. Nothing happened. It was arguably the worst round in any fight this year, and that says a lot considering what happened in the main event here. It's not worth talking about. I had the fight 30-27 for Muniz. Media scores were 91% for Muniz and 9% for Arroyo. This was bad.
10. Charles Oliveira (28-8 1 NC) beat Jared Gordon (15-4) in 1:26 in a lightweight fight. Gordon tried an early takedown and Oliveira was looking for a submission but Gordon slipped out. Oliveira was landing good on the feet. He then dropped Gordon with a right hand. Gordon popped up but then Oliveira dropped him again with an uppercut and the fight was stopped in 86 seconds. This was an exciting finish for Oliveira and the crowd went crazy. He really has put it all together recently.
11. Mauricio Rua (26-11-1) and Paul Craig (12-4-1) fought to a split draw on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 28-28 in a light heavyweight fight. Craig was throwing all sorts of wheel kicks early. They were battling in a clinch and Craig started unloading punches but Rua was covering up. A few got through and you could see the damage on Rua's face. Rua did land some nice punches late in the first. They were trading in the second and both landed punches at the same time on a few occasions. Rua got a takedown and was landing heavy punches and hammer fists from the top. Craig kept Rua in his guard and Rua finished the round on top. They traded in the third and went to the mat and Rua was in Craig's guard landing punches. Rua seemed content to ride the fight out on top but they ended up getting up and trading. Craig did get a late takedown but I didn't think it was enough to win the round. I had it 29-28 for Rua with him winning two and three. There was no way the first was a 10-8 for Craig. Rua did get robbed here. Media scores were 88% for Rua and 12% for Craig.
12. Jan Blachowicz (25-8) beat Ronaldo Souza (26-8 1 NC) via split decision on scores of 48-47, 47-48 and 48-47 in a light heavyweight fight. The first was Blachowicz landing a little more and Souza applying clinch pressure against the fence looking for a takedown. That continued for the entire first. It also continued for the entire second except both men landed a little more. Blachowicz was landing the jab well in the second. The third round was the same as the first two and Souza was pushing more of the action in this round, but still not much was happening. The final two rounds were absolute duds. The crowd was booing the fight loudly the last two rounds and even started playing with the flashlights on their cell phones lighting the arena up like a Bray Wyatt entrance. Souza barely did anything the last two rounds and while Blachowicz won them by landing more strikes, he wasn't doing anything to solidify himself as the winner of the fight. This fight was horrendous. If you are suffering from insomnia and need a cure, turn this fight on and you will be out cold for days. I had it 48-47 for Souza with him winning the first three rounds. Media scores were 56% for Blachowicz and 42% for Souza. Neither guy won here. Don't watch this fight unless you want to torture yourself.

Japan said goodbye over the weekend to the biggest American sports celebrity who lived in the country during the 70s, Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer.

Beyer, who passed away on 3/7 at the age of 88, was the focal point of “The Destroyer Memorial Night: White Masked Demon King Forever,” a show on 11/15 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo. Beyer first came to Japan in 1963 as the last major opponent for Rikidozan, including a match that drew a 64.0 rating on television. He remained one of the biggest name foreign stars in pro wrestling through the 60s and into the 70s. He became bigger when he became the first American to move full-time to Japan with his family, and was one of the highest paid pro wrestlers in the world during the 70s during the early days of Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was also part of a comedy ensemble television show that at one point was the highest rated weekly TV show in the country, making him a mainstream star. When he died, the media coverage in Japan was said to be about the same in that country as the death of John Lennon or Muhammad Ali.

About 2,500 fans came to the nostalgia-based show that saw multiple promotions involved and saw unique matchups of stars from the present and past. All Japan referee Kyohei Wada and Fumihiko Kihara, who is a member of the Motoko Baba family, were behind the show. Beyer’s children, including Kurt, who once wrestled for Baba and teamed with his father for a short period of time, and wife Wilma were special guests, as were Dory Funk Jr., The Great Kabuki and Stan Hansen, symbolic of the 70s and 80s All Japan era.

The event got significant sports page coverage, taking up almost an entire page with photos of Beyer from 1933, when he was three, 1954, when he started wrestling under his real name, as well as from his heyday as the perennial King of Masked Men.

The big theme of the show was the figure four leglock. It was used out of respect for Beyer, who popularized the move in Japan in 1963. The first two matches, as well as the main event, ended with that move. In the opener, Masao Inoue used it, as Inoue was a guy who had many of his matches as a rookie in his first summer against Destroyer, in his last year, with Inoue always losing to the figure four.

In the main event, Keiji Muto used the figure four to win a six-man tag that included All Japan’s top star, Kento Miyahara, and New Japan’s Sanada.

Destroyer is the guy who brought the figure four to Japan and it became this major move in that scene from him, and later people like Jack Brisco and Ric Flair. One of the most famous pro wrestling photos ever in Japan was Destroyer with the figure four leglock on Rikidozan from 1963.

After the figure four was kind of forgotten about in Japan since the submission holds were changed to the things that actually were from UWF style like Boston crabs or MMA and BJJ moves, Muto brought it back to prominence. Muto used the figure four as a submission in his 1995 champion vs. champion match with Nobuhiko Takada at the Tokyo Dome, which was one of the biggest matches in Japanese history, being the first pro wrestling show in history ever to do a $6 million live gate. The idea behind that finish is that Takada represented UWF style, where the guys were supposed to be shooters and only used real moves. So the idea was to have Muto, representing traditional pro wrestling, to bring back the most traditional submission move from the 60s, and use it to beat the guy who had been promoted as the top shooter. Muto, for the rest of his career, relied on dragon screws and the figure four as a key part of his arsenal to become one of the biggest names in the history of Japanese pro wrestling.

1. Masao Inoue, who started his career in 1991, doing a number of matches against The Destroyer, won The Destroyer Cup Battle Royal. Symbolically, Inoue used the figure four leglock, Destroyer’s finisher, to beat Chikara, the grandson of Rikidozan in 6:20 when they were the last two. Others in the match included three-time Olympian Tamon Honda, Ryuji Hijikata, Taru, Revlon, Naoshi Sano, Yuto Aijima, Kotaro Nasu, Utamaro, Hikaru Sato, Masayuki Mitomi, Takao Omori, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Men’s Teioh, Mitsuo Momota and Great Kojika. Momota is the son of Rikidozan and he and Kojika were with All Japan at the same time Destroyer was a headliner.

2. Tatsumi Fujinami & Jun Akiyama & Shiro Koshinaka beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito in 6:50 when Fujinami beat Saito with the figure four leglock. Fujinami probably got put over, even though he was a New Japan star when Destroyer was an All Japan star, because he was a superstar when Destroyer was still active.

3. Masa Fuchi & Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura & Koji Iwamoto of All Japan beat the shooters team of Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Masakatsu Funaki & Mitsuya Nagai & Minoru Tanaka in 11:28 when Fuchi pinned Nagai. Fuchi is another wrestler who dates back to when Destroyer was a headliner.

4. Daisuke Sasaki & Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo of DDT teamed with Shuji Ishikawa of All Japan to beat Tajiri & Masaaki Mochizuki (Dragon Gate) & Jiro Kuroshio (Wrestle-1) & Takuya Nomura (Big Japan) on 9:22 when Ishikawa pinned Kuroshio. The DDT involvement makes sense because Destroyer used comedy in his matches, and more, he was well known mainstream in Japan as a comedy figure on non-wrestling television shows.

5. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi of New Japan beat Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi of All Japan in 11:29 when Kanemaru beat Atsuki Aoyagi with a Boston Crab.

6. In the battle of big powerhouses, Yuji Okabayashi of Big Japan teamed with Shigehiro Irie of DDT & Joe Doering of All Japan & Hideki Suzuki of Big Japan to beat Kazushi Miyamoto & Ryoji Sai & Zeus & The Bodyguard, the latter three of All Japan when Doering pinned Bodyguard after a flying body press in 6:45.

7. Suwama of All Japan & Shuji Kondo of Wrestle-1 beat Minoru Suzuki of New Japan and Taiyo Kea of All Japan in 15:10 when Suwama pinned Kea after a back suplex. Kea was Giant Baba’s last protégé, who doesn’t wrestle much anymore but dates back to the Baba All Japan era and stayed with the promotion rather than going to NOAH or ever leaving for the U.S.

8. Keiji Muto & Kento Miyahara & Jushin Liger beat Sanada & Bushi of New Japan & Kai in the main event. The show ended, like it began, with the figure four leglock which Muto used in 14:05 on Kai.

For the first time since the Wednesday Night head-to-head battle started, WWE won the night on 11/20 with overall viewership although realistically if someone would be shook up by the results, it should be WWE.

WWE pushed hard open doors, implying and in fact delivering that Raw and Smackdown stars would augment the show, with the implication the biggest stars would be there.

The result, on a night with the Democratic debates drawing huge cable numbers, wrestling held up far better than the NBA (down 60 percent from the same night last year without the debate), NXT did 916,000 viewers (1.26 viewers per home) and AEW did 893,000 viewers (1.40 viewers per home). Head-to-head was slightly closer at 906,000 for NXT not including the overrun. For the first time, AEW did fall slightly behind Raw and Smackdown in viewers per home, but AEW did remain with the youngest skewing audience of weekly shows.

AEW also won with every under-50 demo, and in fact, won every single quarter in under-50 demos.

Still, NXT took a lot of the younger AEW audience for the week by bringing in the stars. The NXT median viewer age dropped to 49.9 years old from 52.2 last week, while AEW aged from 42.0 to a median viewer being 44.9.

52 percent of the NXT viewership was over the age of 50 as compared to 34 percent for AEW.

NXT won the first three quarters overall and five of eight. The segments with Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley gave AEW wins, and it is notable that Moxley vs. Darby Allin beat the head-to-head Adam Cole vs. Dominik Dijakovic ladder match with 899,000 to 821,000.

As expected, NXT’s high point was the ending of Becky Lynch vs. Rhea Ripley and the post-match women’s brawl, as well as Ricochet vs. Matt Riddle and another post-match brawl, at 1,072,000 viewers. AEW’s peak was 1,004,000 for the Chris Jericho and Scorpio Sky angle.

WWE throwing main rosters stars absolutely hurt AEW 12 to 34 viewership, even though AEW still won the quarters and they declined significantly in those demos.

The good news for AEW is that even with the debate and WWE sending a slew of top names over, AEW at 893,000 would indicate a steadying pattern and that 900,000 or so feels like the current base, because this was a strong night of competition on television, and the strongest competition from WWE to date. So the key point is the weekly bleeding of viewers, which had pretty much been a pattern up until two weeks ago, looks to have ended. And the current level is a success.

For WWE, it does show that they can send the biggest stars over and improve numbers and win, but it’s only squeaking and can only win with viewers over 50. There’s no guarantee if that gimmick runs its course they would continue to win overall, and can’t win in the key demo. Whether they will continue to send top stars weekly is a question. Paul Levesque said that after Survivor Series the talent would be brand exclusive once again. But time will tell because Raw & Smackdown stars are the only way it seems NXT can compete, at least unless they move to larger arenas and improve production. It was also a show where AEW purposely kept Cody off to build for next week, as well as kept Kenny Omega off except for a short promo.

In the key 18-49 demo, AEW fell to 0.39, trailing the debates on MSNBC, the NBA on ESPN and lost the second hour to MTV War of the World’s Challenge. NXT did a 0.30.

Overall, AEW did a 0.16 in 12-17 (down 33.3 percent), 0.25 in 18-34 (down 26.5 percent), 0.53 in 35-49 (up 1.4 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (identical to last week). The audience was 66.7 percent male in 18-49 and 61.5 percent male in 12-17.

NXT did a 0.13 in 12-17 (up 18.2 percent), 0.19 in 18-34 (up 18.8 percent), 0.41 in 35-49 (up 20.6 percent) and 0.40 in 50+ (up 14.3 percent). The audience was 63.9 percent male in 18-49 and 61.1 percent male in 12-17.

In the segment-by-segment, AEW opened with Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix and did 912,000 viewers and 498,000 in 18-49. NXT opened with a Becky Lynch promo and Lynch vs. Rhea Ripley, doing 1,047,000 viewers and 430,000 in 18-49.

In many ways this segment is key regarding the viewership trends. Historically ratings are all about name value and star power. Whether Becky Lynch is the biggest star in WWE or not right now is arguable, but she has regularly pulled Raw’s best numbers. It was also her first interbrand match. Nick Jackson vs. Fenix was a cold match with no build, and had exactly one thing going for it, a lot of the audience expected it would be an incredible match. The fact it solidly won under 50 says that to the younger demo, and really this is the first evidence of something like this head-to-head, that is enough to beat out a far bigger star in an interbrand match. This battle saw AEW win with teenagers 25,000 to 14,000; in 18-34 at 186,000 to 138,000, in 35-49 by 312,000 to 292,000 but lose in over 50 by 554,000 to 340,000. Not surprisingly, Lynch did win with women at 69,000 in 18-34 and 124,000 in 35-49 while AEW did 62,000 and 102,000 respectively. So the men were 124,000 in 18-34 to 69,000 in favor of AEW, and 35-49 were 210,000 to 168,000.

The second segment saw AEW with Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida do 862,000 viewers, a loss of 50,000, and 472,000 in the key demo, a loss of 26,000. NXT had the end of Lynch vs. Ripley, an interbrand brawl, Ricochet vs. Matt Riddle and another interbrand brawl. It did 1,072,000 viewers for the peak, an increase of 25,000, and 450,000 in the key demo, an increase of 20,000. Even though NXT skews heavily post-50, the gains here were young, but still you had a far stronger star power hour losing in the key demo to Baker vs. Shida.

The third segment saw AEW with the Dark Order and beginning of the Battle Royal doing 875,000 viewers, a gain of 13,000, and 497,000 in 18-49, a gain of 25,000 (meaning older losses). NXT did 918,000 for the beginning of Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. The Revival, a loss of 154,000 viewers. It also did 387,000 in 18-49, a loss of 63,000. The idea of a great match means a great deal to the AEW younger audience, but to the NXT older audience, what also promised to be a great match lost even in the younger demo, but heavily in the older demo.

The fourth segment for AEW was the end of the Battle Royal and the beginning of the Chris Jericho interview, which did 973,000 viewers, an increase of 98,000. It did 556,000 in 18-49, an increase of 59,000. NXT had the bulk of Fish & O’Reilly vs. Revival, which did 851,000 viewers, a drop of 67,000, and 369,000 in 18-49, a drop of 18,000. In this case with all viewers, the star interview segment both with old and young beat the great match.

The fifth segment for AEW was the Jericho interview, SCU coming out, the post match brawl and Luchasaurus vs. Peter Avalon, which did 1,004,000 viewers, a gain of 21,000. In 18-49, it did 582,000, a gain of 26,000. For NXT, it was the end of Fish & O’Reilly vs. Revival and beginning of Dakota Kai vs. Kay Lee Ray, which did 828,000 viewers, a drop of 23,000 overall. In 18-49, it fell to 363,000 viewers, drop of 6,000. Again there was a slower bit of movement, but still more movement for Jericho interview taking viewers from the NXT great match.

The sixth segment for AEW was Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz, which lost 196,000 viewers to 810,000. It also fell to 472,000 in 18-49, a drop of 110,000. For NXT, it was the bulk of Kai vs. Ray and beginning of Viking Raiders vs. Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler. This did 876,000 viewers, gaining 48,000, and 391,000 in 18-49, a gain of 28,000. It’s very clear there was both switching off AEW and switching to NXT here.

The seventh segment for AEW, the post-match of Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz, and the Moxley vs. Allin intros, that did 806,000, a drop of 4,000, and 456,000 in 18-49, a drop of 19,000. For NXT, it was 840,000 viewers total, a loss of 36,000 and 362,000 in 18-49, a loss of 28,000.

AEW’s final segment was Moxley vs. Allin, which did 899,000, an increase of 83,000, and 508,000 in 18-49, an increase of 52,000. NXT did 821,000 for Cole vs Dijakovic in the ladder match, a drop of 19,000, and 359,000 in 18-49, a loss of 3,000.

The NXT overrun with the ladder match and the last T-shirt brawl gained 229,000 viewers to 1,050,000, but they were mostly older viewers as 18-49 after AEW ended did 447,000 viewers, an increase of 88,000.

The teenage peak for AEW was Allin vs. Moxley, which gained 30 percent from the prior quarter. The NXT peak, not including the overrun, was for the Viking Raiders vs. Forgotten Sons, which beat AEW 21,000 to 20,000.

The overrun, largely the AEW audience that transferred to watch the end of NXT was 9,000 teenagers, 6,000 women 18-34, 12,000 women 35-49, 41,000 men 18-34, 35,000 men 35-49 and 120,000 over 50.

Women 18-34 peaked for NXT with Lynch vs. Ripley, but it turned around as the show went on, as Jericho/Scorpio beat the Revival’s match 83,000 to 40,000 and the main event was 68,000 to 36,000 in favor of AEW.

Women 35-49 had a similar pattern, peaking for Jericho/Scorpio, and AEW won the main event by a 100,000 to 81,000 margin, with Lynch-Ripley being the NXT high point.

Men 18-34 peaked for AEW with Fenix vs. Jackson as well as the Battle Royal. NXT peaked for Kay Lee Ray vs. Dakota Kai, which going against Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz, was NXT’s only quarter win.

Men 35-49 peaked with the Jericho interview segment with strong showings for Fenix vs. Jackson the Battle Royal and Allin vs. Moxley. NXT’s best numbers were quarter two and six.

Over 50, NXT peaked with Lynch vs. Ripley and dropped a ton after, from 554,000 to 423,000 by quarter three and never came back. AEW’s strong points were the Jericho interview at 353,000 and Jackson vs. Fenix at 340,000.

Total Divas on 11/19 did 295,000 viewers, up 14.3 percent from the prior week and the most-watched episode of the season. There is no show on 11/26 and the season will end with two episodes on 12/3.

Raw on 11/18 did a 1.7 rating and 2,126,000 viewers (1.41 viewers per home), which was up 3.5 percent from last week, but still the second lowest non-holiday show in modern history, beating only last week.

The football game with the Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs did a strong 12,567,000 viewers, which was strongly down from the prior week but still a solid number considering the game.

Raw was 11th overall for the night on cable, but trailed only ESPN in the 18-49 demo. It was down 14.7 percent from the same week last year.

The median viewer was 50.7 years old.

As far as the first-to-third hour declines, it dropped 18.4 percent in women 18-49, 21.3 percent in men 18-49, 24.0 percent with teenage girls, stayed even with teenage boys and dropped 12.0 percent over 50.

The first hour was 2,245,000 viewers. It was the lowest first hour except for Christmas Eve and New Year’ Eve. The second hour did 2,211,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,925,000 viewers.

In the segment-by-segment, the high point of the show with 2,302,000 viewers was for the end of Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. Iiconics and post-match brawl with Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke, AOP beating up Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins and the beginning of Humberto Carrillo vs. Karl Anderson. The low point, at 1,780,000 viewers, was Asuka vs. Natalya.

Carrillo vs. Anderson lost 86,000 viewers. The Lana promo and Bobby Lashley vs. No Way Jose match gained 47,000 viewers. Seth Rollins vs. Andrade gained 34,000 viewers. Buddy Murphy vs. Akira Tozawa lost 46,000 viewers. The Erick Rowan squash with the R-Truth 24/7 stuff lost 168,000 viewers. Kevin Owens vs. Drew McIntyre gained 121,000 viewers. The end of the match and post-match with HHH trying to recruit Owens lost 35,000 viewers. The Paul Heyman/Rey Mysterio promos lost 231,000 viewers (two commercial break quarter). Natalya vs. Asuka lost 160,000 viewers. And Viking Raiders vs. Randy Orton & Ricochet gained 53,000 viewers to 1,833,000.

The second segment was the high point with teenagers. Rollins vs. Andrade was the peak with 18-34 and 35-49 and the key male demos.

The show did a 0.32 in 12-17 (down 5.9 percent from last week), 0.43 in 18-34 (down 2.3 percent), 0.93 in 35-49 (up 10.7 percent) and 0.95 in 50+ (up 4.4 percent).

The show drew 66.7 percent males in 18-49 and 53.3 percent males in 12-17.

Smackdown on 11/15 did a 1.47 rating and 2,309,000 viewers (1.43 viewers per home).

Based on the overnights the show did 2,445,000 viewers in the first hour and 2,255,000 in the second hour, so it was a bigger decline than usual. It was the lowest rated show on FOX to date. It did a 0.7 in 18-49 which tied Hawaii Five-0 for the top spot in that demo for the night, but of the four major networks, it was also the least watched prime time show on television and was also behind a number of cable shows. It easily beat the NBA on ESPN with 1,085,000 for the top spot in sports for the night.

Once again showing live vs. tape doesn’t matter, this show was live while the previous week’s show from Manchester was taped. This show was down 9.8 percent in ratings, 11.5 percent in viewers and 22.2 percent in the key 18-49 demo. And it’s not like there was a change in competition. Last week was coming off the great show the week before, and the newness of NXT guys invading. Now that it was done on several shows, it didn’t have the same ratings juice.

The show did a 0.4 in 18-34, and the way the ratings are figured in demos based on the entire 120 million home television universe, if you are looking at a percentage of the homes that have the channel, AEW two days earlier as far as realistic rating actually beat Smackdown by a 0.46 (an 0.34 out of 120 million homes translates to 0.46 in 88 million).to 0.44 margin, even with the edge of being on a station that far more people watch. But it’s also one low rated episode in comparison, and in that demo, Friday is far harder to draw than Wednesday. But AEW also had head-to-head competition in wrestling from the same viewers and far tougher overall competition.

That said, there has been a feeling of waiting for Smackdown to fail and be moved off FOX, and this week being affirmation that it’s declining. It’s one week down coming off two straight good weeks, so it’s way early to even say it’s declining until we have a several week pattern.

Smackdown was 42.0 percent down from the 3,981,000 viewers FOX averaged in that time slot the same Friday last week, and 22.2 percent down from the 0.9 18-49 demo in that time period.

The show did a 2.9 in New York, 1.5 in Los Angeles, 3.4 in Chicago, 2.6 in Philadelphia, 2.7 in Dallas, 1.9 in San Francisco, 3.2 in DC, 2.8 in Houston and 3.0 in Atlanta.

Based on the top markets, the opening segment with Baron Corbin & Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode and the dog mascot did a 1.54 rating to start. Shorty G & Mustafa Ali vs. Roode & Ziggler with Roman Reigns, Corbin and the mascot dog at ringside dropped 1.9 percent. A bunch of backstage stuff and the Braun Strowman stuff with Drew Gulak and the B Team dropped 2.6 percent. A backstage segment with Daniel Bryan, Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura plus The New Day vs. Revival tag match dropped 7.5 percent. The end of New Day vs. Revival with the NXT run-in and Heavy Machinery squash increased 16.9 percent. That would indicate the NXT run-in was likely the key to the rating still as this was the high point of the show. Bayley vs. Nikki Cross dropped 1.3 percent. The Sasha Banks & Cross & Carmella & Dana Brooke vs. Rhea Ripley & Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox & Mia Yim match dropped 4.5 percent. And the Miz TV segment with Daniel Bryan increased 3.3 percent.

In once again an affirmation of how the live vs. taped thing is overrated when it comes to MMA, and we’ve seen the same with pro wrestling, a Bellator show on a one plus day tape below that took place 11/14 in Tel Aviv, and aired on 11/15, did 318,000 viewers, beating the live show the prior Friday that did 314,000.’

The number was even more impressive considering the show lacked name talent. The main event was Linton Vassell, a good light heavyweight moving to heavyweight, beating Sergei Kharitonov, who was a name from the Pride days. But aside from the main event, the only fighter on the show whose name would be recognizable to a casual fan was Roger Huerta, who was pushed in UFC many years ago.

It was Bellator’s best television rating since 7/12, for the Julia Budd vs. Olga Rubin featherweight title match that did 325,000 viewers.

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RESULTS



11/7 Brighton, UK (WWE Smackdown - 3,000): Three-way for tag titles: Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder won over Kofi Kingston & Big E and Luke Harper & Erick Rowan, Dana Brooke b Mandy Rose-DQ, Dana Brooke & Carmella b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Andrade b Sin Cara, Women’s title: Bayley b Charlotte Flair, Heavy Machinery & Apollo Crews & Shorty G b Cesaro & Bo Dallas & Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler, IC title: Shinsuke Nakamura b Ali, Roman Reigns b King Corbin

11/7 New York Melrose Ballroom (Impact TV tapings): Willie Mack b Bobby Wayward, Brian Cage NC Eddie Edwards, Michael Elgin won three-way over Eddie Edwards and Brian Cage, Fallah Bahh b Raj Singh, Petey Williams b Johnny Swinger, Non-title: ODB b Taya Valkyrie, Moose b Ace Romero, Ace Austin & Adam Thornstowe & Luster the Legend b Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel, TJP b Daga, Tommy Dreamer ref, no DQ: Rob Van Dam b Rhino, Jordynne Grace b Tenille Dashwood, Tessa Blanchard b Mad Man Fulton-DQ, Impact title: Sami Callihan b Ken Shamrock

11/7 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,585): Gamma & Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida & Mondai Ryu & Hiroshi Yamato b Keisuke Okuda & Yuki Yoshioka & Kota Minoura & Ho Ho Lun & Jimmy, Ryo Saito & K-Ness b Don Fujii & Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, BxB Hulk & Kai & Yosuke Santa Maria b Kzy & Brother Yasshi & Punch Tominaga, Masaaki Mochizuki DDQ Hyo, Dragon Kid & Dragon Dia b Yamato & Kagetora, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi b Ben K & Shun Skywalker, Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi & Kennichiro Arai b Takashi Yoshida & Diamante & Kazma Sakamoto, Eita & Big R Shimizu b Ultimo Dragon & Yasushi Kanda

11/7 Ocala, FL (WWE NXT - 300): Angel Garza b Austin Theory, Tehuti Miles b Cal Bloom, Santana Garrett & Jessi Kamea b Reina Gonzalez & Samantha De Martin, Dexter Lumis b Omari Palmer, Keith Lee & Matt Riddle b Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake, Raul Mendoza & Catalina Garcia b Denzel Dejournette & Kayden Carter, Vanessa Borne b MJ Jenkins, Babatunde & Tyler Breeze & Fandango b Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak & Brendan Vink

11/8 Tampa, FL (WWE NXT - 150): Io Shirai b Xia Li, Kona Reeves b Daniel Vidot, Bronson Reed b Raul Mendoza, Dexter Lumis b Mohamed Fahim, Danny Burch b Cezar Bononi, Tegan Nox b Vanessa Borne, Wesley Blake b Cal Bloom, Tyler Breeze & Fandango b Riddick Moss & Doran Mak

11/8 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Magnus & Principe Diamante b Coyote & El Hijo del Signo, Amapola & Dalys & Reyna Isis b Jarochita & Sanely & Shoko Nakajima, Audaz DCOR El Hijo del Villano III, Dulce Gardenia & Fugaz & Star Jr. b Mephisto & Ephesto & Luciferno, Negro Casas & Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero b Soberano Jr. & Titan & Valiente, Mistico & Caristico & Volador Jr. b Sanson & Forastero & Cuatrero

11/8 Toyama (Dragon Gate - 351): Dragon Dia d Kota Minoura, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Brother Yasshi b Dragon Kid & Ho Ho Lun & Jimmy, Big R Shimizu b Keisuke Okuda, Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida b Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda, Ben K & Shun Skywalker b Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria b Eita & Takashi Yoshida & Diamante & Hyo

11/9 St. Augustine, FL (WWE NXT - 200) : Xia Li b Deonna Purrazzo, Mansoor b Chase Parker, Killian Dain b Mohammed Fahim, Danny Burch b Killian Dain-DQ, Isaiah Scott b Tehuti Miles, Jeet Rama b Brendan Vink, Taynara b Carolina, Denzel Dejournette & Nick Ogarelli b Aleksander Jaksic& Dexter Lumis, Bianca Belair & Io Shirai b Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox

11/9 Torreon (AAA TV tapings - 4,000): Komander & Mr. Iguana b Parkita Negra & Mini Psycho Clown, Laredo Kid & Bengala & Big Mami b Ultimo Maldito & Lady Maravilla & Keyra, Dinastia & Nino Hamburguesa & Lady Shani b Arez & Villano III Jr. & La Hiedra, Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana b Flamita & El Hijo del Vikingo & Octagon Jr., Aerostar & Murder Clown & Nicho b Killer Kross & Monsther Clown & Taurus, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pagano & Psycho Clown b Blue Demon Jr. & Chessman & Rey Escorpion.

11/9 Morioka (Dragon Gate - 504) Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante b Susumu Yokosuka & Gamma & Ho Ho Lun, Masato Yoshida & Kaito Ishida b Keisuke Okuda & Jimmy, Naruki Doi & Jason Lee b Takashi Yoshida & Hyo, Ben K & Shun Skywalker b Kzy & Brother Yasshi, Ultimo Dragon & Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda b Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria

11/9 Osaka (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 402): Junta Miyawaki b Kinya Okada, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. b Hi69, Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Ridgeway b Hayata & Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke & Yo-Hey, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi & Hitoshi Kumano b Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki & Hajime Ohara, Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura b Kaito Kiyomiya & Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka

11/9 Sheffield, UK (RevPro): SWE title: Sean Kustom b Sha Samuels, Dan Moloney b Brady Phillips, Robbie X b Darius Lockhart, Kyle Fletcher b Shota Umino, Shanna b Maddison Miles, Ricky Knight Jr. b Carlos Romo, British tag titles: Rampage Brown & Great O’Kharn b Dan Magee & Kurtis Chapman

11/10 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Apocalipsis & Espanto Jr. b Leono & Sonic, Atomo & Gallito & Microman b Chamuel & Guapito & Perico Zakarias, Sagrado & Universo 2000 Jr. & Virus b Blue Panther Jr. & Fuego & Guerrero Maya Jr., Audaz & Esfinge & Rey Cometa b Polvora & Tiger & Vangellys, Angel de Oro & Kraneo & Niebla Roja b Negro Casas & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible, Caristico b Gran Guerrero

11/10 Ichinoseki (Dragon Gate - 676): Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Brother Yasshi b Keisuke Okuda & Gamma & Ho Ho Lun, Takashi Yoshida b Kota Minoura, Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida b Ben K & Shun Skywalker, Ultimo Dragon & Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda b Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid & Jason Lee, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria b Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante & Hyo

11/10 Imabari (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 291): Hajime Ohara & Nosawa & Kinya Okada b Minoru Tanaka & Rising Hayato & Junta Miyawaki, Tadasuke d Kotaro Suzuki 20:00, Takashi Sugiura & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue, Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura, Yoshinari Ogawa & Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Ridgeway b Hayata & Daisuke Harada & Yo-Hey, Kaito Kiyomiya & Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69 b Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Hitoshi Kumano

11/11 Hiroshima (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 323): Minoru Tanaka b Kinya Okada, Atsushi Kotoge d Tadasuke 20:00, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm & Hi69 b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Junta Miyawaki, Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki & Chris Ridgeway b Hayata & Daisuke Harada & Yo-Hey, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Hitoshi Kumano b Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura, Kaito Kiyomiya & Naomichi Marufuji & Shuhei Taniguchi b Takashi Sugiura & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hajime Ohara

11/11 Nagaoka (Dragon Gate - 555): Jimmy d Kota Minoura, Susumu Yokosuka & Brother Yasshi b Keisuke Okuda & Ho Ho Lun, Kzy b Dragon Dia, Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid & Kaito Ishida NC Ultimo Dragon & Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda, Ben K & Shun Skywalker b Naruki Doi & Jason Lee, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria b Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante & Hyo

11/12 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Angelito & Shockercito b Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Olimpico, Metatron & Oro Jr.& Principe Diamante b Akuma & Espiritu Negro & Nitro-DQ, Black Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Fuego b Dark Magic & Disturbio & Polvora, Vangellys b Esfinge, Felino & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible b Blue Panther & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa, Caristico & Titan & Valiente b Cavernario & Negro Casas & Templario

11/12 Ojiya (All Japan - 384): Takao Omori b Hokuto Omori, Gianni Valletta & Utamaro b Zeus & Atsuki Aoyagi, Yusuke Okada & Hikaru Sato & Hayato Sakurai b Koji Iwamoto & Atsushi Maruyama & Black Menso-re, Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama & Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura b Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman, Parrow & Odinson b Tajiri & Kai, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard

11/12 Mielpanque (Dragon Gate - 414): Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid b Yamato & Ho Ho Lun & Jimmy, Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida b Ben K & Shun Skywalker, Ultimo Dragon & Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda b BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria, Diamante & Hyo b Keisuke Okuda & Dragon Dia, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Brother Yasshi b Eita & Big R Shimizu & Takashi Yoshida

11/13 Tampa (WWE WrestleMania kickoff party): Raul Mendoza b Arturo Ruas, Kayden Carter & Santana Garrett b Deonna Purrazzo & Taynara, Babatunde b Brendan Vink, Chase Parker b Denzel Dejournette, Mansoor b Austin Theory, Danny Butch b Tehuti Miles, Reina Gonzalez b MJ Jenkins, Tyler Breeze & Fandango b Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler

11/13 Mexico City (AAA Lucha Capital): Laredo Boy won three-way over Drago Kid and Parkita Negra, Mr. Iguana won three-way over Mamba and Villano III Jr., Lady Shani won three-way over Hades and La Hiedra, El Hijo del Vikingo won three-way over Flamita and Carta Brava Jr., Psycho Clown won three-way over Super Fly and Taurus

11/14 Mannheim, Germany (WWE Raw): Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Lacey Evans, Ricochet b Shelton Benjamin, Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder b Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, U.S. title: Kevin Owens b A.J. Styles-DQ, Kevin Owens & Viking Raiders b A.J. Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Natalya b Sarah Logan, Rusev b Bobby Lashley-DQ, Street fight: Seth Rollins b Drew McIntyre

11/15 Philadelphia, PA (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 10,700): Cesaro b Apollo Crews, Shorty G & Mustafa Ali b Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler, Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Big E b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder-DQ, Heavy Machinery b Kevin Tibbs & Kip Stevens, Sasha Banks & Carmella & Dana Brooke & Nikki Cross b Rhea Ripley & Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Dakota Kai, Angel Garza b Jack Gallagher, 24/7 title: Samir & Sunil Singh b Tim Gauge, Lio Rush & Raul Mendoza b Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari, Roman Reigns b King Corbin, Universal title: Bray Wyatt b Daniel Bryan

11/15 Regensburg, Germany (WWE Raw): Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Lacey Evans, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder, Titus O’Neil b Shelton Benjamin, Kevin Owens b Shelton Benjamin, U.S. title: Ricochet b A.J. Styles-DQ, Ricochet & Viking Raiders b A.J. Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Natalya b Sarah Logan, Rusev b Bobby Lashley-DQ, Street fight: Seth Rollins b Drew McIntyre

11/15 Hull, UK (WWE NXT U.K. tapings - 650): Mark Andrews b Kassius Ohno, Trent Seven b Kona Reeves, A-Kid b Jack Starz, Ridge Holland b Oliver Carter, Alexander Wolfe b Ilja Dragunov, Piper Niven b Jinny, Eddie Dennis b Dereiss Gordon, Toni Storm b Killer Kelly, Noam Dar b Ashton Smith, Wild Boar & Primate b Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, Jordan Devlin b A-Kid, Joseph Conners won three-way over El Liger and Travis Banks, Walter & Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner & Alexander Wolfe b Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey & Wolfgang & Ilja Dragunov

11/15 Citrus Springs, FL (WWE NXT - 175): Isaiah Scott b Wesley Blake, Xia Li won three-way over Deonna Purrazzo and Taynara, Dexter Lumis b Omari Palmer, Babatunde b Cal Bloom, Kayden Carter b Chelsea Green, Daniel Vidot b Tehuti Miles, Nick Ogarelli b Cezar Bononi, Matt Riddle & Dominik Dijakovic b Jaxson Ryker & Steve Cutler

11/15 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 8,000): Espanto Jr. & El Hijo del Signo b Retro & Sonic, Dalys & Reyna Isis & Tiffany b Jarochita & Princesa Sugehit & Shoko Nakajima, Rey Hechicero & Kawato San & Okumura b Atlantis Jr. & Audaz & Dulce Gardenia, Angel de Oro b Felino, Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson b Stuka Jr. & Star Jr. & Titan, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Negro Casas b Volador Jr. & Mistico & Soberano Jr.

11/16 Dusseldorf, Germany (WWE Raw): Ricochet b Drew McIntyre, Natalya b Sarah Logan, Titus O’Neil b Shelton Benjamin, Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Lacey Evans, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder, Rusev b Bobby Lashley-DQ, U.S. title: Seth Rollins b A.J. Styles-DQ, Seth Rollins & Viking Raiders b A.J. Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

11/16 Washington, DC (WWE Smackdown - 3,400): Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Big E b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Dana Brooke b Tamina, Gran Metalik & Kalisto & Shorty G & Apollo Crews b Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler & Luke Harper & Cesaro, Women’s title: Bayley b Nikki Cross, Roman Reigns b King Corbin, Cruiserweight title: Lio Rush b Angel Garza, IC title: Mustafa Ali b Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan & Mustafa Ali b Shinsuke Nakamura & Sami Zayn, Last man standing for Universal title: Bray Wyatt b Braun Strowman

11/16 Hull, UK (WWE NXT U.K. taping - 850): Wild Boar & Primate b Saxon Huxley & Tyson T-Bone, Kay Lee Ray b Isla Dawn, Ridge Holland b Jack Starz, Tag titles: Mark Coffey & Wolfgang NC Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner, Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan b Pretty Deadly, Jinny b Amalie, Tyler Bate b Noam Dar, Dave Mastiff b Kona Reeves, Kassius Ohno b El Ligero, Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith b Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, No DQ: Ilja Dragunov b Alexander Wolfe

11/16 Daytona Beach, FL (WWE NXT- 190): Xia Li b Reina Gonzalez, Aleksander Jaksic b Nick Ogarelli, Big Jordan b Aleksander Jaksic, Bronson Reed b Dexter Lumis, Chase Parker b Mohammed Fahim, Mansoor & Denzel Dejournette b Austin Theory & Shane Thorne, Babatunde b Brendan Vink, Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green & Samantha De Martin b Jessi Kamea & MJ Jenkins & Santana Garrett, Damien Priest won three-way over Killian Dain and Pete Dunne

11/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 805): Kazma Sakamoto & Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada b Minoru Tanaka & Hitoshi Kumano & Junta Miyawaki, Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue b Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm, Hayata & Tadasuke & Yo-Hey b Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki & Chris Ridgeway, Kenou & Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura b Kaito Kiyomiya & Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69, IPW jr. title: Daisuke Harada b Atsushi Kotoge, to win title, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi b Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.

11/16 Shimonoseki (Dragon Gate - 711 sellout): Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Ho Ho Lun b Masaaki Mochizuki & Keisuke Okuda & Kota Minoura, Gamma b Jimmy, Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante & Hyo b Don Fujii & Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda & K-Ness, Ben K & Shun Skywalker b Naruki Doi & Jason Lee, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kai b Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid & Kaito Ishida

11/17 Sapporo (All Japan - 682 sellout): Koji Iwamoto & Noriyuki Yoshida b Yusuke Okada & Atsuki Aoyagi, Takao Omori b Hokuto Omori, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi & Black Menso-re b Gianni Valletta & Atsushi Maruyama & Tomoya, Parrow & Odinson b Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman, Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama b Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa, Zeus & Ryoji Sai b Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura

11/17 Ciudad Juarez (AAA TV tapings - 5,000 sellout): Demus & Keyra & Lady Maravilla b Mascarita Dorada & Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa, Monsther Clown & Arez & Parka Negra b Mamba & Murder Clown & Pimpinela Escarlata, Four-way for Latin American title: Daga won over Brian Cage, Flamita and Taurus, El Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion & Ayako Hamada b El Hijo del Vikingo& Nicho & Taya Valkyrie, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown & Pagano b Blue Demon Jr. & Averno & Chessman

11/17 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Apocalipsis & Inquisidor b Leono & Sangre Imperial, Cholo & Espiritu Negro & Yago b Magia Blanca & Magnus & Principe Diamante-DQ, Metalica b Magnifica, Kawato San & Sagrado & Universo 2000 Jr. b Esfinge & Pegasso & Rey Cometa, Hechicero & Mephisto & Negro Casas b Angel de Oro & Kraneo & Niebla Roja, Sanson & Forastero & Cuatrero b Caristico & Soberano Jr. & Valiente-DQ

11/17 Oro (Dragon Gate - 333): Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka b Jason Lee & Ho Ho Lun, Don Fujii & K-Ness b Gamma & Hirosaki Moriya, Masato Yoshino & Kaito Ishida b Masaaki Mochizuki& Keisuke Okuda, Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda DCOR Eita & Diamante, Ben K & Shun Skywalker NC Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kai b Big R Shimizu & Kazma Sakamoto & Hyo

11/18 Boston (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 8,800): Mojo Rawley b ?, Cedric Alexander b Eric Young, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch b Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, Humberto Carrillo b Karl Anderson, Bobby Lashley b No Way Jose, Seth Rollins b Andrade-DQ, Buddy Murphy b Akira Tozawa, Eric Rowan b Alex Malcolm, Kevin Owens NC Drew McIntyre, Asuka b Natalya, Tag titles: Viking Raiders NC Randy Orton & Ricochet

11/18 Obihiro (All Japan - 590): Koji Iwamoto b Hokuto Omori, Yusuke Okada & Gianni Valletta b Atsushi Maruyama & Atsuki Aoyagi, Kento Miyahara & Takao Omori & Atsushi Maruyama b Black Menso-re & Noriyuki Yoshida & Tomoya, Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura b Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama, Zeus & Ryoji Sai b Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Parrow & Odinson

11/18 Sasebo (Dragon Gate - 432): Dragon Kid & Kaito Ishida b Masaaki Mochizuki & Keisuke Okuda, Kzy b Ho Ho Lun, Ben K & Shun Skywalker b Gamma & Jimmy, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kai b Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi & Jason Lee, Don Fujii & Susumu Yokosuka & Yasushi Kanda & K-ness b Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante & Kazma Sakamoto

11/19 Mukawa (All Japan - 355): Yoshitatsu b Hokuto Omori, Joel Redman b Atsushi Maruyama, Takao Omori & Black Menso-re b Atsuki Aoyagi & Tomoya, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada b Zeus & Ryoji Sai & Noriyuki Yoshida, Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura & Koji Iwamoto b Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama & Gianni Valletta, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi b Parrow & Odinson

11/20 Indianapolis, IN (AEW TV tapings - 4,227): Trent b Pentagon Jr., Rey Fenix b Nick Jackson, Hikaru Shida b Britt Baker, Adam Page and MJF were finalists in 12 man Battle Royal, Luchasaurus b Peter Avalon, Private Party b Santana & Ortiz, Jon Moxley b Darby Allin, Awesome Kong b Leva Bates, Shanna b Big Swole, AAA title: Kenny Omega b Jack Evans

11/20 Winter Park, FL (WWE NXT TV tapings - 400 sellout): Kayden Carter b Vanessa Borne, Mansoor & Raul Mendoza b Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss, Becky Lynch NC Rhea Ripley, Matt Riddle b Ricochet, Non-title: Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Kay Lee Ray b Dakota Kai, Non-title: Viking Raiders b Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, Non-title ladder match: Adam Cole b Dominik Dijakovic

11/20 Kokurakita (Dragon Gate - 540): Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda won three-way over Don Fujii & Gamma and Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka, Shun Skywalker & Ho Ho Lun b Ben K & Jimmy, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Kai b Masaaki Mochizuki & Keisuke Okuda & Kota Minoura, Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida b Kazma Sakamoto & Hyo-DQ, Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid & Jason Lee & Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida b Eita & Big R Shimizu & Diamante & Kazma Sakamoto & Hyo



Special thanks to: Bryan Alvarez, Robert Bihari, Chris Bourke, Donald Burgess, Tommy Burnette, Julian Callan, Kevin Chiat, Justin Cosgrove, The Cubs Fan, Donovan Finan, Markus Gronemann, Patrick Gronemann, Adam Herring, Tanner Jenkins, Graham Kaye-Taylor, Ruaridh Kerr, Jacob Lindauer, Roy Lucier, Stephen Lyon, Paul Martin, Brett McGrath, Patrick McKee, Colin McMillan, Rafael Reiter, James Ryder, Shannon Walsh, Xander Winkel

CMLL: The 11/15 show at Arena Mexico drew 8,000 fans, although it was a two-for-one ticket special. That is basically Mexico’s Black Friday so there were all kinds of deals with two-for-ones and three-for-ones all over Mexico City. They started an Angel de Oro vs. Felino feud. Angel de Oro, the tecnico who gets booed by the locals, pinned Felino using the ropes for leverage after Felino was caught twice doing the same thing. This led to hair vs. hair challenges. Sanson & Forastero & Cuatrero beat Star Jr. & Stuka Jr. & Titan. The main event saw Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Negro Casas beat Mistico & Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr. in straight falls when Casas used a low blow on Soberano. It looks like they are building a Casas vs. Soberano program

The biggest news was political. At the show they were honoring Tiger Hattori, who is retiring from New Japan at the end of the year. Chavo Lutteroth, the son of the original Salvador Lutteroth, who has now taken back over after the death of Paco Alonso, was out with his son. He has now turned the promotion over to his son. Sofia Alonso, who briefly ran the promotion until Chavo pulled her and started cutting people’s pay, which led to Rush quitting, was back. When her father was alive, she would have been front and center as the face of the promotion during the ceremony. Sofia hasn’t been around for weeks and she was there but never did anything related to the show. Chavo Lutteroth during the ceremony, talked about how his father built all of these arenas and if it wasn’t for his father, there would be no Lucha Libre. Generally, his father is credited with importing the pro wrestling that he saw in Texas into Mexico

The 11/22 show has Mistico & Soberano Jr.& Volador Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Casas, Forastero & Cuatrero & Sanson vs. Stuka Jr. & Titan & Valiente and more

They also announced legends show on 12/6. These shows usually do some of the biggest crowds of the year, but so many of the names that drew are no longer able to work. The card, from the opener, has Ricky Boy & Skayde & Super Muneco (a major 80s star) vs. Gallego & Mr. Condor & Rocky Santana, Atlantis Jr. & Audaz & Star Jr. vs. Misterioso & Sagrado & Tiger (not a nostalgia match), Blue Panther & Casas & Virus vs. Mano Negra & Negro Navarro & Super Astro, Solar vs. El Satanico, a modern match with Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr. vs. Sanson & Forastero & Cuatrero, and a main event of Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Tinieblas Jr. & Villano IV vs. Canek & Fuerza Guerrera & Mascara Ano 2000. It’s notable Atlantis, who hasn’t been wrestling in a few weeks, is not on this show

Shocker has returned. He’s said to be in bad shape. He’s been out of action with a messed up jaw but never had the needed surgery. He’s lost a lot of weight and is said to look quite frail.

AAA: They taped television on 11/17 in Ciudad Juarez before a sellout 5,000 fans with a show to build both the 12/1 stadium show in Monterrey and Guerra de Titanes. Demus & Keyra & Lady Maravilla won a mixed opener over Mascara Dorada & Nino Hamburguesa & Big Mami when Maravilla pinned Mami after a frog splash in 13:39. Dorada was said to be really over. Keyra and Demus gave Mami a double-team superplex and then put a chair on her for Maravilla to splash onto. Mami was bleeding from chair shot. Mami challenged Maravilla to a hair vs. hair match and Maravilla accepted and they brawled after the match. That match is set for Guerra de Titanes. Monsther Clown & Parka Negra & Arez beat Murder Clown & Mamba & Pimpinela Escarlata when Monsther pinned Escarlata after a power bomb after Mamba turned on Escarlata. Mamba, a younger exotico, said he had no time for Escarlata, a veteran who goes back decades. Mamba said that he only used Pimpinela and has no use for him now that he’s a bigger star. Pimpinela said that he paved the way for Mamba and Mamba is nothing but a copy. Monsther said that he was going to take Aerostar’s mask on the 12/1 show. Daga retained the Latin American title over Brian Cage, Flamita and Taurus. Daga pinned Cage after a low blow and putting his feet on the ropes in 9:44. El Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion & Ayako Hamada beat El Hijo del Viking & Nicho & Taya Valkyrie when Texano pinned Nicho after a power bomb into a ladder in 15:22. Main event saw Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pagano over Blue Demon Jr. & Averno & Chessman when Pagano pinned Chessman after power bomb off the ropes in 17:00. Both slipped off. Wagner bled from the start. Demon and Wagner brawled to the back and never came back out with the idea of taking them out of being the focal points of the match and then doing a finish to build Psycho and Rey Escorpion. Psycho did a flip dive off the post onto Averno, but his legs hit the guard rail and he was limping around after. Escorpion did a run-in after the match on Psycho and pulled off his mask

The next TV taping is 11/30 Veracruz, the night before the baseball stadium show in Monterrey, which will not be broadcast. Nothing is weirder to me in this day and age than have the first Kenny Omega vs. Dragon Lee match, with a world title at stake, and have it not be broadcast in any form for a live show or an iPPV

AAA is running 12/6 in Tijuana with Psycho Clown & Pagano & Puma King vs. Rush & Bestia del Ring & Taurus on top. Chris Dickinson, the former Triton, not Triiton, Jake Atlas (who doesn’t start in WWE until early 2020), Gringo Loco from Chicago and Killer Kross are all booked on that show

Lucha Capital had what was said to be its best match on 11/13 when El Hijo del Vikingo won over Carta Brava Jr. and Flamita when he pinned Flamita with a 450. The show goes to semifinals on 11/27 and finals on 12/4.

ALL JAPAN: As of 11/20, the tag team tournament standings were: 1. Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta 1-0, 2. Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa 3-1; 3. Zeus & Ryoji Sai, Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama and Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura 2-1; 6. Parrow & Odinson 3-3; 7. Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi and Tajiri & Kai 1-2; 9. Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard 1-3; 10. Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman 0-2, 10. Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard 1-3

In tournament matches this past week, 11/17 in Sapporo drew a sellout 682 fans at the Hotel Emisia Ballroom with Parrow & Odinson over Yoshitatsu & Redman in 12:20 when Odinson pinned Redman; Doering & Akiyama beat Suwama & Ishikawa in 13:55 when Doering pinned Suwama with a Revolution power bomb; and Zeus & Sai beat Lee & Nomura in 18:54 when Zeus pinned Nomura with a jackhammer

11/18 in Obihiro drew 590 fans. It was billed as the 47th anniversary of pro wrestling at the Obihiro City Gym. Lee & Nomura beat Doering & Akiyama in 16:42 when Nomura pinned Akiyama, which is a huge win for Nomura. Zeus & Sai beat Yoshitatsu & Redman in 13:12 when Sai pinned Redman. Suwama & Ishikawa beat Parrow & Odinson in 13:41 when Suwama pinned Odinson after a fire thunder

11/19 in Mukawa saw Miyahara & Aoyagi beat Parrow & Odinson in 14:56 when Miyahara pinned Odinson with a shutdown German suplex

11/20 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall before 965 fans had Doering & Akiyama over Parrow & Odinson in 7:31 when Doering pinned Odinson with a Revolution power bomb; and Sekimoto & Bodyguard beat Miyahara & Aoyagi in 23:29 when Sekimoto beat Aoyagi with a German suplex. They also had first round matches in the tournament for the vacant jr. title with Hikaru Sato over Black Menso-re in 10:21 with a chicken wing submission, and Koji Iwamoto beat Fuminori Abe in 10:48.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH: They ran an 11/16 show at Korakuen Hall before 805 fans. The main event had Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi beating Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. in 22:13 when Taniguchi pinned Sugiura with a diving body press. Daisuke Harada won the IPW jr. title in the semi over Atsushi Kotoge in 24:06 with a German suplex.

NEW JAPAN: Harold Meij in a video interview denied New Japan had any involvement in Kenny Omega’s issues getting into Japan on his last three trips

Rush in interviews spoke about how his brother would be going to New Japan in 2020, so that seems to be an indication things have been worked out politically where Dragon Lee can return. With Hiromu Takahashi back, it made sense to bring back Dragon Lee since the two are career rivals and while an accident, Lee was the one who injured him which put him out of action for 18 months

Lavie Margolan noted that New Japan drew 34,435 fans over 13 U.S. dates in 2019, averaging 2,649 per show. That average was skewed greatly by the 16,534 paid for the Madison Square Garden sellout and next year they won’t come close to that number since there’s unlikely to be an MSG date on the schedule. Logic would tell you if you did a first weekend sellout in MSG that you’d come back to the building, but I think it’s pretty much been conceded that the guys who actually drew that sellout aren’t with the company any longer, made clear that they know it that they booked the Hammerstein (which was too small as they sold it out instantly) for their return to the city. They should have at least gone for a date at the Hulu Theater, which they would sellout for a good card and can put in twice as many people.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES: The Stardom tag team tournament ended on 11/15 in Nagoya. The blue block ended with Tam Nakano & Arisa Hoshiki beating Hana Kimura & Death Yama-San in 5:41 when Nakano pinned Yama-san with a Tiger suplex. Both teams finished with eight points but Nakano & Hoshiki advanced since they won the head-to-head battle. The red block was already clinched by Bea Priestley & Jamie Hayter who went into the final show with eight points. They ended at ten beating Mayu Iwatani & Saki Kashima when Hayter pinned Kashima with the cow killer in 7:38. Nakano & Hoshiki beat Priestley & Hayter when Hoshiki pinned Hayter with a Brazilian kick in 13:33. Nakano & Hoshiki then challenged Jungle Kyona & Konami for a tag team title shot. Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita & AZM also challenged Kagetsu & Natsu Sumire & Andras Miyagi for the trios titles

The situation with Giulia has been resolved between the Ice Ribbon promotion and Stardom. Ice Ribbon announced on 1/15 that Guilia is no longer with the company, and Stardom announced that she had signed a contract with them

In what was billed as Jushin Liger’s last match in Yahaba, as well as his first match there, on 11/16, Liger worked a Michinoku Pro show that drew a sellout of 1,216 fans. Liger & Great Sasuke worked a nostalgia match doing a 20:00 draw with Dick Togo & Jinsei Shinzaki.

HERE AND THERE: CWF Mid Atlantic, a promotion out of the Carolinas that ran out of Gibsonville, NC, not far from Greensboro, has canceled all the rest of its shows and folded. CWF Mid Atlantic was notable in particular before Trevor Lee signed with WWE, as it was his home promotion and he was long-term champion who would beat people in long classic matches. No word at this point on what led to this

David McLane’s Women of Wrestling group on AXS announced that the 11/23 show would be a two-hour season finale from 8-10 p.m. That also means New Japan is being preempted this week and was already preempted for a concert the following week. WOW still has episodes that were taped in September that haven’t aired. No new taping dates have been announced

The movie “My Spy,” which stars Dave Bautista as a CIA operative will be released on 1/10

PWG announced its 12/20 show which has Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido for the PWG title in the main event, plus Rey Fenix vs. Jonathan Gresham, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Aramis & Rey Horus in a non-title match, Jake Atlas vs. Blake Christian, JD Drake vs. David Starr, Mick Moretti vs. Paris DeSilva (both from Australia who killed it in a comedy match over BOLA weekend) and Orange Cassidy vs. Tony Deppen

The “Peanut Butter Falcon” movie that we’ve noted a few times with its DVD release, was said to be the highest grossing independent film of the year. The idea was that people met someone with Down’s Syndrome and created the idea of a movie for him with no idea that it would be a theatrical release, but things fell into place and it wound up making the big screen

Mick Foley raised almost $10,000 off his 11/10 show in San Jose for ODB to help get back on the road with a new food truck

The NWA will be adding another web series called “The Circle Squared.” It appears to be a tryout of sorts show, something like the Dana White Contenders show or Gut Check that TNA used to do or other entertainment reality shows with the idea of a competition where the winner gets a performers contract. According to Dave Lagana, the series will allow new talents the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is to get a chance to earn an NWA talent contract. This competition show will allow new competitors the chance to step up to the interview podium and show their verbal skills as well as get in the ring to show their working skills. The idea is that the winner gets a contract

Tito Santana is working on an autobiography with Kenny Casanova called “Don’t Call Me Chico.” The book will talk about growing up as the son of a migrant farm worker in Mission, TX, using football to get through college and briefly playing Canadian Football before college football teammate Tully Blanchard (Blanchard was a quarterback at West Texas State while Merced Solis, the real name of Santana, was a tight end) got him into pro wrestling and leaving the business to become a high school Spanish teacher in New Jersey, Mr. Solis

Taya Valkyrie (Kira Forster Hennigan) stars in a movie called “Unchained” that will be released in early 2020. The story is about a woman who has kidnapped and forced to compete in an underground fighting ring. 70s and 80s wrestler Steve “Rock” Riddle has a role in the movie as well

A big bullring show in Mexicali on 11/16 drew between 2,500 and 3,000 fans with a three-way on top where Alberto el Patron won over Rush and Pentagon Jr. That’s not a great crowd visually since the bullring probably holds 12,000 people but Mexicali has never been a great wrestling city as we saw AAA in the same bullring in the 90s when AAA was on fire and the crowd was maybe 3,000 to 4,000. Alberto had a black eye, likely from his MMA training. People were surprised Alberto would do a pro wrestling match so close to his fight with Tito Ortiz on 12/7. Alberto also worked the match in a T-shirt, but it was a Combate Americas T-shirt so at least he was promoting the brand

The RCH promotion sold out Arena Naucalpan on 11/17 with Rush & Bestia del Ring over Pentagon Jr. & Fenix when Bestia pinned Fenix. The crowd booed Fenix since he no-showed a date in that building a week earlier

Dave Brown, 73, who along with Lance Russell were the voices of Memphis Wrestling, the highest rated wrestling television show in the country for decades, will be doing commentary for a 1/18 show in North Little Rock, AR, where Jerry Lawler puts up his career against the Arkansas title of Matt Riviera. He will also be appearing at a Meet & Greet before the show

P.J. Black’s Slam Force Wrestling in South Africa runs 2/28 with Black vs. Ken Shamrock, Tenille Dashwood vs. Celeste Bonin (formerly Kaitlyn) and Cryme Tyme

Pro Wrestling Revolution drew 700 fans on 11/16 in San Francisco with a surprise main event result of J.R. Kratos beating L.A. Park in a 25:00 brawl all over the building with fans throwing in a lot of money after it was over. Bestia 666 won their jr. title from Colt Stevens in a ladder match

Miranda Gordy, the daughter of Terry Gordy, is now working independent shows. She worked a show over the weekend for Mid States Wrestling in Springfield, MO.

EUROPE: IPW U.K., a promotion that has been around since 2004, announced it was closing up at the end of the year. While some of this was their own doing, a lot has been the difficulty to be able to draw and put on the caliber of shows in the past with the changes in the business and the best talent being limited to where they can work because of WWE contracts

In connection with that and with the U.K. scene being down across the board, to where WWE even struggled to draw in Hull for TV tapings this past week, Will Ospreay said he now wants to return. Ospreay had pretty much focused on New Japan and Australia in recent years and done less-and-less in the U.S. (except for New Japan) and Europe (a few shows but not regularly working). He’s now living full-time in Japan, something very few guys, pretty much Ospreay, Juice Robinson, formerly Kenny Omega and before that Dick Beyer had done (actually more women did that like Terri Power, Reggie Bennett, Madusa and Debbie Malenko in the 90s). Anyway, he’s said he now wants to work for RevPro between New Japan tours saying that RevPro gave him so much to help him when he started, and he wants to help rebuild the scene

The Jack Wilder retirement show that we talked about will take place on 1/25 at the UKWA show. He announced it on 11/9. That show he did was not co-promoted by Alex Wright.

MLW: The company announced the signing of Jacob Fatu to a multi-year contract. This will be the first attempt to give someone a legit guaranteed deal and MLW would then also be Fatu’s bookers on the indie scene with the idea with so much of the people who carried the indies now with WWE or AEW, that Fatu could be one of the most in demand guys around. MLW would also make clear that all finishes of Fatu on the indies have to go through them, which probably means no jobs, or at least no jobs that aren’t approved. Fatu is their world champion so it may also mean the idea is Fatu tours as world champion and is presented as MLW champion as a way to get their belt over

Josef Samael has also signed a new deal

Alicia Atout, who has worked for Impact and AEW in the past, has joined the broadcast team as a backstage interviewer

The next show is 12/5 in New York at the Melrose Ballroom. It will be the Opera Cup tournament with first round matches announced so far of Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Shinjiro Otani (which should be great), TJP vs. Brian Pillman Jr., Timothy Thatcher vs. Richard Holliday and MJF vs. Alex Hammerstone,. Also announced is The Strong Hearts trio of Cima & Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie vs. The Contra Unit of Jacob Fatu & Simon Gotch & Ikuro Kwon. Usage of Cima & Lindaman, both of whom work for AEW, was interesting. But there is a working relationship to a degree, since people like Jimmy Havoc, MJF and Tony Schiavone were under contract to MLW and were allowed to sign with AEW as long as they continued doing dates with MLW

Havoc vs. Mance Warner in a barbed wire match is set for the 1/11 show in North Richland Hills, TX.

ROH: Kelly Klein was told on 11/19 that ROH was breaking off all negotiations with her for a new deal. According to her husband, B.J. Whitmer, Klein was informed via e-mail sent from Joe Koff. Whitmer, who works for AEW backstage as a producer, a job he formerly had with ROH, noted that his wife was suffering from post-concussion syndrome and said she was being fired while injured. ROH claimed that they didn’t fire her, but chose not to renew her contract, which expires on 12/31. Klein coming out publicly in support of Joey Mercury, who was fired in a very acrimonious split, would have made her being offered a new contract a surprise. It had become public that she was asking for $24,000 for a new contract, with her old deal running out, and was turned down.

They have no shows left this year other than Final Battle on 12/13 in Baltimore and the last TV taping on 12/15 in Philadelphia. The Final Battle advance is very weak

For whatever this is worth, Marty Scurll is not advertised on Final Battle and given the tease on BTE, one would put AEW as the favorites to get him. His contract expires on 11/30. Scurll owns the rights to the name Villain Club, so he could bring it with him to AEW, WWE or New Japan if he or they wanted it. The belief is that Scurll’s two places he most wants to go are AEW, which many thought it was a given from the day it was launched and I’ll just say it was not a given but certainly always a chance, or New Japan, but New Japan could mean staying with ROH and working more New Japan. You can’t say WWE isn’t a contender, as he lives in Florida and he’d be a lock to be a top star in NXT, but the strong sense is that isn’t happening

Thus far announced for Final Battle is Rush vs. PCO for the ROH title, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham for the tag titles, Shane Taylor vs. Dragon Lee for the TV title, Mark Haskins vs. Bully Ray in a street fight, Matt Taven vs. Vincent and Angelina Love vs. Maria Manic. It’s notable that nothing has been announced for Jeff Cobb, Scurll, Bandido and Brody King, who all have deals expiring soon. Even though attendance is at a real low point these days, ROH is throwing big money offers around to at least some of those guys and others with the idea of making a splash in 2020

Flamita signed a one-year deal.

IMPACT: Impact signed a multi-year deal in South Africa with e.tv. The deal includes airing Impact, Xplosion, four PPVs per year and monthly live specials (the live shows that air in the U.S. on Impact Plus). The deal goes into effect in January. E.tv is South Africa’s biggest independent free-to-air English language televison station and is available in 1.8 million homes

This may be an acquired taste and too inside, but right now when it comes to a promotion on AXS, you are really dealing mostly with inside fans to begin with, but one of the best new characters is the Johnny Swinger spoof of 80s wrestlers. I mean, it’s goofy as hell and the storyline of him ribbing Petey Williams by taking a dump in his suitcase, only to find out he got the suitcase wrong and it was Ken Shamrock’s suitcase, while totally ridiculous, works with his character on this show. It would he beyond horrible if it was on AEW television, although would work on BTE

Josh Alexander, who is half of their tag team champions, suffered a torn biceps on 11/15.

AEW: AEW is billing the 1/15 TV tapings at the University of Miami as “Bash at the Beach.” Evidently WWE didn’t renew its rights to that name, since it would have been part of the WCW intellectual property that they had purchased, and WWE had never used it, so AEW grabbed the rights up. Tickets go on sale on 11/22 for that show. In addition, they are using Bash at the Beach as a two-week theme. Cody Runnels actually owns the trademark for Bash at the Beach, as well as Dusty Rhodes, The American Dream, The American Nightmare, Battle Bowl, The Match Beyond and Bunkhouse Stampede. The Dusty Rhodes was is interesting because years ago, believe it or not, he wanted to write a book on his father and the issue was that WWE owned the rights to Dusty Rhodes and at the time he couldn’t do it

AEW trademarked the phrase Blood & Guts, after Vince McMahon a few months ago at an investors call complained that they were going to hurt the industry by doing blood & guts wrestling. I could see that being used as a name for a PPV

The 1/22 show, as has been hinted about here from the start, is now officially going to be done from the ship on the Jericho Cruise which takes place 1/20 to 1/24. The Jericho Cruise has been sold out for some time. The plan for the Jericho Cruise will be three hours of live AEW matches every day, except for the second day. The AEW show on 1/22 will be taped on 1/21,the second day, rather than risk having some sort of an issue in going live. Bryan Alvarez and I will be doing daily talk shows on the cruise so there will be no Observer that week

Bloomberg listed Shahid Khan, the owner of AEW, as the 458th richest man in the world with a worth of $4.498 billion. That’s well down from previous estimates of six to eight billion. Mark Cuban was listed at No. 487 with $4.288 billion. Neither Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta or Vince McMahon were in that league

A correction from last week. The 12/4 show in Champaign, IL wasn’t sold out. I had checked tickets with Ticketmaster and there were none left, but there were still seats left on the AEW Tickets site

Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez was given the Esports Host of the Year award on 11/16 in Arlington, TX

BTE had a few teases in it. The basic story is that ever since AEW has started, that the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody and Adam Page keep losing their big matches. Matt is selling being injured by Santana & Ortiz. Omega is obsessed with beating Jon Moxley at his own game, so they look to be going back to another hardcore match. Cody wasn’t on, but lost to Chris Jericho and then was beaten up again on TV with the debut of Wardlow. Page lost to Pac and indicating he was quitting The Elite saying he’s tired of being the least successful guy in the group. He then went home and turned around a photo in his house with was of he, the Young Bucks and Marty Scurll, which is the first tease of Scurll

At one point there were plans to run a spring break at Club La Vela, which was one of the most unique Nitro shows of the year in its heyday, but that club is currently shut down between both a hurricane and a fire in recent years

Notes from the 11/20 Dynamite show. They had another super hot crowd and the best Dynamite match to date, and the best television match from any U.S. group in a long time with the Rey Fenix vs. Nick Jackson match. We’re also told the AAA championship match with Kenny Omega vs. Jack Evans wasn’t far behind. The show drew 4,277 fans. The Dark matches were called by Excalibur and Shawn Spears. The opener saw an upset as Trent pinned Pentagon Jr. in 15:00. Said to be ***½ caliber with the highlight being Pentagon doing a second rope springboard into a Canadian Destroyer. Pentagon did the package piledriver on he apron and went for a second one, but Trent reversed for an Omori driver for the pin. They opened hot with Fenix over Nick in 11:55 in a ****3/4 match. This was nothing but good spots with Fenix dong some of the best rope work ever. The story was that both men knew each others’ styles and were able to get away from each others’ moves constantly. The crowd was hotter for this than anything all night, like they saw the match and knew it would be special. This is the first time in history I can recall that a major U.S. promotion had a show filled with fans who would see a match like this, where they know they are two of the best workers even though neither have U.S. singles match reps, and a crowd this large in a secondary market was buzzed to this degree. Fenix used a diamond cutter on the floor. He was doing double and triple springboard moves. Both were doing springboard moves at the same time with Nick doing a springboard huracanrana off the ropes. Fenix did a ropewalk huracanrana taking Nick off the apron to the floor. Fenix won clean with a spinning muscle buster. Nick offered his hand to shake and Fenix walked out on him. Hikaru Shida beat Britt Baker in 9:53. They didn’t outright say it, but given the rankings and recent wins, and that Baker is one of their most-pushed women, you got the impression the winner of this bout would get the next shot at Riho. Shida grabbed a chair but ref Aubrey Edwards, who has this super cult following at every show, was actually booed for telling her she couldn’t use it. So she put the chair on the floor although did run and jumped off the chair into a flying knee on the floor. Baker ended up with a bloody nose. Some stuff was off here. After a lot of near falls, Shida won with a running knee. There was a commercial showing a fat guy getting his glasses broken by two bullies who shoved him around. He was sad, went on the subway, and this guru self-help kind of guy had a commercial pushing show people who are not being accepted or bullied can join of group of common friends in the Dark Order. Next was a 12 man Battle Royal. The Battle Royal would come down to two people who would have a singles match next week for a diamond ring. The big surprise was Billy Gunn, and they pretty much booked Gunn like he was Braun Strowman. It is something when the when the 56-year-old road agent is bigger and has a better physique than anyone on the roster. Then again, in WWE except for the biggest monsters like Strowman, that would be the case as well. Also in the match were Pentagon Jr., Adam Page, Sonny Kiss, Marko Stunt, Jungle Boy, Jimmy Havoc, Joey Janela, Kip Sabian, MJF, Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor. Penelope Ford was at ringside for Sabian. She’s very underutilized. It certainly appears they are not going in the Sabian vs. Janela direction. There was a tease on the PPV and then Janela, on Twitter no less, said he wasn’t interested in that angle and they did nothing between them in the match. The match started with a bunch of tope’s happening so fast that the cameras missed just about every one of them. Pentagon Jr. was in the match and Rey Fenix was there to support him. Then Fenix unmasked as Christopher Daniels and Pentagon was distracted and Taylor threw him over the top right away. Kiss did as ass shaking spot in front of Gunn. MJF threw out Kiss. Everyone beat on Gunn and he did the roar Battle Royal spot throwing everyone off him at once. This did feel really indie, aside from the crowd size, when you have the ex-WWF star from 20 years ago as the star of your Battle Royal. Gunn tossed out Stunt. Havoc went around stapling people, which really didn’t fit in. He stapled Janela’s gut, Jungle Boy, Sabian’s hand, Gunn and more. Shawn Spears, who wasn’t in the match, came out and hit Janela with a chair. Cassidy, who did nothing the entire match, started throwing those slow kicks at Gunn. It got over with the live crowd. This stuff is also polarizing to the TV audience. Gunn no sold and then MJF threw out Cassidy. They made sure that the most popular cult favorites MJF would toss so get them more heat. Page, who they acknowledged was no longer part of The Elite, from the BTE spot, hit a clothesline and threw out Gunn. Wardlow came out. Ford grabbed Taylor’s leg and Sabian gave Taylor an enzuigiri and Sabian and Ford kissed. Taylor was dumped. Jungle Boy dumped Sabian and it appeared it was over with Jungle Boy and Page as the last two. But MJF was hiding and pulled Jungle Boy out at 10:13 and lead to MJF vs. Page. The two went at it and had a pull-apart. Chris Jericho was out next. Fans were booing. The idea was that in his temper tantrum after losing he had broken equipment and had to apologize. So he started with the fake apology but couldn’t say “I’m sorry” and kept stuttering. So here’s the back story on this. Jericho grew up as a big fan of the TV show Happy Days, and in particular, The Fonz, who was his hero in the 1980-81 time frame. There were episodes, one in 1975 and another in 1977, where The Fonz was supposed to apologize and he was all awkward and started stuttering when he was supposed to say sorry. Jericho did the same. It turned into a comedy gig where he couldn’t say sorry so he’d put the mic in front of Jake Hager’s face and Hager, supposed to be with no expression or emphasis, would just say “sorry.” The crowd actually booed Jericho a lot and he made it worse talking about how he was going to do a celebration, but not in Indianapolis, but in Chicago, saying that Chicago has a hockey team and two baseball teams so it’s a lot better than here. SCU came out. Scorpio Sky brought up that he pinned Jericho in the tag match last week. Fans started chanting “You got pinned.” Scorpio said that his DM’s exploded and he heard from people he hadn’t heard from in years, and that even his high school crush contacted him and they’re going out on a date Friday. The crowd loved this silliness. He said her name was Melody Parsons and the crowd started chanting “Melody.” Jericho then said how Melody had gained some weight since high school and Scorpio said, “I like big butts and I can not lie.” This ended up being one of the funniest segments on television wrestling in years. It was just so preposterous and the fans loved it. The rest of the segment was taken from Ric Flair’s only appearance ever in the Memphis television studio (in 1982) which was a classic deal where Jerry Lawler put over how great Flair was and how he’d have no chance against him and talked Flair into giving him a title match right then and there. The flip side of this is that for whatever reason, after that great segment, maybe because of cost, Jerry Jarrett, after Lawler and Flair had their time limit draw on television, never booked even one Flair vs. Lawler arena match (they did later work in Memphis on a combined Jarrett/Crockett show many years later). Scorpio talked about how Jericho was his idol and that he partied all weekend and how it would take him at least a month to get into shape for a wrestle like Jericho. So Jericho said that their match would take place next week in Chicago. Then Scorpio said how it can’t be a title match because that would be too much pressure, and then Jericho goes, that’s it’s now a title match and Sky mockingly acted like “Oh no” while everyone in the crowd knew he swerved Jericho. This was a situation where everyone in the building knew where it was going and how silly it was but the place was going nuts. Then Scorpio said next week he would turn le champion into le bitch. There was a big brawl. The Inner Circle all came out and beat down SCU. They handcuffed Daniels and Frankie Kazarian to the ropes. Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa came in to make the save but they got destroyed. Jericho laid out Scorpio with the Judas effect. Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy ran in and Jericho laid them out. This led to Luchasaurus coming out and cleaning house. There was a staredown in the ring with Luchasaurus and Hager and Hager backed down. Luchasaurus then pinned Peter Avalon in :27 with a high kick and face plant. Jungle Boy was in the corner reading a library book. Private Party upset Santana & Ortiz in 15:02. This match was dedicated to Matt Travis. Santana & Ortiz were the guys who got Travis off the streets and into wrestling school. Travis helped train Private Party. There was a spot where Santana & Ortiz held Marc Quen in a delayed vertical suplex and when one would get tired they’d tag the other in while continuing to trade of Quen in the suplex position. They worked on Quen for a long time. Even though these guys started in the same circles, my biggest takes from this match were how good Pentagon & Fenix and the Young Bucks were because they had great matches with Private Party and in this match, Private Party looked far more green. There was also less flying and they worked a more traditional tag team style with the long heat on Quen. Kassidy did an Asai moonsault on Santana. At one point it looked like the match had fallen apart. Santana had the loaded sock but Nick Jackson came out and took it way from him. Private Party used their gin and juice finisher and pinned Ortiz. Sammy Guevara attacked Nick Jackson. Dustin Rhodes came out with a cast on his arm and nailed everyone in sight and then used Guevara’s phone to do a vlog on him. There was a taped Omega interview. He talked about his match with Pac next week but did comedy where he was struggling to do 65 pounds on the bench press, and then put an uneven amount of weight ont the bar and lifted it unevenly. Omega made fun of himself for not being a promo guy, which may be the overreaction because people who never saw his Japan promos would say he can’t do promos, not realizing his Japan promos were part of the reason he was the biggest North American star there in decades. Anyway he said that Pac was the one who sent him into a downward spiral and that Moxley picked the bones. Moxley beat Darby Allin in 11:12. This was really good. The crowd was very into Allin, even though everyone had to know he was losing here. The opening video had Allin in a body bag with the word “Mox” written on it. He was carried on stage in the bag and then got out. He opened with a tope and well as and running leap over the barricade with a tackle. Moxley did a belly-to-belly on the floor. Moxley no sold a crossbody off the top and Allin just bounced off him. The crowd was really hot for this. Allin did a tope con giro. Moxley’s elbow that he had the surgery on wasn’t taped and even now it looks gross. Allin went for his coffin drop but Moxley caught him in a choke. Allin got a near fall with a cradle out of it. Moxley eventually won with a Paradigm shift off the middle rope. After the show went off the air, Cody came out. He put over the crowd and said that halfway through the show they confirmed that they are 100 percent coming back. He pointed to a sign that was up the entire show that read “Suck It Vince.” The crowd went nuts on the sign and started chanting “Suck It Vince.” He said that for legal reasons he can’t say anything, but the sign said it all. He thanked the crowd and left. For Dark, Awesome Kong pinned Leva Bates in one minute. Avalon did an anti-Indianapolis promo and the Kong came out, hit a uraken and used the implant buster for the pin. Kong then cut of some of Bates hair as her trophy. Shanna pinned Big Swole in 10:00 with a dragon suplex. Said to be ***. The main event saw Omega beat Jack Evans to retain the AAA Mega Championship in 16:00. They did major ring intros like for a Mexican world title match. Some said it was really good and not great, but most had it a great. We were told ****½ and there were those who said it was better than Nick vs. Fenix, but most had it at the same level. Omega used a J driller V trigger and One Winged Angel for the pin. Nick Jackson came and out and he and Omega were throwing T-shirts t the crowd. Omega told the crowd that Nick vs. Fenix was one of the best matches of the year and said that he couldn’t compete with that. Nick then called up Matt, who was at home via face time. Matt said that they interrupted he and Dana making love. The crowd started chanting for Zach, who is Matt’s young son. They threw more shirts. Nick grabbed the AAA title belt and teased throwing that in. They pointed to the “Suck it Vince” sign and Omega played like they were talking about Vince Carter. They gave the guy with the sign a turnbuckle pad. Nick said it’s time for Omega to end the show with his catch phrase and he said, “Suck it Vince,” and then “Bash at the Beach.” and then said “Good bye and good night, bang.”

UFC: Sports Business Journal had an article noting that the top advertisers are frustrated with the lack of data from streaming services. They were told that streaming services, because you can get exact numbers of viewership and who people are, their demos, would be more exact and effective than television’s Nielsen ratings. At the National Association of Broadcasters panel in New York, Adam Schwartz of Horizon Media, which represents heavyweights like Geico, Burger King, Spring Capital One and Corona, specified UFC events on ESPN+ that would garner advertisers interests, but that the only number ESPN+ will give them is that they have 3.5 million subscribers. He said the best they can do is look at last year’s numbers for similar level fights on FS 1, and try to estimate how much of that audience has converted to ESPN+. What it tells me is that the numbers aren’t good, because if they were, they would release them to advertisers. Advertisers would likely pay more for ads at targeted viewers if the data that would show a program hits the targeted demo strongly. DAZN was also mentioned as a streaming service that advertiser can’t get any info from

UFC takes a rare two weeks off with the next show on 12/7 starting three straight Saturdays before the New Year’s Break. The usual end of the year major show in Las Vegas, a tradition, is no more because of decisions by ESPN which has so much college football to promote which is why one of the biggest shows of the year is 12/14. Before that, it’s the 12/7 show at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC with Jairzinho Rozenstruik with his 9-0 record with eight knockouts, seven in the first round, facing Alistair Overeem in a match that probably makes or breaks Rozenstruik for now. Cynthia Calvillo and Marina Rodriguez also meet in a strawweight match of top contenders, veteran heavyweights Stefan Struve and Ben Rothwell meet plus a really intriguing fight with Song Yadong against Cody Stamann

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson is now saying he’s coming back, targeting June or July. He had talked about April. He said he’s 240 pounds and looking at fighting as a heavyweight this time around

Those representing Claressa Shields, the top woman boxer in the world, are trying to put together a fight with Amanda Nunes for next year

UFC returns to Auckland, New Zealand with a show on 2/23 local time which would air in prime time on 2/22 in the U.S

Stephen “Wonderboy” Thomspon, who broke both of his hands in his win over Vicente Luque on the 11/2 Madison Square Garden show, doesn’t need surgery. He believes it’ll be six to eight weeks before he can start training on them

Tyron Woodley was inducted into the University of Missouri sports Hall of Fame on 11/15. Woodley placed twice at nationals, once in 2003 and the other time in 2005. He placed eighth in 2003 and seventh in 2005 (the year Johny Hendricks won), both at 165 pounds. His induction was largely due to being a success in UFC, as welterweight champion

Luke Rockhold will be debuting in submission wrestling with Polaris on 11/30 against Nick Rodriguez. In an interesting note, Rockhold has fought most of his career at 185 pounds, and just moved to 205 where he looked physically small for the weight class but in grappling he’s going to compete at 229.5 pounds

ESPN has reported Ilir Latifi, who was short for a light heavyweight, has moved to heavyweight and looks to debut in the new weight class on 2/8 against Derrick Lewis. No location is final for the show but Houston appears to be the frontrunner

Maycee Barber vs. Roxanne Modafferi is targeted for 1/18 in Las Vegas, which would be the first PPV of the year. Barber is 21 years old and has an 8-0 record and has looked like a top star thus far. Modafferi, who is popular, since her personality comes across so well, dating back to her being on The Ultimate Fighter years ago, is clearly there for Barber to get a win over a fighter with a name.

BELLATOR: Linton Vassell (19-8, 1 no contest), formerly one of the company’s best light heavyweights, moved to heavyweight and took out Sergei Kharitonov (30-8, 2 no contests) via strikes at 3:15 of round two in the main event of the 11/14 show in Tel Aviv, Israel. The only other real name fighter on the show, former UFC star Roger Huerta (24-12-1, 1 no contest) lost a 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 decision to Sidney Outlaw (14-3)

With no UFC show this weekend, the biggest shows this week are ONE on 11/22 in Singapore with no major names, Combate Americas on 11/22 in Fresno (which airs on Univision) and Bellator on 11/23 at SSE Wembley in London headlined by Michael Venum Page (15-1) vs. Giovanni Mellillo (13-4) and Fabian Edwards (8-0) vs. Mike Shipman (13-2).

OTHER MMA: Glory kickboxing has a show on 12/21 in Amsterdam, Holland with Rico Verhoeven vs. Badr Hari for their world heavyweight title that has a 32,000 ticket advance. Verhoeven just signed a three-year exclusive with Glory. The two had a huge fight at the end of 2016 that ended when Hari suffered a broken arm. Glory is running shows on 11/22 and 11/23 in Chicago, head-to-head with Smackdown and NXT Takeover in that market. Those shows as well as the big Amsterdam show will air on UFC Fight Pass

Titan FC bantamweight champion Rudson Caliocane, 26, suffered a stroke after losing a 10/19 fight via decision to Matheus Mendonca on a show for the Future MMA promotion. He has been paralyzed on the left side of his body since and vacated his Titan belt. Doctors said the stroke was caused by blood clots in his neck, which they attribute to dehydration as he had lost 13.4 pounds to make 135, which is significant but not all that out of the ordinary. “I noticed he didn’t look normal,” said Alex Davis, the manager of Caliocane. “When the fight ended, it got worse and Rudson’s father carried him until the paramedics arrived. Those of us who are experienced in MMA knew it had nothing to do with the fight specifically, but with the sudden weight cut. At the hospital, the doctors confirmed the ischemia was due to the cut. It wasn’t a guillotine or a powerful strike, it was the dehydration.

AXS TV has been talking with different companies about adding to their coverage. It’s weird in the sense they got rid of all their regulars in production as well as Ron Kruck and Pat Miletich, and immediately cut Legacy fighting and dropped the kickboxing shows. They’ve signed Combate Americas and there have been at least talks going around the MMA, kickboxing and even grappling worlds. They also announced their new broadcast team as Max Bretos, a well known soccer announcer who has dabbled with pro wrestling in the past, and UFC’s Julianna Pena. They also announced they would be broadcasting three Combate Americas specials, with the first being on 12/6, which would be a preview for the 12/7 “Tito vs. Alberto - Which Side Are You On?” PPV show where Ortiz will put up one of his UFC title belts and Alberto will put up one of his WWE title belts as a side bet. There will also be specials on 12/20 and 12/27. The 12/20 special will air a 2018 tournament and the 12/27 special will be the most exciting Combate Americas fights of 2019

Daniel Pineda, who was to face Lance Palmer on the PFL New Year’s Eve show for the featherweight tournament finals and $1 million, looks like it’s n jeopardy as he failed a drug test in Nevada, where he beat both Movlid Khalbulaev via knockout and Jeremy Kennedy by submission on the same night to reach the finals.

WWE: Paul Levesque did an NXT conference call on 11/20. He said that while you never say never because plans always change, the plan is to go back to a hard brand split after Survivor Series and that NXT talent would not be appearing on future WWE major brand PPV shows. The plan is still to continue regular Takeovers going forward. He also said that there was talk of doing Lesnar vs. Cole vs. Wyatt at Survivor Series, but the decision was that Lesnar vs. Mysterio was the right program to continue at this time and that meant they had to do something else with the other two. Plus, right now, Wyatt should be kept apart completely from Lesnar for a long time. With the push they are giving Wyatt, they need to protect him for the super guy, and that’s Lesnar, not Reigns, although those would be the two key programs. Levesque said that he had no interest at all, and would have fought hard the suggestion, of wrestling with NXT as part of the current program, saying NXT is about youth and the future. When asked about guys who have asked for their releases and whether they would grant them, he kind of beat around the subject saying that guys shouldn’t do their business on social media and if they have a problem or an issue, they should talk about it internally with the company. He tried to say that maybe some of the people doing it are doing it for attention and clicks, but I really don’t think that’s the case with the people publicly asking. Even a guy like Orton wasn’t doing it for the clicks, but the attention had to do with using it for contract purposes. He also noted, when talking about India, the strategy in many places around the world long-term, including India, is to have a local promotion running filled with local talent in the market as that’s the long-term NXT goal. The idea is WWE would be the touring brand and NXT would be your old style regional local promotion. The idea is that WWE becomes the dominant promotion in every market, which in some places will happen and in others with mature wrestling cultures like Japan and Mexico, will be lot more difficult

Albert Hardie Jr., was released this week. He announced that he would be doing independent shows, an 11/22 show for Heavy Metal Wrestling in San Antonio and a 12/1 show for Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment. It’s probably best to cut ties with him for a large number of reasons. The bad aspect of it is it sets a precedent for those who want out of their deals to cry racism

WWE put out a video for the return of Punk showing him hiding out before the WWE Backstage show last week. There wasn’t a ton to it past his being nervous and his talking about big this would be, “I’m not going to break the Internet. I’m going to break the world.” He said FOX pitched the idea of him being their wrestling version of Alex Rodriguez for baseball and Troy Aikman for football

They announced a 1/12 U.K. Takeover show, Sunday afternoon show (U.S. time, Sunday night prime time) rather than Saturday as kind of an experiment to test out what works best, for the Empress Ballroom Blackpool, England. This will be set up for about 2,100. It sold out in two hours on 11/18. Walter vs. Joe Coffey for the U.K. title looks to be the main event, Mark Coffey & Wolfgang defend the tag titles in a four-way ladder match with Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster, Zack Gibson & James Drake and Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, there’s a three-way for the women’s title with Kay Lee Ray defending against Toni Storm and Piper Niven, Trent Seven vs. Eddie Dennis and at TV they teased Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin. They also announced future UK taping dates as 1/17 and 1/18 in York, 3/6 and 3/7 in Conventry, 5/1 and 5/2 in Bournemouth and 7/24 and 7/25 in Glasgow

The latest wrestler to ask for their release is Chris Girard (Oney Lorcan, 33). Girard changed his social media accounts to Biff Busick, the name he was using on the indie scene from 2009 until September 2015, when he signed here. He used his real name for a short period of time before taking on the Oney Lorcan name. He hasn’t wrestled since losing to Lio Rush on the 10/25 205 Live show. He had been unhappy for some time. Girard is a very intense solid worker. He was put into 205 Live and also worked with NXT, mostly as a tag team partner of Danny Burch

There have been some changes in the Starrcade card. It’s mostly Strowman and Miz flip-flopping. The new card for 12/1 in Atlanta is Wyatt vs. Strowman in a cage match for the Universal title, Nakamura vs. Miz for the IC title, Reigns vs. Corbin, Rollins vs. Rowan, Asuka & Sane vs. Flair & Lynch in a tornado match for the women’s tag titles, Styles vs. Owens for the U.S. title, New Day vs. Revival for the smackdown tag titles, Rusev vs. Lashley plus Orton, Street Profits, Gallows & Anderson, Banks, Bayley, Bliss, Cross, Ricochet, Black and Andrade

Erik Shanks, the CEO of Fox Sports and Michelle Wilson, the co-President of WWE, spoke ths past week at the Endeavor Streaming Sports Media & Technology Conference. Shanks noted that Vince McMahon has been receptive to the ideas from FOX of new ways of shooting the show. He also noted that they wanted Smackdown on Friday as a way to set up the idea that FOX owns the weekend. Wilson pushed that 35 to 50 percent of the audience is women and that the WWE is multi-generational

Elimination Chamber takes place on 3/8 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia

Even though Smackdown was down in the U.S. on11/15 this past week, it bounced back in Canada to 193,600 viewers, a number even more impressive since it went head-to-head with the Toronto Maple Leafs who did 712,500 viewers. Smackdown had done poorly, not even making the top ten in sports on the previous two Fridays. NXT didn’t crack the top ten, but it never has once to date. Raw on 11/18 did 219,400 viewers. AEW once again failed to crack the top ten on 11/20, meaning it did less than 118,000 viewers

The 12/26 Madison Square Garden show historically is considered the biggest U.S. house show of the year, since it’s MSG and it’s the week after Christmas, which is traditionally the best week of the year to draw because of the idea wrestling tickets are used as Christmas presents. This year’s version is a Raw show with three matches announced (which will likely all be changed), Rusev vs. Lashley, Rollins vs. Rowan (which means at least this week the idea is to put them together in a program) and Asuka & Sane vs. Flair & Lynch for the tag team titles

In Germany, Raw on 11/6 on ProSieben MAXX did 200,000 viewers , Smackdown 11/9 did 210,000 viewers and AEW on 11/8 on TNT Serie, a much smaller station, did 10,000 viewers. On 11/13, Raw did 240,000 viewers and 11/16 Smackdown did 130,000 viewers. Smackdown was down because the German national soccer team went head-to-head and did 8.1 6 million viewers for a game against Belarus. The station averages an 0.8 share in Germany and Smackdown was below the average this week but Raw & Smackdown are usually well above the average, with Raw doing a 1.4 share this week. AEW on 11/15 on TNT Serie did 10,000 viewers. AEW does about the station average 0.1 share

There is talking of cutting back on NXT house shows, particularly in Florida, in 2020. The attendance has gone down pretty significantly in the last year. The talk is to cut back on Thursday shows because they are the weakest drawing night. According to one person familiar with the Florida scene, the issue is local burnout. There’s not one specific reason, but a number of things that they believe have hurt attendance, some of which has to do with the divergence of fans (the respectful fan vs. old school fan who comes to yell at heels and make noise and often drink a lot and try and rile up heels leaves both fans not having fun when you’re in a small building with so few fans). Then it becomes an issue with security, as if they let the old school fans go, the new school fans are mad the crowd isn’t respectful and it’s no fun, or they think the crowd is cheering match quality and not booing heels and it’s no fun. There are also issues of not advertising talent and attending shows with such few television names and mostly non-TV guys, and that has hurt as well. Plus, the key guys like Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and others don’t work the Florida house shows ever or infrequently due to the injuries, and there are weeks when there is the out-of-Florida tour and that cuts back on talent. And there aren’t the legit drawing cards like people like Balor, Nakamura and Ricochet were

WWE is offering three free months of WWE Network to those who buy cereals like Honeycomb and Golden Crisp that have WWE stars on the box covers

The 11/21 NXT house show in Milwaukee was moved to 2/21 because they wanted the key NXT talent to run through their weekend matches. They also canceled an 11/22 show in Indianapolis for the same reason. The new date there is 3/29

They announced a new main event for the 11/30 dual branded show at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City, with Wyatt vs. Mysterio for the Universal title on top in a cage match. Cain Velasquez is back on the show wrestling, teaming with Carrillo against Gallows & Anderson. Seriously, either Velasquez should get his knee fixed or he should be on this show in a higher level position considering his stardom in Mexico like Mysterio & Velasquez against main event heels that they would, you know, win. I don’t know that Mysterio gets squashed by Wyatt, but thus far Wyatt has been beating all the top faces in 5:00 with the unbearable red lighting that kills the main events, and booking that scenario with Mysterio in Mexico City is promotional malpractice. Andrade, who was a major star at Arena Mexico as La Sombra, faces Aleister Black. Usual WWE booking would have Black winning, but given it’s Mexico City I can’t see anyone with a clue of booking having any finish other than Andrade up given he’ll be the face to the live crowd, it’s a prelim, and it’s a market they run once a year

Brian Kendrick wrote on Twitter that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the ring. Since he put it on twitter and was complaining that it has been three years since he last got a title shot it comes across like a Twitter angle

Boa had surgery on his left shoulder on 11/15

Yim suffered a legit broken nose in the match with Shirai, but the Aliyah injury was an angle. It was planned for Aliyah to do an injury angle with the idea she broke her nose because she was getting surgery on her nose so they created a story. Li’s kick actually missed the nose. It turned out to be one of those weird ironies as they just faked a broken nose and then later in the show somebody got a legitimate one

A bright spot on the show was the work of Samoa Joe in the Dio Maddin spot as an announcer. He was fresh, quick, and got everything over with a no-nonsense delivery. Joe was so good in the role that you have to at least consider making it permanent. I really don’t see why Nigel McGuinness isn’t in that role but at this point pulling someone off NXT to Raw isn’t as easy as it would have been a few months ago because they are trying to avoid the idea that NXT is developmental. Right now Dio Maddin still has the spot, and they are just having him sell the Lesnar beating, but he was greatly outperformed. Joe is a regular wrestler and will be back in action when his broken thumb heals. But you can have an active wrestler in the booth and in many ways it gets them over more than if they were one of dozens of guys doing TV matches. We were told that everyone recognized how good Joe is, and the general feeling internally is that Lawler has been better than expected and with his experience has helped Vic Joseph to get into the right rhythm. The only real direction with Lawler was a push to stay away from dated cultural reference since the idea for Raw right now is to target younger viewers and push new stars

The 24/7 title changed hands three times this past week. Samir Singh lost to R-Truth when Singh was getting medical treatment on 11/18 after Rowan destroyed him and R-Truth masqueraded as a doctor and pinned him. The next day a front office employee named Mike was at a Town Hall meeting and R-Truth was cutting a promo and went to leave and walked into a wall and knocked himself out. It was seriously the single most fake looking knockout spot I’ve ever seen. Mike was watching and jumped in and pinned him. A few hours later, Mike was in the office about to sign a wrestlers’ contract and talent relations asked him to do five sit-ups and on the fifth one, R-Truth jumped in the room and jumped on him for the pin to get the title back

Kurt Angle did a Facebook chat and said that he never once turned down a WWE storyline, but the one he hated was the one where he had the obsession with Sharmell. He said he really liked Booker T and Sharmell so it was hard for him to do. This was kind of a writers/Vince rib because Angle had the reputation of liking African-American women so they scripted that storyline

The 10/28 Raw did an added 18 percent viewership after the first day was over via DVR, which was above the usual 13-16 percent increase

WWE stock climbed well this past week since it had gotten undervalued. On 11/20 it closed at $60.27 per share, giving the company a $4.735 billion market value

The most-watched shows of the past week on WWE Network were: 1. NXT on 11/14 (taped 11/13); 2. 1997: Dawn of the Attitude Era; 3. Crown Jewel 2019; 4. 2018 Survivor Series; 5. WrestleMania’s Legendary Moments; 6. Smackdown from 10/18; 7. WWE U.K. from 11/14

Notes from the 11/15 Smackdown tapings in Philadelphia. The show went off the rails early, but they had a strong hot crowd of 10,700 fans, the best TV crowd since week one on FOX, and they went out and didn’t give them a main event. And this crowd was just ready for a good show. But they didn’t get it. Cesaro pinned Crews after an eye poke and neutralizer in the dark match opener. Corbin came out to start Smackdown. He got a ton of heat. Roode & Ziggler were with him. Corbin’s speech was that Reigns isn’t the man he used to be, and he’s a shell of what he once was. I guess the idea is it’s supposed to be heat because he’s implying the leukemia took him down and that make him a bad person. To me, if you’re under 45, telling fans somebody is past their prime is counter productive. Over 45 you can get heat out of it. Under 45, you’re lessening the opponent’s star power. Corbin declared himself the captain of Team Smackdown and said there are two weak links in the team, Shorty G and Ali. Roode & Ziggler said it should be them and they were having a match later for those two spots. Corbin said that Ali and G on the team are like Reigns was giving participation trophy handout. He called out Reigns. Reigns’ music played and they showed a graphic on the screen of a cartoon drawing of a puppy with long hair like Reigns. The dog was barking to Reigns’ entrance music. Then a guy in a dog mascot costume came out. This kind of sucked. G & Ali beat Roode & Ziggler in a **** match. They got the crowd going wild for this. G is so great. Reigns was cheering them on. Corbin was there as well. G used a moonsault on Roode for a near fall and an ankle lock on Ziggler, but Roode saved. Reigns and Corbin went at it outside the ring. Ali hot a tope on Roode. Reigns speared Corbin on the floor. G used a Chaos theory suplex on Ziggler and tagged Ali, who pinned Ziggler after a 450. All of this sets up a six-man tag on the 11/22 Smackdown show. A Firefly Fun House segment aired where Wyatt turned the red Universal belt blue, because Smackdown is the blue brand. Corbin told Roode and Ziggler that he would fix things for them. Gulak, Dallas and Axel were in the ring. Strowman came out. Gulak told Strowman that he lasted longer with Tyson Fury than he expected. Anyway, all three beat on Strowman. Strowman made a comeback and Gulak ran off. Strowman then destroyed Dallas and Axel and powerslammed Axel. The New Day came out and got a pop for bringing up that the Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl. And played concerts all year. Zayn & Nakamura were backstage with Bryan. Zayn wanted an answer tonight on whether Bryan would join them. Zayn noted that after what The Fiend did to Bryan last week, he needed to join a group that would include Zayn & Nakamura & Cesaro to have each others’ backs. Bryan brought up that Zayn ran away as soon as he saw The Fiend last week. Zayn said he was running to get help. Bryan said that he wasn’t joining their group. He told them they should instead recruit Strowman. Zayn said that Bryan was an artist like they are, while Strowman is just big and strong. Strowman was there behind Zayn as he was saying it. Zayn was then kissing Strowman’s ass. It looked like the were building up Strowman vs. Nakamura & Zayn handicap matches. New Day beat The Revival by DQ in10:17. They were having a pretty good match until the run-in finish. Dawson had kiniseo tape on his back and leg, besides his giant knee brace. Kingston did a trust dive on both of them. E backdropped Kingston over the top on both of them but they caught him and threw him into the post. Then they gave Kingston a double back suplex on the announcers table. They hit the shatter machine on E but Kingston saved. Adam Cole & Roderick Strong attacked Kingston for the DQ. Then Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly came out and did the high-low on Dash Wilder. The Undisputed Era was beating on both teams when the Smackdown undercard, guys like Apollo Crews, Heath Slater and other guys that would otherwise be running around in the 24/7 skit ran off The group. They definitely should have sent out higher level guys, like no Reigns or Strowman and biggest names being the Heavy Machinery level guys. The Undisputed Era ran into the crowd and left. Heavy Machinery beat Kip Stevens & Kevin Tibbs in 2:16 with the compactor on Stevens. The most notable thing about this match was their inside rib about how guys named Kip couldn’t be tough, a clear shot at Billy Gunn. Bayley and Banks did an interview where they didn’t say much. Bayley vs. Cross went nowhere. Baszler came out. Bayley just walked off. Then Dakota Kai, Mia im, Tegan Nox and Rhea Ripley came out. Ripley slammed Bayley over the barricade. Banks attacked Baszler. Carmella and Brooke came out to save Banks. Yes, the babyfaces saved the heel. Whatever. Banks challenged them to a four-on-four. Of course Team NXT had to win here, but that didn’t happen. Cross pinned Kai with a neckbreaker in 9:17. They all brawled again after the match. The main event segment was Miz TV. Miz asked questions to Bryan about The Fiend and Bryan didn’t say anything. Miz then said that he knows why, that The Fiend is unstable and Bryan is unstable but Bryan isn’t the same wrestler he was ten years ago. Yes, the face is calling another face washed up. Miz said that The Fiend sees that you are washed up, using those words, and he wants to be the one to end Bryan. Bryan said that Miz TV sucks and has always sucked. Then he said, “Maybe I am washed up.” Yes, you have a top star in the brand saying he may be washed up. Bryan said that Miz would never understand the combination of mental instability and passion that he has, but Wyatt understands it. He said he and Wyatt are both mentally unstable. Bryan and Wyatt went back and forth about a match and Bryan said if you want to fight, let’s have a title match. Wyatt started chanting “Yes” over and over and Miz announced the match for Survivor Series. How Miz somehow has the power to book a championship match out of the blue is just accepting that WWE doesn’t worry much about things making sense. 205 Live opened with Angel Garza over Jack Gallagher with a schoolboy. In commentary, they put over that Garza’s foot was on the ropes when he was pinned by Rush on Wednesday. Garza offered a handshake to Gallagher and pulled his hand away. Fans chanted “C.M. Punk” during this match. After losing, Gallagher confronted Aiden English about his commentary. The Singhs beat Tim Gauge in a handicap match to retain the 24/7 title. They double-teamed him and pinned him. Lio Rush said how Garza lost but if Garza ever does what he did in front of his wife (he took his pants off in front of her) he will break his face. Rush & Raul Mendoza beat Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari when Nese missed a 450 and Rush pinned him after a splash off the top rope. The first dark match saw Reigns pin Corbin in 8:00 with a spear. Very physical match. Corbin got a lot of heat and Reigns got all cheers. This was in the city that booed Reigns more than anyone, and really started the booing of him. The main event saw Fiend over Bryan in a title match. It was short and almost a squash match. Bryan got about a minute or two of total offense. Fiend used the mandible claw and Sister Abigail for the pin.

Notes from the 11/18 Raw tapings in Boston. There was a lot of good action on the show, but it was all about team run-ins with guys wearing brand T-shirts that made them all look like worker bee drones. You could also see the attempts to bring guys up the ranks with Andrade, Black, Murphy, Carrillo and Ricochet. The show drew 8,800 fans. For Main Event, Rawley pinned someone who was just in the ring and never introduced. Alexander pinned Eric Young. Raw opened with Lynch out. She challenged Shayna Baszler or Bayley to come out and fight right now. Instead, The Iiconics came out. Billie Kay said she was mad that they were left off the women’s Survivor Series team. That was news since they never announced a Raw women’s team at that point. Lynch then challenged both of them at the same time. Flair came out. Flair said to Lynch that you don’t want to tag with me and I don’t want to tag with you, but essentially without saying so said the booker is making them team up. Flair said that she was leading the Raw team. This turned into a quick tag match where Flair beat Kay with the figure eight while Lynch hit the exploder on Royce in 2:14. Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir came out and first attacked The Iiconics. Flair and Lynch ran back and they had Baszler and Lynch square off. Baszler took out Lynch with a knee. Keep in mind that in every confrontation so far, they’ve had Baszler look strong with Lynch. Duke & Shafir were beating down Flair. After it was over, Flair and Lynch recovered and wanted another fight but the NXT women backed off. Security guards were in the way. Lynch nailed one with a punch that looked awfully great in the replay. Charly Caruso was with Hawkins & Ryder, talking with them about their tag team title match with the Viking Raiders. AOP came out and destroyed them, so they were out of the tag title match. Carrillo pinned Anderson in 9:32. The OC came out and Styles said he would love to defend the title against Carrillo but Carrillo disrespected him last week. Carrillo was on the top rope for a moonsault and Gallows & Styles pulled Anderson out of the ring. This was in front of the ref. The Street Profits came out. Carrillo did a flip dive on all three members of the OC. Gallows snapped Carrillo’s neck on the top rope and Anderson cradled him. Ford then turned it over so Carrillo was pinning Anderson. This sets up Styles vs. Carrillo for the title next week. This seemed to be more a benefit for the Street Profits than Carrillo, and they may have more upside, but Carrillo is the one in the title match next week. Caruso interviewed Rollins. He tried to get over as a face by name dropping Tom Brady in Boston. He compared himself to Brady. That’s a little bit of a push. He said that he respects everything Andrade has done in WWE and in Mexico, but it’s not Monday Night Andrade, it’s Monday Night Rollins. Lana came out and announced that this morning she filed for a divorce from Rusev. She also said she filed for a restraining order. They showed a supposed restraining order and it had her real name as Catherine Jo Perry and his real name as Marislav Barnyashev. If they were trying to make it legit, there were holes, notably that Federal Court isn’t where you file for either a divorce or a restraining order. Lana said the restraining order is that Rusev can’t come within 90 miles, I mean 90 days, I mean 90 feet. The actual script did say 90 miles, and then 90 feet, but not 90 days. She kind of joked how she messed up the line and Lashley helped her through it. So no Rusev on the show due to the restraining order. Lashley beat No Way Jose in 1:27 with a full nelson. After the match, Lashley and Lana were making out on the ground again. Rollins beat Andrade via DQ in 15:30 in a ***3/4 match. This was a very good match. Lawler kind of screwed up when they brought up how the NXT teams were going to be in War Games the night before and Lawler said that it was to their advantage. He did correct himself later. Joe picked up on it immediately. Vega grabbed Rollins’ leg behind the refs back. She went for the huracanrana off the apron but Rollins blocked it and threw her as the ref turned around. The ref kicked Vega out. They went several more minutes. Andrade did a tornillo dive. Rollins did a tope to the back and the front. Andrade used the three amigos suplex. Andrade tried the Del Rio double foot stomp, but Rollins sat up to avoid it. Rollins did a superkick and Falcon arrow for near falls. He went to the top when the Lucha House Party came out in blue Smackdown T-shirts. Kalisto shoved Rollins off the top rope for the DQ. The Lucha House Party was out there fighting. They were beating down Andrade. Rollins saved Andrade and Rollins praised Andrade and said that we’ll do this again. Murphy was knocking on Black’s dressing room door backstage. He stood there and waited for Black to come out. He got tired of waiting and left. Then Black came out and looked around for who played doorbell ditch on him. A bunch of cars showed up backstage. HHH was shown getting out of the lead car so the idea is he brought a ton of NXT guys in. Murphy pinned Tozawa in 6:40. Another good match. Tozawa did a tope and Murphy caught him in mid-air, picked him up for a vertical suplex and dropped him on the floor. Tozawa used a missile dropkick and a shining wizard. Tozawa also jumped backwards off the top rope into doing a poison rana on Murphy. Tozawa then hit a tope. Ended up being really good and the crowd got into it. Murphy won with a V trigger and Murphy’s law. Rowan was talking to his mystery bag like it was a baby. Murphy went back to Black’s dressing room and started yelling at the door. Black came out. They stared at each other. Then the segment ended. Rowan pinned Alex Malcolm in :53. First the Singh Brothers showed up and R-Truth was chasing them around the ring with a referee out there. Rowan clotheslined both Singhs, but of course had no interest in pinning them. And even though they were laid out, R-Truth ran away seeing Rowan. Rowan then pressed Malcolm over the top onto both Singhs. Rowan did the divide on Malcolm and both Singhs and threw Malcolm in the ring and beat him with a claw slam. Orton was backstage with Caruso. He called himself the greatest superstar in the history of Survivor Series. I think he’s scored more pins on the show than anyone in history so that’s where this comes from. He challenged the Viking Raiders with a partner of his choosing. He noted that he doesn’t play well with others unless it’s going to benefit him somehow. He said his partner would benefit him. Owens vs. McIntyre had no ending. They had an even better match than Rollins and Andrade, but it went 17:24 and just ended when HHH came out. McIntyre used an Attitude Adjustment on the apron on Owens. Owens used a frog splash. Owens used a pop up power bomb and McIntyre kicked out. McIntyre hit the Claymore kick but Owens got his foot on the ropes. Owens used a stunner but was too slow to cover and McIntyre got his leg on the ropes. McIntyre used the paradigm shift, which was his old future shock DDT, but Owens kicked out. Owens hit another stunner and was again too slow to cover. HHH came out. He was with the Forgotten Sons, Dominik Dijakovic and Damien Priest. HHH was a face even though he brought backup that were like heels. To make sure he was a face he put over Boston, being in the old Boston Gardens and how it was magic, and talked about learning to wrestle from Killer Kowalski in Malden. He talked about Owens showing up on Raw and beating Cena. He was recruiting Owens for NXT, saying that he may have been the one who put NXT ont he map and that he legitimized NXT, and that he turned on his best friend in NXT to get ahead. He said how NXT knew how to use him but “you were taken by people who didn’t understand.” He said that the people who talk him couldn’t figure im out and then they didn’t want him because he was too smart but didn’t fit the mold, and said Owens had one of the smartest ring IQ’s he ever seen and that Owens is as good as he thinks he is and has good as he says he is. He said that he’s got all his guys at ringside and nobody has come out to help Owens because they don’t give a damn about you. There were a bunch of guys with red T-shirts and they fought the guys with the black and gold T-shirts. Then the Undisputed Era showed up and attacked Owens. Gallows & Anderson & Styles came out and the NXT guys ran off. Heyman and Mysterio went back-and-forth. Both were great here. Heyman said he didn’t have a prediction, he had a spoiler, but it wasn’t that Lesnar would win. He noted the match is now no holds barred an no DQ with Lesnar vs. Mysterio. He said the match wouldn’t go five seconds and it would either be a miracle or massacre. Carrillo came out and Mysterio endorsed him as the new Latin star and said that he knew Carrillo had what it took to beat Styles and win the U.S. title. Mysterio said he would bring his pipe and would do with it what Lesnar would do if someone tried to hurt his son. He said he’s not coming for an apology as that’s not Lesnar’s style, he’s coming for the WWE title. Asuka beat Natalya with a high kick in 4:37. Sane distracted Natalya at one point. They worked well together but this late in the show and never having any time led to not getting much of a reaction. This was tying up the loose end of Natalya making Asuka submit two weeks ago after Saudi Arabia. The main event was yet another non-finish with Viking Raiders retaining against Orton & Ricochet in 11:30 when they had another invasion of the T-shirts. Ricochet did a flip dive on them but they caught him and were about to power bomb Ricochet when Orton saved him. Orton gave Erik a back suplex on he apron. They showed Ziggler, Roode and Slater attacking Raw guys backstage. Ivar hit a tope on both and threw Ricochet into the barricade. Orton hit a draping DDT on Ivar. He set up the RKO when a ton of guys like Cesaro, Lucha House Party, Roode, Ziggler and Heavy Machinery started T-shirt wars and attacked Orton & Ricochet. The Viking Raiders saved Orton & Ricochet. Then Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, Pete Dunne, Isaiah Scott, and Undisputed Era hit the ring. Orton hit a couple of guys with RKO’s. Rollins, Street Profits, Styles, Gallows, Anderson and Carrillo all joined in. Strong hit Styles with a knee. HHH did a promo saying they were opening the doors Wednesday night. It was basically telling people that Raw and Smackdown guys would be on NXT. The hard sell at the end after the brawl was not for the PPV but for the NXT TV show on Wednesday

Notes from the 11/20 NXT tapings in Winter Park, FL. With a ton of main roster guys, this show had more star firepower than any NXT show in history. It was very good, although the T-shirt brawls got redundant. The crowd was interesting in the sense they popped at first for the outside stars but weren’t into them as much as in the past. I think the crowd that goes is more into being NXT fans as opposed to being WWE fans and hoping a real star will show up. They had two dark matches early. Kayden Carter pinned Vanessa Borne. Raul Mendoza & Mansoor beat Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, managed by Robert Stone. The show opened with Lynch out. She said that it’s been four years since she’s been here and since you’ve seen me kick someone’s ass. She said that Bayley destroyed all her Bayley buddies but the blue haired one is holding her back. She then started talking about Shayna Baszler. Fans were chanting “Shayna’s gonna kill you.” She momentarily got thrown off by that and she clearly wasn’t expecting that. She called Shayna’s friends Mary and Jessicka and call them out. Rhea Ripley came out instead. Now the chant was “Rhea’s gonna kill you.” Ripley said, “You’re the man. Let’s see if you have a set of balls.” This turned into a match. Ripley did her impressive dropkick during the commercial break so that was bad timing. The match was going well. Ripley got to the ropes after a disarm her. Ripley hit a superplex when Baszler, Mary and Jessicka attacked both for the no contest. Lynch superkicked Baszler and Ripley and Lynch worked together to clean house. Kona Reeves came out and Ricochet attacked him. This turned into Ricochet vs. Riddle. It w as good but only went 3:45 with all the T-shirt run-ins. Ricochet did a tope con giro right away. Riddle dumped Ricochet on his head with a German suplex. At this point Nakamura and Cesaro came out. In the confusion, Riddle got a flash pin. Nakamura and Cesaro attacked both. Ricochet did a springboard plancha jumping over the barricade and nailing Cesaro. Nakamura set up an enzuigiri on Riddle but Roderick Strong made the save. Yeah, the guys who are in the big NXT feud against each other. Riddle hit a high kick on Strong. Balor then attacked Riddle but Riddle made his own comeback and finished it hitting a high knee on Balor. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly beat The Revival in 24:47 of a non-title match. I’d go ****1/4 here. Very solid great match. You really got so much more of a sense how good The Revival is. It was two heel teams. Very well paced as this never ragged and built well. Dawson used a diving head-butt off the top rope and a brainbuster on Fish for near falls. Dawson superplexed Fish and Wilder came ff the top rope with a splash for another near fall. O’Reilly did a top rope kneedrop to the back for a near fall. Nigel McGuinness compared that to Pepper Gomez. As someone who grew up on Pepper Gomez, I can’t recall ever seeing him do that once. Mauro Ranallo then brought up Ray Stevens and Bruiser Brody, who both did that move. Fish & O’Reilly won clean with the high/low on Dawson. In the parking lot the Viking Raiders and Forgotten Sons were arguing with security out there. Kay Lee Ray beat Dakota Kai in 5:37 with a superkick and a Gori especial bomb. After the match we had more T-shirt wars. Carmella, Brooke, Rose and Deville came out in their blue shirts. Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Sarah Logan, Io Shirai, Kairi Sane and Tegan Nox were all out. Sane did her insane elbow on Nox. It ended with Sane and Shirai face-to-face. Cross then ran in with a garbage can and cleaned house on everyone. Unlike a lot of the main roster people, the live crowd lived Cross, who then cleaned house on everyone. War Raiders beat Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler in a non-title match in 12:11. This was a ***3/4 match. Lots of near falls. Jaxson Ryker was interfering until he got kicked out saving Blake from an Ivar pin. Cutler threw Erik into the post. Blake did a tope on Erik. Cutler did a Death Valley drive on Erik on the apron. Ivar did a handspring double elbow and then gave Blake the Viking Experience for the pin. Adam Cole beat Dominik Dijakovic in 10:27 of a ladder match. This was very good as well. Cole superkicked Dijakovic’s right knee, the one he had surgery on and wrapped it round the post. Dijakovic choke slammed Cole onto a ladder. Cole used the Panama Sunrise. Dijakovic hit Feast Your eyes but his right knee went out. Both were climbing to the top and Cole hit Dijakovic with the briefcase and Dijakovic fell off the ladder backwards onto a ladder bridge. Beth Phoenix talked about how Edge told her that ladder matches take years off your career. I remember Edge being adamant about how they should only be done for special occasions on major shows and not on television. Cole’s win gives his team the man advantage in War Games. Then we had another T-shirt battle with The Revival, Nakamura, Cesaro, Ryder, Viking Raiders and Street Profits all out. Then McIntyre showed up and gave Dijakovic a Claymore kick. Keith Lee power bombed McIntyre. Lee and Ivar then both had a staredown, and then, just as they were going to fight, they both decided to do dives out of the ring on everyone. Rollins showed up next and superkicked Cole. The crowd mostly booed Rollins but there were chants of “burn it down.” Tommaso Ciampa was saved for last. He ran to the ring and gave Cole a running knee and jumped into the ring to face off with Rollins. They went it and there was another brawl as the show went off the air. Ciampa, Lee and Dijakovic ended up as the last guys left after the brawl. Ciampa did an NXT speech talking about how NXT was the main brand, put over the fans, officials and even ref Drake Wuertz. He then said it’s no longer Survivor Series weekend or WrestleMania weekend, but it’s now Takeover weekend

Notes from the 11/15 U.K. tapings in Hull. They had a weak advance, to the point they had to move people up to fill in ringside and drew about 650 fans. Mark Andrews pinned Kassius Ohno in a dark match opener. Kona Reeves came out and cut a promo about how Trent Seven wasn’t a real superstar. Seven then beat Reeves in a short match with the burning hammer. A-Kid beat Jack Starz via submission. The Grizzled Young Vets, Zack Gibson & James Drake, came out and said they wanted a tag team title match with Mark Coffey & Wolfgang at Takeover Blackpool. Ridge Holland pinned Oliver Carter. This was Holland’s first television match. It was rough in parts. They pushed that he was from Yorkshire, which insured a hometown pop, but he worked as a heel. Carter was helped to the back. Alexander Wolfe pinned Ilja Dragunov. Long match with a lot of near falls. Walter, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel interfered to help Wolfe. Wolfe pinned him after a power bomb. Imperium continued the beat down until Gallus (Joe & Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) made the save. Piper Niven pinned Jinny. Jazzy Gabert was in the corner with Jinny. Gabert tried to interfere but was caught and kicked out. Niven did a promo for a match with Kay Lee Ray for the U.K. title. Ray came out and they brawled. Toni Storm did a ran in helping Niven and attacking Ry. Eddie Dennis pinned Dereiss Gordon in a squash with the next stop driver. Storm pinned Killer Kelly in a short squash match. Storm won with Storm Zero. Ray attacked Storm after the match. Niven made the save. Storm and Niven had a face-off and Storm refused Niven’s handshake and walked away. Sounds like maybe a three-way with Ray, Storm and Niven. Noam Dar pinned Ashton Smith. The Hunt, Wild Boar & Primate, beat Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, who ended up debuting The Outliers on the U.K. show doing a job rather than NXT. Moss & Mak beat them down most of the match until The Hunt came back to win. Jordan Devlin beat A-Kid in a good match. A-Kid did a very impressive moonsault off the top rope to the floor. Tyler Bate came out to watch and helped A-Kid up the ramp after he lost. Joseph Conners won a three-way over Travis Banks and El Ligero. Conners pinned Banks. Conners’ nose was busted open. Walter & Aichner & Barthel & Wolfe went to a no contest with Joe & Mark Coffey & Wolfgang & Dragunov. They continued to brawl after the match. This may not have been taped, but Walter then cut a promo saying that nobody can beat him. Bate ran in and laid him out with the Tyler driver 97

Notes from the 11/16 NXT UK tapings. They drew a little better, about 850 fans and once again people in eh balcony were moved to fill up ringside. Wild Boar & Primate beat Saxon Huxley & Tyson T-Bone. Joe Coffey and Walter were out with General Manager Johnny Saint and assistant Sid Scala, who is there to do the talking since Saint isn’t really good at it. Coffey agreed that Mark Coffey & Wolfgang would defend the tag titles against Aichner & Barthel and in exchange, he would get a singles title match against Walter. Walter than asked for Wolfe vs. Dragunov in a no DQ match. Joe Coffey said he couldn’t agree to that because Dragunov wasn’t part of his team. Dragunov then came out and accepted the match. Barthel, Aichner and Wolfe then all hit the ring and they beat down Dragunov and put him through a table. Kay Lee Ray beat Isla Dawn after Dawn sold a knee injury. Ray cut a promo on both Storm and Niven. Both Storm and Niven came out and Scala announced a three-way at Takeover for the title. Trent Seven was to face Michael May. The match never started as Eddie Dennis attacked and took out May. Ridge Holland beat Jack Starz in a short one-sided match. Mark Coffey & Wolfgang went to a no contest with Aichner & Barthel . Gibson & Drake came out and stole the belts. Andrews & Webster then attacked Gibson & Drake. Scala and Saint came out and announced a four-team ladder match at Takeover. Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan beat Pretty Deadly of Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley. This was Jordan’s first NXT UK match since an injury in April. Trent Seven cut a promo on Dennis for his attack on My earlier. Dennis attacked Seven by hitting him with the mic and said he would see him at Takeover. Jinny beat Amalie. Jazzy Gabert was in the corner of Jinny. Gabert attacked Amalie after the match until Jinny told her to stop. Bate beat Dar in what was said to be a very good mach. Devlin came out and distracted Bate, but Bate still won. Kona Reeves came out before a match with Dave Mastiff. Reeves said that he wasn’t ready for his previous match with Seven. Mastiff then beat Reeves in a short match. Storm came out. She called out Niven to apologize to her for letting Kay Lee Ray drive a wedge between them. Storm asked Niven to step aside so she could get her rematch with Ray in a singles match. Niven refused and attacked Storm and they

had a pull-apart brawl with Ray watching. Ohno beat El Ligero via submission. Ohno cut a promo saying that he was the real embodiment of British style wrestling and will show he can win matches through wrestling and not by knocking people out. Oliver Carter & Ashton Smith beat Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak. Dragunov beat Wolfe in a no DQ match. This was said to be very good. Wolfe looked to be bleeding from the mouth. Barthel & aichner attacked Dragunov after the match. Walter came in to join them but Joe Coffey attacked Walter. Mark Coffey & Wolfgang came out and handed out Christmas cards and read a Christmas poem, so evidently this show plays Christmas week

11/15 in Citrus Springs, FL drew 175 fans. Scott beat Wesley Blake after a brainbuster. Jaxson Ryker and Steve Cutler attacked Scott after the match. Xia Lee won a three-way over Deonna Purrazzo and Taynara. Malcolm Bivens came out and said that he was scouting for the next client for Bivens Enterprises. He sat in a chair and watched the match. Dexter Lumis pinned Omari Palmer using the tights. Babatunde beat Cal Bloom. Kayden Carter beat Chelsea Green via submission. Purrazzo was in Green’s corner. Daniel Vidot beat Tehuti Miles. Nick Ogarelli beat Cezar Bononi. Main event saw Riddle & Dijakovic beat Ryker & Cutler. Riddle then did a promo saying that his match with Balor at Takeover would be life-changing. He then thanked Dijakovic for taking his spot in the War Games match

11/16 in Daytona Beach drew 190 fans. Li pinned Reina Gonzalez. Aleksander Jaksic pinned Nick Ogarelli. Jaksic then challenged anyone from the back. Big Jordan, who is a real 7-foot-3, came out and beat Jaksic quickly. Bronson Reed pinned Dexter Lumis. Chase Parker beat Mohammed Abdelfattah. Mansoor & Denzel Dejournette beat Austin Theory & Shane Thorne. Babatunde beat Brendan Vink in spot for spot the exact same match they did in Tampa three days earlier. Purrazzo & Green & Samantha DeMartin (Indi Hartwell from Australia) beat Jessi Kamea & MJ Jenkins & Santana Garrett when Kamea turned heel on Garrett. She’s done that on other shows as well. Main event was a practice match for Takeover Chicago as Priest won a three-way over Dunne and Dain

We didn’t get a crowd for the Raw 11/15 show in Regenburg, Germany. We did get attendance for 11/13 in Amsterdam which did 8,000 and 11/14 in Zurich that did 3,700. We didn’t get a crowd for 11/16 in Dusseldorf, Germany, which was the final night of the tour

In Regensburg, it opened with Lynch over Evans with the disarm her to retain the women’s title. The Street Profits beat Hawkins & Ryder. O’Neil pinned Benjamin. Benjamin said he wasn’t leaving unless he got another match. Owens came out and pinned him quickly with a stunner. Ricochet beat Styles via DQ in a U.S. title match after run-ins from Gallows & Anderson. The Viking Raiders made the save. It turned into a six-way with Ricochet & Viking Raider over Styles & Gallows & Anderson. Natalya beat Logan with the sharpshooter. The main event saw Rollins beat McIntyre in a street fight with the curb stomp.

Dusseldorf was mostly the same show except Ricochet and Rollins traded places. Ricochet pinned McIntyre in the opener. Rollins wrestled Styles for the U.S. title, which ended in the DQ due to interference from Gallows & Anderson. The final match ended up as Rollins & Viking Raiders over Styles & Gallows & Anderson

The only U.S. house main roster show of the past week was 11/16 in Washington, DC, with the Smackdown crew, which drew 3,400 fans. They ran the same arena that AEW sold out for its first TV taping last month, and with Baltimore, this was the fourth major show in the market in the last two months, as both WWE and AEW ran First Mariner Center, AEW for the PPV and WWE for Raw. New Day beat Revival for the tag titles in the opener. Brooke pinned Tamina. Metalik & Kalisto & Shorty G & Crews beat Ziggler & Roode & Cesaro & Harper when G beat Harper with the ankle lock. Bayley pinned Cross to retain the women’s title. Reign pinned Corbin with a spear after ducking a scepter shot. Lio Rush pinned Angel Garza to retain the cruiserweight title. Rush was over big since he’s from the area. Ali beat Nakamura via DQ due to interference from Zayn to retain the IC title. Bryan made the save, leading to Bryan & Ali over Nakamura & Zayn with Bryan over Zayn with the running knee. Main event saw Wyatt retain the Universal title over Strowman in a last man standing match. To end the show on a happy note, they sent out Nakamura and Zayn to attack Strowman after the match and he made a comeback and laid both of them out.