July 22, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Summerslam takes shape,

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 July 22, 2019



WWE EXTREME RULES

Thumbs up 127 (54.7%)

Thumbs down 10 (04.3%)

In the middle 95 (40.9%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Aleister Black vs. Cesaro 82

Undertaker & Reigns vs. McMahon & McIntyre 51

A.J. Styles vs. Ricochet 42

Smackdown tag title three-way 32

Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley 12

Revival vs. Usos 10



WORST MATCH POLL

Bayley vs. Bliss & Cross 91

Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler 36

Rollins & Lynch vs. Corbin & Evans 32

Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe 28

Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins 10

Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley 9



AEW FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN

Thumbs up 335 (72.7%)

Thumbs down 40 (08.7%)

In the middle 86 (18.7%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Kenny Omega vs. Cima 317

Young Bucks vs. Rhodes Brothers 55

Dark Order vs. Evans & Angelico vs.

Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy 33

Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Kazarian & Sky 28



WORST MATCH POLL

Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie 284

Sonny Kiss vs. Peter Avalon 74

Priestley & Nakajima vs. Blake & Riho 25

Adam Page vs. Kip Sabian 13

Young Bucks vs. Rhodes Brothers 12



G-1 DAY TWO

Thumbs up 288 (99.7%)

Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)

In the middle 1 (00.3%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb 213

Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi 46

Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White 29



WORST MATCH POLL

Toru Yano vs. Tetsuya Naito 114

Fale & Owens vs. Archer & Kanemaru 52

Jon Moxley vs. Taichi 32

Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White 13

KENTA & Fredericks & Connors vs. Tanahashi & Narita & Umino

10

G-1 DAY THREE

Thumbs up 240 (100.0%)

Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)

In the middle 0 (00.0%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Will Ospreay vs. Sanada 114

KENTA vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 60

Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 56

Evil vs. Kota Ibushi 26



WORST MATCH POLL

Lance Archer vs. Bad Luck Fale 44

Ibushi & Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs.

White & Owens & Yujiro Takahashi 33

Robinson & Tsuji & Henare vs. Goto & Uemura & Honma

32

Cobb & Narita vs. Moxley & Umino 10

Suzuki & Kanemaru & Taichi vs. Naito & Takagi & Bushi

9

EVOLVE 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

Thumbs up 82 (81.2%)

Thumbs down 9 (08.9%)

In the middle 10 (09.9%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Matt Riddle vs. Drew Gulak 61

Adam Cole vs. Akira Tozawa 19



WORST MATCH POLL

Shotzi Blackheart vs. Brandi Lauren 33

Babatunde vs. Colby Corino 15

Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 7/16.



After an Extreme Rules show that ended with Brock Lesnar cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and winning the Universal title from Seth Rollins, and television this week, we have a lot of new programs and a semblance of a SummerSlam card.

SummerSlam takes place on 8/11 in Toronto as part of what will be the busiest weekend of the year when it comes to major shows, the WWE having a Takeover and SummerSlam and New Japan having three Budokan Hall shows with the end of the G-1 Climax tournament.

Matches official at press time are Lesnar vs. Rollins for the Universal title, Becky Lynch vs. Natalya for the Raw women’s title and Bayley vs. Ember Moon for the Smackdown women’s title. While not announced, it was confirmed to us that Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor (who, despite rumors to the contrary, is not at this point slated to be The Demon) will also be on the show in what is likely to be Balor’s last match for a few months.

Balor lost the IC title to Shinsuke Nakamura at Extreme Rules on 7/14 in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center because he asked for a sabbatical and will get it after SummerSlam. Balor, 37,. recently got engaged to girlfriend Vero Rodriguez, 32,who hosts a WWE Saturday night show on Fox Sports Mexico.

Two other title changes at Extreme Rules saw A.J. Styles win the U.S. title from Ricochet due to outside help from Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows and Daniel Bryan & Rowan losing the Smackdown tag titles in a three-way match to Xavier Woods & Big E.

Other directions pushed and likely include Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon, which Smackdown has pretty much revolved around, Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title, Big E & Woods vs. Samoa Joe & Elias for the Smackdown tag titles (other teams could be added), Nakamura defending the IC title against Ali and Peyton Royce & Billie Kay defending the women’s tag titles against Asuka & Kairi Sane. This still leaves major players like Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Daniel Bryan unaccounted for. Locally in Toronto they were advertising McIntyre vs. Undertaker.

But before the PPV there is a major Raw show for 7/22 in Tampa, billed as Raw reunion, built around appearances of Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan in particular.

This was a USA Network idea and described to us as one of the “least bad” ideas USA came to WWE with when it came to suggestions to rebuild the falling ratings. The problem is this is just a one-shot deal and unless they use the larger than usual audience to shoot a major angle, no matter what rating this one episode gets, it won’t mean anything long-term, which is the issue.

Austin was going to appear on Raw at this point since he’s got a USA Network series, “Straight Up Steve Austin,” which debuts on 8/12 at 11 p.m. Mondays in an attempt to keep the Raw audience for an extra hour. The series is based on Austin interviewing and hanging out with celebrities.

It should be noted that the original plan for the first Smackdown on FOX on 10/4 was to do a similar type of show. It feels like going to the well too fast on that gimmick to do that type of show in late July and again in early October. The one notable thing is that neither Dwayne Johnson nor John Cena are advertised for Raw next week. Since Johnson was the one who basically came up with and popularized the Smackdown term for pro wrestling, it would make sense for him to appear on its first episode on FOX if his schedule allows it.

Really, the show feels like major overkill. If they announced Hogan and Austin, and maybe a third guy, whether it be Ric Flair, Bret Hart (who is not on the show) or Shawn Michaels, that would be more than enough to boost ratings as high as they were going to get. And they could be written into the show to benefit the show, with ways to use them to enhance the SummerSlam build.

But with the long list announced, they will dominate the show, get big reactions because of nostalgia and make the current stars look like they can’t compare to the past, which is one of the issues with the modern stars to begin with since WWE lost its touch in making people actual drawing cards. It’s one thing when it’s Hogan or Austin or HHH getting a bigger reaction than the current headliners, but it’s another when you’re two dozen deep before your modern stars. Plus, segments have to be written for all of them.

The rest of the list includes HHH & Michaels as DX, The Boogeyman, Booker T, Christian, D-Von Dudley, Eric Bischoff, The Godfather, Hurricane Helms (who would be there anyway since he works as an agent), Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres Gracie (notably the only women being advertised), Kevin Nash as Diesel, Scott Hall as Razor Ramon, Kurt Angle, Mark Henry, Mick Foley, Flair, Rikishi, Road Dogg, Ron Simmons, Santino Marella, Sean Waltman, Sgt. Slaughter, Sid Vicious and Ted DiBiase.

What is also notable is that WWE invited at least two people with other companies. Bully Ray of ROH was invited to reprise his Bubba Ray Dudley role, but evidently turned them down, and Jim Ross was invited in a message from Vince McMahon. Ross said that Tony Khan gave him permission to do the show but he decided against doing so.

Overall Extreme Rules, with the latitude given in so many matches, was a better than usual PPV. It was hurt, like the AEW show, by length, clocking in four hours and 45 minutes for a 13-match show. There were some very good matches that didn’t get a lot of crowd reaction, and some so-so matches, like the last two advertised main events, which also didn’t get strong consistent reactions.

The show drew 12,800 fans to the Wells Fargo Center. While announced as a sellout it was about 1,200 tickets shy. Still, for today’s business, that’s a good number, although they were doing two-for-one ticket discounts.

At press time, the estimate is the show has done 13,000 to 14,000 PPV buys, up from about 11,000 to 12,000 the previous two PPV shows. For Extreme Rules, about 87 percent of the buys were on Sunday and the next 13 percent were on Monday and Tuesday.

Of that group of WWE fans, about 34 percent purchased Stomping Grounds. You would think that it’s only a small group of people who still buy PPVs, but it’s actually 12.5 percent of U.S. homes as compared to the WWE Network that ordered a PPV show in 2018, and this shows it’s not the same people month after month but they draw from a much larger audience and not monthly regulars.

Of those who purchased Extreme Rules, only 2.3 percent purchased Double or Nothing, 1.4 percent purchased Impact Slammiversary and 0.3 percent purchased ROH Best In the World, so the reality is it’s not the WWE paying fan base that is buying anyone else’s shows.

Updated estimates on those shows have Double or Nothing up to 39,000 (and 109,000 total minimum including international and streaming PPVs), Impact Slammiversary to 1,800 and ROH Best in the World to 1,500.

1. Shinsuke Nakamura won the IC title from Finn Balor in 7:35. This wasn’t nearly as good as their TV match. It was good while it lasted, but had no drama or time. Balor missed the coup de grace, and Nakamura hit a Kinshasa to the back of the head and a regular Kinshasa for the pin. **3/4

2. Drew Gulak retained the cruiserweight title over Tony Nese in 7:26. Given Gulak is from Philadelphia, there was a fan base behind him, but most didn’t care about this match. Nese did a 450 with his knees landing on Gulak’s chest for a near fall. After a series of reversals, Gulak hit two power bombs and got the pin after a cyclone crash, which is a neckbreaker like move. **½

3. Undertaker & Roman Reigns beat Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon in a no rules match in 16:55. This was surprisingly great. McMahon looked fine and Undertaker, coming off several bad matches in a row, looked the best he had in years. Elias interfered and laid out Undertaker with a guitar shot. McIntyre laid out both Undertaker and Reigns with Claymore kicks. Undertaker was put on a table and Shane came off the top rope with an elbow drop onto the announcers table. Shane is 50 years old and he had to play pretty damn far to avoid killing himself. Shane did the coast-to-coast dropkick, knocking a garbage can into Undertaker’s face. It looked like Undertaker was done but Reigns came back. But McIntyre took Reigns out with a Russian leg sweep on the floor. Undertaker sat up and choke slammed Shane and Elias. McIntyre went for another Claymore kick on Undertaker, but Reigns jumped into the ring and speared him. Undertaker gave Shane a tombstone piledriver for the pin. After the match, Reigns left the ring to leave it to Undertaker. The announcers talked of Undertaker being near the end of the line. People have been saying that since 1997. ****

4. The Revival beat The Usos to retain the Raw tag titles in 12:32. Very high quality of wrestling. They did a lot of near falls. Both these teams are great but they had a hard time getting heat early because they weren’t allowed to do all the stuff allowed in the prior match. Dawson did a superplex on Jey and Wilder followed with a splash off the top. But Jimmy splashed Wilder off the top. The Revival then used the shatter machine for the pin. ***½

5. Aleister Black pinned Cesaro in 9:44. This was the only match on the show that had G-1 level work. Everything landed strong, the timing was good and it felt like a fight rather than guys just doing moves, even though they were doing a lot of moves. The only negative is it was too short and the crowd wasn’t with it strongly. Black had a kneebar at one point that Cesaro turned into a sharpshooter, and then Cesaro moved from there into a crossface. Black broke it up with elbows to the high. The two were out there trading blows until Black hit black mass for the pin. ***3/4

6. Bayley retained the Smackdown women’s title in a handicap match over Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross in 10:22. Bliss was noticeably lighter, probably because she’s been sick the past few weeks. They mostly worked on Bayley. Bayley at one point had the Indian deathlock on Cross and a crossface on Bliss at the same time. The finish saw Bliss go for twisted Bliss, but Bayley got her knees up. Cross tagged in and came off the top rope into a knee by Bayley. Bayley then pinned Cross with the Randy Savage elbow. **1/4

7. Braun Strowman beat Bobby Lashley in a last man standing match in 17:29. This was a wild match, brawling in the stands and backstage. They were in the mezzanine and Strowman suplexed Lashley into what appeared to be the concession stand, but the stand actually didn’t have any concessions. Lashley turned the German announce table onto Strowman but he got out before the ten count. It ended with them in the 100 section and Strowman knocked off the gimmicked barricade and powerslammed Lashley off the ledge. They both crashed through a gimmicked floor with the idea they were both badly hurt, even though both were in the Battle Royal the next night. Strowman was also selling nothing of his supposed injury before. Strowman ended up getting out of the rubbish from under the floor to win. The live crowd loved this and were chanting “ECW” when it was over. ***3/4

8. Big E & Xavier Woods won the Smackdown tag team titles in a three-way over champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan and Heavy Machinery in 13:57. This was a great match. Bryan was kicking E hard and slapping him. Bryan did a backflip off the top rope, but E caught him in midair, carried him to his corner and they did the Midnight hour on Bryan and Woods pinned him. Earlier in the match, Machinery did the compactor on Woods but E saved him. There was a series of dives ending when Tucker did a crossbody off the top rope to the floor on E and Rowan. Otis teased a dive but didn’t do it. ****

Paul Heyman said was Philadelphia and he was the entire concept of Extreme. He said that your spoiler is that Brock Lesnar is going to cash in his briefcase and win either the WWE or Universal title tonight. Then he said, “Am I telling you the truth or am I Paul Heyman.”

9. A.J. Styles pinned Ricochet to win the U.S. title in 16:30. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson attacked Ricochet before the match. This was very well worked but never got to the point of being great. Ricochet kept having to deal with Anderson & Gallows. At one point he did dives on all of them. Ricochet had Styles beat with a shooting star press but Anderson told the ref that Styles had his foot under the bottom rope. Ricochet went back to the top rope while Anderson distracted the ref and Gallows swept Styles’ leg so he was crotched on the top rope. Styles climbed up in superplex position, but instead gave him a Styles clash while facing toward the corner and got the pin. ***3/4

10. Kevin Owens pinned Dolph Ziggler in :15. Owens hit the stunner right away for the pin. This was mostly done so Owens could cut another promo on Shane McMahon. He had said that he expected to get suspended or fired but since Undertaker took out Shane, he lived another day. He said Shane can kiss his ass and go right to hell.

11. Kofi Kingston pinned Samoa Joe in 9:45 to retain the WWE title. Joe put Kingston hand in between the ring steps and smashed the steps on them. He asked him “Whose No.1 now?” The crowd was quiet as this was a long show and they were tired. Plus, the match didn’t build at all. Joe got the choke and Kingston tried to climb the ropes and kick off but Joe just let him go. Fans were chanting “We Want Lesnar. No We Don’t.” Kingston hit trouble in paradise out of nowhere, and pretty stiff as Joe got a swollen black eye from it. **½

12. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch retained the Universal and Raw women’s titles over Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans in 19:54 in an Extreme rules match. Lynch pounded on Evans with a kendo stick early. Tons of kendo stick shots. Rollins did two topes on Corbin and Lynch did a forearm off the apron. Rollins went for another tope but Corbin hit him with a chair. Corbin beat him down. Lynch tagged in and gave Evans an exploder on a chair. Lynch did a leg drop off the middle rope onto the chair on Evans for a near fall. Lynch did a missile dropkick into a chair into Corbin. Evans got a near fall on Lynch with a moonsault. Evans and Corbin used the kendo sticks some more on Rollins. Really, the match was dragging pretty bad much of the way and it wasn’t too heated, but the finish was great. Lynch used an ass drop off the middle rope putting Evans though a table. Rollins used a plancha putting Corbin through another table. Corbin came back with a power bomb and deep six on Rollins or and Lynch saved. Corbin then gave Lynch the end of days. Lynch was laid out but Rollins went nuts, destroying Corbin with kendo sticks shots and chair shots until pinning after three curb stomps. ***1/4

13. Brock Lesnar pinned Seth Rollins to win the Universal title in :16. Lesnar came out right after the previous match finished. Rollins went after him, but Lesnar got behind him and gave him two German suplexes. Heyman then cashed in the briefcase. As soon as the bell rang, Lesnar picked Rollins up and gave him an F-5 for the pin to take the title.

Harley Race, who has been battling lung cancer, has been hospitalized in Knoxville and a report from World League Wrestling, the independent promotion he runs, has been concerning.

Race, 76, was one of the biggest pro wrestling stars in the country from the early 60s through the late 80s. He held the NWA world heavyweight championship eight times between 1973 and 1984, including dominating the title from 1977 through 1981, during a period when the NWA title was considered the most prestigious championship in the world and he and Andre the Giant would have been the highest paid wrestlers in the industry.

Race first became a major star in the AWA as world tag team champions with Larry Hennig. Their matches with all the top AWA faces, but most notably Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher, defined an era. He left and became the biggest star in the Central States promotion, and a regular headliner in St. Louis.

On May 24, 1973, when he defeated Dory Funk Jr., at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, to win the NWA title, he became, through the prestige of the title, into an international star. While his first reign was not planned out well in advance, and was more a transitional run by Funk Jr., through Race, to get to Jack Brisco, on July 20,1973, in Houston, he earned so much praise for his short run, that when Brisco asked to give up the title in 1975, that Race nearly got the nod.

The NWA Board of Directors voted 4-3 to go with Terry Funk over Race for the title after Brisco wanted out. But Race continued to be such a star and top-level worker, that when Funk wanted out in 1977 to win back his former wife, Race got the title on February 6, 1977, in Toronto. With a few one-week changes, Race held it through June 21, 1981, when he lost to Dusty Rhodes at the Omni in Atlanta.

“An update that have been wanting to know about in regards to the boss's situation over the weekend.

This past weekend, he was scheduled to attend the Knoxville Fanboy Expo. While traveling to Knoxville, he exhibited some signs that needed to be addressed by medical personnel. He has been in the hospital since Thursday evening and that's where he currently is.

Due to privacy concerns, no specific information will be given out about his current health status or anything of the sort.

All that can and will be said is that Harley Race was, is, and will always be a fighter. He doesn't know anything else and he hasn't thrown in the towel and he has promised that as long as it is up to him, that won't be an option. His health is obviously top priority and with that being said, all of his upcoming appearances will be immediately cancelled. All promoters have been notified about the situation and we here are currently trying to come up with a solution to rectify the situation the best way possible.

Unfortunately, since this situation has taken place while traveling to a signing, he is currently in a hospital that is pretty far away from home that has his family there with him.”

AEW ran its third show, Fight for the Fallen, a charity show on 7/13 at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, an arena built by Shad Khan next door to TIAA Stadium, the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The show was a transition show to set up new matches for All Out, and to just get the experience of another live event. There were definite production issues. At one point during the pre-show the closed captioning came on the screen for about ten minutes. At another point the announcers pitched to an interview with Kip Sabian, except it was Dustin & Cody Rhodes. At the end of the show, when the key people, Cody, Brandi, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega were in the ring with Shad Khan, they apparently thought the broadcast had ended and were only playing for the live crowd, when the broadcast was still on.

The wrestling was largely good, with a few notable misses, the opening match and a Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie match that was designed to set up a confrontation between Awesome Kong and Aja Kong.

There were two angles involving Chris Jericho and Hangman Page to set up their 8/31 match to crown the first AEW champion.

Britt Baker suffered a serious concussion in a women’s tag team match after being kicked in the head hard by Bea Priestley. Given the nature of the concussion, there is no word when she’ll be recovered. But with the benefit of hindsight, the match should have been stopped and perhaps continued as a handicap match or a singles match. Baker was down for a while, and so out of it that she went to the wrong corner to tag out. She did come back later in the match for a hot tag spot.

MJF also suffered an elbow injury and missed his show the next day, but it’s not considered serious and he is expected to be wrestling this coming weekend.

The show drew just under 5,000 paid. It wasn’t completely sold out in the sense there were several hundred tickets put on sale in the last few days after production moved in and about 300 were left unsold. But the total in the building was more than the capacity it was set up for before the production kills were released.

A number of major executives with Turner were at the show live and came out of it with the idea from the packed crowd, and how over the talent was to that audience that this was more impressive than they had thought.

There is a reason you don’t do PPV shows two weeks apart. The number of FITE TV buys were down, but with the higher price charged per buy, the actual FITE revenue was the same as for the show two weeks earlier. They went with a higher price because the added revenue was to be part of the charity benefit.

B/R Live numbers were down about 10 to 14 percent, depending on the category, from Fyter Fest, when it comes to live viewership. The decrease is likely due to the amount of competition that night with some also likely due to being just two weeks between big shows. The audience was said to be very consistent, as from the start of the show to the finish the audience never varied by more than about 500. B/R added 18,000 new subscriptions that day, so there were that many new people who didn’t watch the two previous shows, a number that officials were pleased with. Most of the B/R Live executives were described as pleasantly caught off-guard by the success of the last two AEW shows and the PPV numbers from the first show, particularly that there has been a significant increase in subs every show. There is still no official announcement coming regarding the TNT time slot, although everyone is going with the idea 8-10 p.m. Eastern weekly starting on 10/2 is the plan. Because the time slot is still not official, expected international deals for the U.K. and Canada have to be held up until TNT makes its call, since TNT is paying for all the production costs.

At this point, the key matches for All Out are Jericho vs. Page for the AEW title, Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Young Bucks in a ladder match for the AAA tag team titles, Cody vs. Shawn Spears (who will be managed by Tully Blanchard), and Trent Baretta & Chuckie T vs. The Dark Order for a first round berth in the upcoming tag team tournament. There is something planned with the two Kongs, and some type of match that will have some implications on the women’s title picture.

There were complaints that four hours and 15 minutes was long for such a show, and it did appear the audience got tired in 85 degree heat with 80 percent humidity on a Florida summer night. The Young Bucks and Rhodes Brothers going 31:26 in a match that had a lot of Young Bucks match elements, but was very far from their usual style overall was likely too long that late. The match was great in and of itself, with all four playing their roles well and telling a story. The one thing I’ve noted with Young Bucks matches is that when they try and work matches with more of a traditional approach, long periods of heat and hot tags, working body parts, as opposed to the Dragon Gate style, the matches don’t get the same crowd reaction even though the mentality is that other style is better for crowd reaction and that when they do so many big moves it doesn’t mean as much or gets numbing. Yet, in practice, the exact opposite is the case.

The star match was Kenny Omega vs. Cima.

After Brandi Rhodes did the promo of her career a few days earlier, a big face promo talking about how she continually cracked under pressure as a teenager when competing in figure skating, she then turned heel when she brought out Awesome Kong to be in her corner against Allie. And then, at the end of the show, she was part of the entourage that presented the charity check. To me, the latter, which would have bothered me in another era, didn’t bother me at all. We’re long past the idea that the person playing heel in the match has to be a bad person once the match is over, even if Chris Jericho still embraces that concept. And with Jericho, he’s playing heel carrying the main event spot, not a heel in an undercard match. But it was too quick after that promo to then play heel in the match.

The big positives were that several characters, notably Priestley, Joey Janela, Shawn Spears, MJF and The Boy and his Dinosaur crew of Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt all got big natural reactions aside from those expected to get them from being regulars on BTE.

In addition, the building had a very different look for television in a positive way and the crowd was excellent for much of the show. ,

A negative was that Page, in the main event, needs a jolt in promotion between now and the show. His match with Kip Sabian was done to establish the clock, teasing a draw, but in this case, Page won. Fans were expecting a much faster and more explosive Page win. While technically good, the match didn’t get the reaction the face going after the world title should be getting. It was a set up for Jericho under a mask to attack and injure Page, legit busting his left eye open with a kick. Later in the show, as Jericho did an interview and Page attacked him. Page needed a fiery comeback interview after the pull-apart. Another was the Librarians gimmick, but based on BTE, they look to be selling a story to phase that one out.

The ending of the show, which those involved didn’t seem to know if it was being televised or not, had Cody do most of the talking with Brandi, The Young Bucks, Omega and Shad Khan in the ring presenting a check for $150,000 as the donation from revenue and sponsorship of the show to the Victims Assistance Advisory Council in Jacksonville. Cody said that they’ve worked with the Jacksonville Mayor’s Office to make sure the funds will be fairly and properly distributed. Cody noted that $110,000 came from AEW, $10,000 was a personal donation by Omega, $5,000 by Alex Jebailey and $25,000 by the sponsors of the show, Farrah & Farrah, a well-known Florida law firm.

He also said, “You can’t counter program AEW.”

Clearly that was a knock on WWE airing the Evolve show head-to-head on the WWE Network.

It’s pretty clear that anything said, true, not true, or whatever is going to be blown up big in social media by a fan base, and this is probably on both sides although for whatever reason I see it far more from WWE fans, who don’t like these remarks while the AEW fan base loves them. ECW was built on taking potshots at WCW in particular, but WWF at times as well, creating a momentum of the fan base and the talent of being part of the fight. Still, those same ECW front row regulars who were part of that were obvious in the WWF and WCW crowds in that era, and Paul Heyman had relations with both sides, business deals with WWF and a personal relationship with Kevin Sullivan, the WCW booker.

Still, AEW fans are very much into the feud with WWE and the sledge hammer to the throne got an amazing reaction live, like almost nothing else on the show, even though a lot of people weren’t going to like it.

Regarding the story itself, Evolve had the show booked and the talent on the show booked as well at the 2300 Arena before this date was publicly announced (although privately this date was pretty much known first). Evolve doing a show in Philadelphia on this date was not a WWE counter.

The Evolve show airing on WWE Network, given the timing and the WWE track record historically, that’s a different question. WWE did have a PPV in Philadelphia the next night so a lot of production people were around. Still, do I believe Vince McMahon would have put a non-WWE live event on the WWE Network without this show being taken place and not as a counter? History of every move, whether you want to go back to the 80s gives you the same answer. The creation of NXT U.K. and its slow rollout (countering ITV World of Sport), the huge offer to Jim Ross (who they didn’t want on ITV as the face of a new promotion that would have far greater viewership due to the platform), pretty much doing nothing in that direction, then all of a sudden coming back with it when ITV really did shoot a season is a recent example. As was signing up deals to essentially have control of a number of European companies when FloSlam was launched and having all those deals in place years ago to debut them on WWE Network and then McMahon changing his mind on airing any of it for years. Three years ago, WWE attempted to strip New Japan of all its foreign talent and WWE made huge offers to the key people who AEW was going to need to get off the ground. The timing of Jim Ross’ WWE contract allowed them to nix, after approving a year earlier, him being allowed to stay with New Japan on AXS, although that was a moot point since the New Japan side wanted to go with its own announcers and both sides wanted more up-to-date television. Then, suddenly, on this night, McMahon not just changed his mind, but also, on both Raw and Smackdown, promoted the Evolve show harder than they’ve ever pushed a Takeover on those shows.

That’s just how it is and how it’s always been. Omega made a remark about how doing this typical countering was being done to hurt a charity show, which led to such a backlash by WWE fans against him that he just deleted his tweet.

Still, like with Fyter Fest, this show didn’t trend with Google (it was No.1 at times on Twitter, but that doesn’t really mean much). Double or Nothing had incredible interest at a somewhat mainstream level. It still is coming across like at least enough people to be mainstream the day of the show had interest in Double or Nothing and the ticket sales for All Out were an incredible statement, but these shows audience was still limited to the hardcores and this was down from two weeks ago due to all the competition. The reality is that of all the events that night, by far, the most mainstream interest was Urijah Faber’s comeback on the UFC show, and the three wrestling shows that aired head-to-head (Fight for the Fallen, New Japan and Evolve) split the hardcore fan base without any of them having outside the box appeal. AEW’s success will ultimately be determined on whether or not TNT and ITV 4, and whoever else, can expand their fan base to reach and maintain a new audience while keeping the existing fan base.

1. Sonny Kiss pinned Peter Avalon in 5:07. Kiss came out dancing with the Jacksonville Jaguars cheerleaders. Leva Bates was in Avalon’s corner. When Kiss was thrown outside, Bates threw him back in and Avalon was mad she didn’t put the boots to him. The crowd liked some of Kiss’ gymnastics stuff but the match looked very soft and indie. To me, AEW has to have a better than WWE in-ring standard and while Kiss has entertaining parts of his act, this was worse than most WWE bouts. Fans chanted “reading sucks.” Kiss won by coming off the top rope with a leg drop into the splits on Avalon. *1/4

2. Bea Priestley & Shoko Nakajima beat Britt Baker & Riho in 15:43. This was surprisingly long. They did point out that you had the Stardom champion (Priestley) and the Tokyo Joshi Pro champion (Nakajima) in the same match. Baker was knocked out early. The crowd popped big for Priestley from the intros. Whatever it was, with no promotion, whether it’s because she’s Stardom champion or just her look, she was an immediate hit. There was another big pop for Priestley vs. Baker the second time they were in with each other, after the knockout. Priestley came off the top rope with a knee to the face. Priestley also did a double-arm suplex for a near fall. Nakajima did a tope on both opponents. Lots of near falls ending when Nakajima gave Riho a step up huracanrana for the pin. **3/4

3. Sammy Guevara & MJF & Shawn Spears beat Joey Janela & Jimmy Havoc & Darby Allin in 13:13. Spears had great heat. Excalibur brought up the Janela vs. Enzo fight by saying that Janela just got back from a slap fight with scum of the Earth at a Blink 182 concert. They teased issues with Spears and MJF, as they’ve done since Spears came in. MJF flipped off Spears. They traded big moves with Guevara trying a shooing star press, landing on his feet, did a tope on one side of the ring, jumped back in and did a tornillo on the other side, and then used a Spanish fly on Allin. Janela gave Guevara a Death Valley bomb on the apron and then said “F*** you Cornette.” Allin did a tornillo. Spears used a Death Valley bomb on Allin to win. ***

4. Brandi Rhodes pinned Allie in 10:14. After doing the strong face promo work, Rhodes brought out Awesome Kong as her second and worked heel. At one point Kong helped out Brandi pulling her to the ropes. Later Kong distracted ref Paul Turner when Allie had a dragon sleeper. Rhodes was tapping but the ref didn’t see it. Rhodes used an eye rake and spear to get the pin. The idea is that her spear has extra power because she’s got a metal plate in her shoulder after undergoing shoulder surgery. Brandi was putting the boots to Allie after the match and set up a pedigree when Aja Kong came out. Security kept Awesome Kong and Aja Kong apart. The original plan for the confrontation of the Kongs was to be at Double or Nothing but Tony Khan made the call that there were so many other big surprises on that show that doing it there would make it lost in the shuffle so moved it here on a show with fewer surprises. *1/2

5. The Dark Order (Stu Grayson & Evil Uno) won a three-way over Jack Evans & Angelico and Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus in 15:07. The winner of this match was to face Chuckie T & Trent Baretta at All Out for a first round bye in the tag team title tournament, which will be one of the key things on the early episodes on TNT. This was a very good match. However, the Dark Order weren’t over at all, and haven’t been, even though Grayson in particular was great in the ring. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus, doing the Boy and his Dinosaur gimmick, had Marko Stunt with them as a team. The team was way more over with the audience than they had any right to be. Jungle Boy sold early and hot tagged Luchasaurus to a big reaction. They loved him. He choke slammed Evans on Angelico. Jungle Boy did a moonsault on both. Evans did a handspring elbow and springboard double foot stomp on Jungle Boy. Angelico did a reverse figure for on Jungle Boy. He did a running Bad Luck Fall into the buckles on Jungle Boy. Stunt did a super huracanrana on Evans and the ref kicked him out. But Luchasaurus first threw Stunt onto Angelico. Grayson pinned Jungle Boy with the fatality, which is a top rope stunner. ***½

6. Adam Page pinned Kip Sabian in 19:05. The one thing about this crowd that we learned is that they were into the big spot style of wrestling as opposed to long selling, which also played a part in the main event. So the story of this match was that Page denies he has a bad leg, it comes out that he does, Sabian works on it a lot and nearly takes him to the draw but Page wins a grueling match. Then he’s attacked by Chris Jericho. And they executed it well but the problem was the crowd wasn’t into the long selling of the knee, nor the long match. Also, Sabian wasn’t really that over to the crowd and they never bought that he was at Page’s level, particularly since they all knew Page was getting the title shot and the booking here makes sense. In a sense, while it’s a positive big picture it didn’t help this particular match. Technically the work was strong. Page did a moonsault off the top rope to the floor and went back to selling the left knee on landing. Page power bombed Sabian over the top rope onto the ramp. They do ten count count outs rather than 20, which is less dramatic. Sabian went back to work on the knee with a dragon screw over the ropes and a springboard huracanrana. Sabian’s left elbow was bleeding for much of the match. Page won clean with the dead eye, the Omori driver. After the match, a masked man ran in who everyone knew was Jericho, throwing a lot of knees and using the codebreaker and the Judas effect. Jericho kicked Page hard in the eye and Page was bleeding pretty badly from the left eye, which was swollen. There was a light “Thank you Jericho” chant. Jericho was flipping off the fans. ***1/4

7. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix beat Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky in 15:05. Christopher Daniels was involved a lot early in the match. Really good match. Fenix went for a tope on Daniels, who moved and Fenix hit Pentagon. Daniels did an Arabian moonsault on both of them. Daniels was then kicked out. This was the style of match the crowd wanted. Pentagon did a double foot stomp for a near fall on Sky. Fenix did a pescado on Kazarian. Sky & Kazarian did all kinds of moves on Pentagon. Fenix gave both stunners at the same time. Sky gave Pentagon an Ace crusher on the apron. Fenix did a ropewalk double foot stomp on Kazarian. Pentagon did a Canadian Destroyer on Sky for a near fall. It ended when Pentagon pinned Sky with a package piledriver while Fenix came off the top rope with a double foot stomp on Sky to add impact. There was a post-match brawl involving a ladder and Pentagon & Fenix challenged The Young Bucks to a ladder match at All Out and climbed to the top of the ladder. Excalibur noted that the match would be for the AAA tag team titles. ***3/4

8. Kenny Omega pinned Cima in 22:33. Long fast paced match filled with big moves. Cima really brought it here. Cima got his knees up when Omega did a moonsault. Cima got out of the One Winged Angel with a backstabber. Cima dropkicked Omega off the apron but missed a pescado. Omega dropped a knee on the apron. Cima suplexed him on the floor. There was a Dasha Fuentes sighting (not mentioned) working as the timekeeper (she did that in Daytona Beach as well). Cima did a meteora off the balcony putting Omega through a table on the floor. Cima did a meteora to the back of the head and another meteora for a near fall. Omega used a power bomb and V trigger for a great near fall. Cima escaped the J driller with double knees to the chest. Cima did another meteora off the middle rope and an Emerald Flowsien on the apron. He did another meteora but Omega got his foot under the ropes. They traded slaps. Omega came back with a V trigger and a Jay driller, but Cima got a great near fall with a cradle. Omega hit another V trigger and hit the One Winged Angel for the pin. ****½

Jericho came out for a promo. He showed the blood of Page on his hands. Jericho played complete old school heel, and this is a tough go because this is a fan base that doesn’t want to boo Jericho because he’s at that point where he’s been around so long he’s an acknowledged legend, plus he left WWE for AEW. It’s basically Ric Flair or Perro Aguayo playing heel at 48. They are really good at it, but nobody wants to boo them. He ripped on Jacksonville, calling it Jerk Off Ville and the White Trash Riviera. He was booed but not that much for that reason. He put over Page, calling him one of the best performers he’s seen in years and one of the hottest prospects. He said that if he loses, it’s the beginning of the end of AEW and it’s the beginning of the end of his career. He called Page a bitch and then Page came out and attacked Jericho and they had a big pull-apart. Page was bleeding once again.

9. Young Bucks beat Cody & Dustin Rhodes in 31:26. This was a great mix of the Young Bucks style with the WWE style mixed with the 80s style tag team bout. I don’t think the Bucks not doing their complete style was the issue, because they did more than enough of it, as much as how long the show was and how hot it was and the crowd tiring. You could see when they did stuff the crowd was heavily with it. I think the idea here was in the main event to do a long emotional classic, and in an indoor venue I think that would have happened and if you look at layout and execution and effort this was an incredible match. But outdoors in the humidity and coming off so much, particularly the prior match, they didn’t get the crowd to that level. Still, it was an excellent match. Actually Cody opened up more than usual and Dustin blended in great. The match was filled with big spots. Dustin did a twisting crossbody on both. Cody did a moonsault block on Nick and dove over the top rope on Matt. Cody whipped Matt with his weight belt. Cody used an Ultimo Guerrero special for a near fall on Matt. Matt missed a charge and went shoulder first into the post. They worked on Matt’s left arm for a long period of time. Dustin threw Matt’s shoulder into the post. Matt speared Cody and hot tagged Nick. This led to a double sharpshooter spot by the Bucks, and a double figure four spot by The Rhodes brothers. Dustin powerslammed both. Dustin did a cannonball off the apron on Matt and Cody climbed up the ropes and did a plancha on Nick. Nick was about to get the shattered dreams but was able to tag Matt and matt superkicked Dustin. They set up the Meltzer driver but Cody hit Nick with a knee and a disaster kick. There was a double Frye/Takayama spot. Cody accidentally knocked down ref Rick Knox. Cody powerslammed Nick and Dustin powerslammed Matt. Cody went for a plancha but was hit with double superkick. Nick hit a shining wizard and Matt used an elbow off the top onto Dustin for a near fall. Dustin used a Code Red on Matt. Cody went for crossroads on Matt but Nick superkicked him. They hit Cody with a double superkick but Dustin saved him. Both Rhodes Brothers did the drop down uppercut and the Rhodes Brothers did superkicks. The Bucks did a double superkick to the back of Cody’s head but Dustin made the save. Nick gave Cody the crossroads for a near fall. Nick did a ropewalk plancha on Dustin and then the Bucks gave the Rhodes Brothers the Meltzer driver for the pin. Afterwards Matt gave the GSP speech after a grudge match of saying they did things to build up the match, and that they didn’t watch a lot of the other group when the Rhodes brothers teamed up but that the Rhodes Brothers were one of the best teams they’d ever been in the ring with. ****

With four shows in the books, the G-1 Climax tournament’s two biggest stories is that probably the three top favorites to win, Kota Ibushi, Jay White and Tetsuya Naito all have yet to get a win. In addition, defending champion Hiroshi Tanahashi also falls into this category.

In addition, the A block plans could be a mess with an injury to Will Ospreay. Ospreay suffered a stinger in his second match, with Sanada, which many have called the best match so far of the tournament. Ospreay said he was in tremendous pain and was pulled off the 7/15 show in Sapporo, which was okay since he only had a tag match. He was given bad rest at his place in Tokyo. Ospreay is one of the few foreigners, the only ones I know being Dick Beyer in the 70s and Kenny Omega, who actually lived in Japan. Juice Robinson will be added to the list as he’s moving there in the fall.

Ospreay has been working a safer style, which is not to be confused with a safe style this year. But all the prior damage could be catching up, or it could be a fluke injury, because stingers are common in wrestling in almost every style promotion. Some allow the participant to return quickly, others last much longer. The initial reports were that they didn’t believe this to be a long-term injury.

The last word we had received was that as of Wednesday he has been resting and would be wrestling his matches with Kota Ibushi and Kazuchika Okada over the next few days.

G-1 is elaborately booked out with wins and losses before the tournament, and an injury at this point, which would mean several people Ospreay would have beaten would get forfeit wins, would completely mess up the A block plans.

Ospreay was scheduled to main event the 7/18 show at Korakuen Hall against Ibushi in what was expected to be one of the best matches of the tournament. Based on what has happened, plus Ospreay beating Ibushi at the Tokyo Dome, it’s kind of a must win for Ibushi so a forfeit, while being a huge disappointment to not have that match, would probably not mess things up. He was then to face Okada on 7/20 at Korakuen Hall, another of the most-looked forward to matches. From there, his next singles match would be with Bad Luck Fale on 7/27 in Nagoya.

There is a very strong mentality regarding Ospreay not missing dates. He hurt his neck in a match with Marty Scurll in 2018 and ended up not missing one match, working multiple matches in a short period of time over WrestleMania week in New Orleans days later. In addition, it is very rare for people to miss G-1 matches even though almost everyone is hurting as it goes along. But the human body does have limits.

From a business standpoint, after the disappointment in Dallas, it has been all sellouts with 4,074 for the 7/13 and 7/14 shows at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo and 6,946 on 7/15 at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center. All numbers were slightly up as far as paid went for the same buildings last year, and I believe Sapporo may have set the gate record for that building. The idea was Sapporo would be hot since Taichi is from the city and he was headlining against Naito, which would be his biggest match in the tournament.

The 7/18 to 7/20 shows at Korakuen Hall will all sell out as well.

Thus far the A block shows in Dallas and Tokyo were the best, and that looks to be the case this entire tournament. The B block is good, and Tomohiro Ishii has been the star, but it doesn’t have the depth and the Sapporo show really wasn’t that good. The A block show in Tokyo with Tanahashi vs. KENTA first time ever, Ibushi vs. Evil, Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr., and Ospreay vs. Sanada, was one of the best pro wrestling shows of the year and the biggest night of the tournament as one could reasonably argue any of those four bouts as the best thus far.

In the A block, Okada, Lance Archer and KENTA are 2-0, Sanada, Fale, Evil and Ospreay are 1-1, and Tanahashi, Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. are winless. But it is not unusual in Gedo booking to have the eventual winner getting off to a bad start and coming from behind.

In the B block, Ishii, Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson are 2-0. At 1-1 are Shingo Takagi, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto and Taichi. While winless are Naito, White and Jeff Cobb.

As far as building future title bouts, Okada hasn’t lost, Naito has lost to Yano and Taichi, Ishii hasn’t lost and Moxley hasn’t lost.

At this point we have 12 of 20 matches at **** or above, the same as last year. But last year’s high-end matches were better and at this point I’d give the nod to last year as the better tournament.

There are four shows this coming week, all live on New Japan World at 5:30 a.m. The 7/20 show at Korakuen Hall is one airing from 9-11 p.m. same day on AXS TV, although 7/18 looks like the show of the week.

7/18 at Korakuen Hall: Ishii & Yuya Uemura vs. Moxley & Shota Umino, Robinson & Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji vs. Goto & Cobb & Yoshi-Hashi, Yano & Tomoaki Honma & Ren Narita vs. White & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens, Naito & Takagi & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, plus KENTA vs. Archer, Evil vs. Sanada, Okada vs. Fale, Tanahashi vs. Sabre Jr., and Ibushi vs. Ospreay.

7/19 at Korakuen Hall: Sabre Jr. & Kanemaru vs. Fale & Owens, Tanahashi & Honma vs Suzuki & Archer, Ibushi & KENTA & Clark Connors vs,.Evil & Sanada & Bushi, Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Ospreay & Henare, Takagi vs. Taichi, Robinson vs. Cobb, Yano vs. White, Goto vs. Naito and Ishii vs. Moxley.

7/20 at Korakuen Hall: Robinson & Tsuji vs. Moxley & Umino, Goto & Yano & Uemura vs. Suzuki & Taichi & Kanemaru, Cobb & Henare & Honma vs. White & Takahashi & Owens, Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Narita vs. Naito & Takagi & Bushi, Fale vs. Sabre Jr., Tanahashi vs. Archer, KENTA vs. Evil, Ibushi vs. Sanada and Okada vs. Ospreay.

7/24 in Hiroshima Sun Plaza Arena: Ospreay & Honma & Uemura vs. Fale & Takahashi & Owens, Evil & Sanada & Bushi vs. Suzuki & Sabre Jr. & Archer, Tanahashi & Umino vs. Ibushi & Narita, Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Henare vs. KENTA & Connors & Karl Fredericks, Robinson vs. Yano, Got vs. Taichi, Moxley vs. Takagi, Cobb vs. White and Ishii vs. Naito.



JULY 13 - TOKYO OTA WARD GYM - 4,074 SELLOUT

1. Evil & Sanada & Bushi beat Will Ospreay & Kota Ibushi & Yuya Uemura in 7:59. This was really good while it lasted and the crowd was into it. Evil worked on Ibushi’s bad ankle to soften him up. Ibushi did a Lethal injection into a double Pele kick. Bushi pinned Uemura with the backstabber. Evil wrapped Ibushi’s leg around the post after the match to continue weakening him. ***1/4

2. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens beat Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 5:39. The focus was on Fale vs. Archer, but Owens vs. Kanemaru was very good. But it was rushed. It was about building up the big guys squaring off. Owens pinned Kanemaru after a package piledriver. **

3. KENTA & Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ren Narita & Shota Umino in 11:13. Crowd was very into this and a damn good match. Connors was trained by Lance Storm and Katsuyori Shibata. Fredericks has been around for a few years in Northern California but Shibata has done wonders for him. They’ve already got the work and timing down at a top level and just need the personality to be allowed to come out. Tanahashi vs. KENTA was the focus but the Los Angeles Young Lions vs. Tokyo Young Lions also got a big reaction. Fredericks beat Narita with a half crab. KENTA and Tanahashi did a face off after, but Umino then challenged Fredericks and Conners. Fredericks looked like he could be a real star in a short period of time. ***½

4. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi in 11:16. Suzuki coming out to anything but Kaze Ni Nare is blasphemous. As wrestling decisions go, this is one of the worst. Okada and Sabre were great. Sabre beat Yoshi-Hashi with an armbar. ***1/4

5. Juice Robinson pinned Shingo Takagi in 14:41. This was just great. Stiff as hell, great back-and-forth and the crowd loved it. It kept building around attempts at their key finishers. Takagi got out of pulp friction with the noshigami. Takagi did a great lariat for a near fall. Robinson landed the left twice and hit pulp friction for the clean win. ****1/4

6. Jon Moxley beat Taichi in 7:36. Taichi attacked Moxley on the floor and threw him into the post, and gave him an ax bomber on the floor. Moxley hit a tope and got a table and put Taichi through the table with a uranage. There was a ref bump and Abe Miho threw Taichi a chair. Moxley got the chair and threw it at Taichi’s head. Taichi did hit the Gedo clutch for a great near fall until Moxley hit the Death Rider. ***

7. Toru Yano pinned Tetsuya Naito in 3:42. Naito’s knees look in bad shape. All comedy. Actually good for what it was if you go into it expecting a Yano match. Plus, short matches are a good thing to keep fans honest, just not too many of them. Yano pulled ref Red Shoes Unno’s shirt over his head and gave Naito a low blow, then speared him to the back and got cradle for the pin. **

8. Tomohiro Ishii pinned Jeff Cobb in 18:33. This was just them trading elbows, shoulders, and throwing suplexes. It was one of the best matches of Cobb’s career. Cobb used a superplex and standing moonsault. Cobb was throwing elbows but Ishii would move forward head-butting the elbow strikes. Then Cobb started head-butting Ishii’s elbow strikes and used a piledriver for a near fall. Ishii powerslammed Cobb almost on his head. Cobb did the double leapfrog dropkick spot but Ishii didn’t go down and clotheslined Cobb. Cobb seemed exhausted and went for Tour of the Islands but sold it like his back went out from all of Ishii’s suplexes. Ishii hit an enzuigiri, sliding lariat and brainbuster for the pin. ****½

9. Hirooki Goto pinned Jay White 21:06. This would be a differently viewed match. I think everyone would have loved Ishii vs,. Cobb. But this was all about the story of Goto, after losing to White, going to Los Angeles to train under his high school best friend Shibata and with Alex Coughlin, Fredericks and Connors. Goto showed up in his best shape in years. White’s deal is he counters everyone’s best move and beats them, but Goto was studying White in particular to counter his spots. Given that story, this was an excellent match, but if you didn’t know the back story and just watched it cold it wouldn’t come across as nearly as good. Goto in particular reversed the bladerunner into the shoten kai, Goto’s previous finisher, for a near fall. He got another near fall with an Ushigoroshi into a GTR, then landed a penalty kick, Shibata’s finisher, before getting the pin with a GTR. ****1/4



JULY 14 - TOKYO OTA WARD GYM - 4,074 SELLOUT

1. Juice Robinson & Yota Tsuji & Toa Henare beat Hirooki Goto & Yuya Uemura & Tomoaki Honma in 6:31. Honma has really improved his physique and Honma is doing much better, not like he was, but he at least looks like he belongs in there. Henare pinned Uemura after a uranage, or toa bottom. **1/4

2. Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita beat Jon Moxley & Shota Umino in 4:53. Moxley & Umino did the Hart Attack on Narita. Moxley and Cobb worked quickly getting out of each others’ big spots. Cobb pinned Umino with the Tour of the Islands. Good action but just too short considering the talent in there. **1/4

3. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi beat Jay White & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi in 9:23. Yano used two low blows and a cradle t pin Owens. **½

4. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Bushi in 8:33. Suzuki pinned Bushi after a Gotch piledriver. Taichi went after Naito after the match to build their singles bout. Suzuki just walked out on his team. Taichi confronted Naito and Takagi and then brought out a bag and pulled out the iron fingers gimmick that he picked up when Takashi Iizuka retired. **½

5. Lance Archer pinned Bad Luck Fale in 10:12. Much better than expected due to Archer. Archer tackled Fale through the ropes. Jado hit Archer with a kendo stick. Fale worked on Archer’s bad back. Archer was doing the Undertaker old school rope walk. He walked all the way across, then went to a second turnbuckle but Jado hit Archer with a kendo stick and he crotched himself. Fale gave Archer a superplex. Fale teased the old school rope walk but didn’t do it. Archer kicked out of the grenade, hit the pounce, used a choke slam and then used the iron claw for the pin. ***

6. Will Ospreay beat Sanada in 17:06. The story here is that Ospreay would pull off a great athletic move and Sanada would come right back with one of his own to not be outdone. Ospreay escaped the paradise lock on his own, but later Sanada got it again in the ropes and Ospreay couldn’t escape. All kinds of sensational stuff. Ospreay did a space flying tiger drop. Sanada did his double leapfrog, dropkick and pescado. Ospreay did a hook kick and bloody Sunday DDT. Sanada did a backflip into skull end. Ospreay tried for a storm breaker after Kawada kicks but Sanada escaped into skull end, then used a spinning skull end and went for a moonsault and Ospreay moved. Sanada landed on his feet and Ospreay did a Spanish fly. Ospreay tried an Oscutter after a Paul Robinson special, but Sanada turned it into skull end. Ospreay finally got the Oscutter and storm breaker to win. ****3/4

7. Kazuchika Okada beat Zack Sabre Jr. in 12:01. This was a key match because Sabre kept saying that he didn’t need to win the tournament, only win this match, because then he’d have a win over Okada and could challenge him at the Copper Box Arena in London on 8/31 rather than at the Tokyo Dome. This was a super match, mostly Sabre’s various submissions and Okada doing a number of dropkicks rather than just one late. Sabre worked over the rainmaker arm. Sabre at times would have two or even three submissions on at the same time. Great reversals throughout by Sabre including when Okada went for the rainmaker and Sabre used a flying octopus. Okada finally hit two rainmakers for the win. ****½

8. Evil beat Kota Ibushi in 19:11. They came out fast and Ibushi knocked him down with a kick. This was just awesome from start-to-finish. Ibushi looked like not only was his ankle hurt but his fingers were taped together. At one point Ibushi went for the kamagoye and Evil reversed into the scorpion deathlock. He pulled Ibushi to the middle but Ibushi got to the ropes. Evil at one point shoved Ibushi into Red Shoes Unno. The big negative is still how much they utilize ref bumps. It’s just ridiculous and it helps some matches but hurts more often due to overuse. Ibushi did the running bom a ye to the back and a regular bom a ye but Evil kicked out. The story is that with Shinsuke Nakamura gone, and him being a Nakamura fan, that he’s keeping Nakamura’s move alive. Evil hit darkness falls but Ibushi kicked out, but then he hit the STO, or Everything is Evil and got the pin. ****3/4

9. KENTA pinned Hiroshi Tanahashi in 18:38. Even though KENTA is clearly very good and has had two great matches so far, you don’t know what he’s got because Tanahashi was so on during this match. Shibata was out. The story is that he cheered Tanahashi on last year to win, but KENTA is one of his best friends. They in commentary outright talked bout KENTA being a disappointment in WWE. Tanahashi kicked out of double foot stomp. Tanahashi blocked the GTS and used two dragon screws and got the Texas cloverleaf in the middle of the ring. KENTA escaped with a small package for a near fall. KENTA used a draping DDT, and went for his running knee and Tanahashi hit the sling blade. KENTA dropped him with a right as they traded, like in a fight where two guys trade and out of nowhere a guy gets rocked. Tanahashi got out of the GTS with a twist and should and then did two more. Tanahashi did a crossbody off the top and went for a high fly flow. KENTA got his knees up , used a choke. Tanahashi blocked a penalty kick and KENTA used a jumping Urijah Faber knee and hit the GTS for the surprise pin. ****½



JULY 15 - SAPPORO HOKKAIDO PREFECTURAL CENTER - 6,946 SELLOUT

1. Jushin Liger & Kota Ibushi beat Shota Umino & Yota Tsuji in 8:in 8:19 when Ibushi made Tsuji submit to a Boston crab at a high angle.

2. Evil & Sanada & Bushi beat Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare & Ren Narita in 7:18 when Bushi pinned Narita with the Midnight Express.

3. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & KENTA & Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks in 11:32 when Kanemaru pinned Connors after coming off the ropes into a DDT.

4. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi beat Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens in 8:43 when Okada pinned Owens after a rainmaker.

5. Shingo Takagi pinned Toru Yano in 6:16. The crowd was really into Yano. Yano put his shirt over Takagi’s head and went to cradle him right away. It was the usual Yano comedy which got over. There was a great count out tease where they brawled on the other side of the barricade and Yano closed the barricade and put a table in the way. Then as Takagi finally got past those obstacles Yano threw a turnbuckle pad at him at 18, but Takagi still got in. Bushi distracted the ref so Takagi threw a chair at Yano and pinned him with the pumping bomber. It was fun. **½

6. Juice Robinson pinned Hirooki Goto in 12:23. It was technically good but didn’t get much reaction until they built to pounding on each other while clotheslining each other at the same time. They both did the head-butting the hand spot that got over in Ishii vs. Cobb. Robinson won after a head-butt, the left and pulp friction. ***1/4

7. Jon Moxley pinned Jeff Cobb in 8:54. This was very good early but way too short and the ending came out of nowhere. Cobb did the drop down, leapfrog, dropkick and then did an overhead suplex where he sent Moxley flying. Moxley threw Cobb’s left shoulder into the post and worked it over. Moxley used that standing elbow off the top rope. Moxley went for Death Rider but Cobb gave him a fast German suplex, a superkick and standing moonsault. Moxley blocked an attempted German on the apron by stomping on Cobb’s feet and then got the pin after a draping DDT. Cobb sold the shoulder big after. ***1/4

8. Tomohiro Ishii pinned Jay White in 19:13. Gedo attacked Ishii which allowed White to throw Ishii into the post. White suplexed Ishii into the buckles. White was throwing elbows and Ishii was head-butting them. White used a back suplex but Ishii popped up and laid him out with an elbow. Ishii used a superplex and back suplex. White used a Kiwi crusher. Ishii used a power bomb for near fall. Gedo distracted the ref. Ishii went after Gedo and White tried blade runner, but Ishii escaped with an enzuigiri, followed by a lariat. They kept escaping each others’ finisher until Ishii got out of blade runnier with a flatliner, hit a running lariat and a brainbuster for the pin. ****½

9. Taichi pinned Tetsuya Naito in 21:01. Even though it was hometown Taichi going for a major career win against the IC champion and biggest merch seller, the crowd was quiet. Lots of gimmicks including building around the iron fingers. The first part of the match was boring but it did get good near the end. Lots of near falls. Taichi used a power bomb for a near fall. The first time Taichi tried to use the iron fingers while Kanemaru distracted the ref, Naito dropkicked him and the fingers went flying. The ref went down. Naito used a low blow and poison rana and destino but Taichi escaped. Taichi hit Black Mephisto (Celtic cross or emerald flowsien) but was too slow in covering. Kanemaru tried to spray Whiskey into Naito’s face. Naito blocked it by putting his hand over Kanemaru’s mouth. Naito blocked the iron fingers again and hit a Northern Lights bomb, but the ref was down again. Taichi used a superkick, finally used the iron fingers to the throat and pinned Naito after a last ride power bomb . **½

UFC on 7/13 in Sacramento

By Ryan Frederick

There are not many fighters that have storybook endings when they decide to retire. One of the rare cases of that happening took place on December 17, 2016, in Sacramento, when hometown kid Urijah Faber scored a dominant win over Brad Pickett in what was to be the final fight of his career. He was leaving on a high note, which doesn’t happen more often than not.

In the time since then, he’s gotten engaged, become a father for the first time, continued to grow many of the businesses he’s involved in, and was inducted into the UFC Hall Of Fame.

He’s not someone who needed the money, which is too often the case when fighters come back after retiring. His many business ventures are successful. His gym is growing, and he’s always been very good with his money.

The thing that has driven Faber the most has been competition. After competing in several grappling bouts over the past year, he felt he could still compete inside the Octagon, despite hitting the 40-year-old mark. He never formally submitted notice of retirement to the UFC, nor did he ever exit the USADA drug testing pool. He left the door open for returning one day, even expressing a desire to do so.

With the UFC returning to Sacramento on 7/13, it was apparent, even before his fight was announced, that Faber would be returning on the show. He was matched up with Ricky Simon, a 26-year-old rising prospect with a 15-1 record who had scored some good wins and looked really good in doing so. Faber was an underdog in the fight, and there were lots of questions whether he would be able to beat a young upstart like Simon.

939 days after his first retirement, Faber delivered a moment that topped that December night, in a big, big way.

He scored the quickest of his career, in his 45th pro fight, scoring a knockout win over Simon. It was also his first knockout win in the UFC. Simon came out firing with leg kicks and a flying knee that looked to hurt Faber a little. Faber then connected with an overhand right that dropped Simon, and he quickly pounced on top with punches until referee Mike Beltran stopped the fight.

The pop when Faber dropped Simon was enormous, as was the pop when the fight was stopped. It was an incredible scene that topped anything that Faber had accomplished in his career, at least in the UFC. The leader of Sacramento's Team Alpha Male camp capped off what was a solid night for the team, which had six fighters on the card, going 4-2 overall.

Faber challenged UFC Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo post-fight, responding to Cejudo's callout of him after Cejudo won the championship last month. While many might see Faber challenging as ludicrous, it is not far-fetched. Faber has gotten numerous title shots after only scoring one win, and while it was almost three years between fights, he now has won two straight. He is far-and-away the most popular fighter at 135 pounds, and while it matters less than ever now, it is still the highest-drawing fight they could make at the weight. It is the fight Cejudo wants most, so it may be the fight he ends up getting when he is ready to return from his recent shoulder surgery, which spells bad news for both Aljamain Sterling and Joseph Benavidez. The two spent the day after the fight going back-and-forth on social media, although at this point Benavidez looks to be the favorite as Cejudo’s next opponent.

While the Faber fight was the real main event to everyone in attendance and watching at home, the actual main event for the show was between Germaine de Randamie and Aspen Ladd. It wasn't much of a main event as de Randamie dropped Ladd with one of her first punches thrown, and after landing another shot on the ground, Herb Dean stopped it in just 16 seconds. It looked like a very early stoppage as, while she did get dropped, Ladd was on her knees and in the process of rolling to her back when Dean stopped it. She didn't look hurt that much at all, but Dean had already decided to stop it when she was dropped. Ladd didn't immediately protest the stoppage, but she wasn't happy afterwards.

Ladd was the big story on Friday at the weigh-ins. She was one of the first to weigh in, but it was an entirely scary situation. She was visibly shaking while getting on the stale and looked very uncomfortable. She had to shed clothing and use the curtain, but made weight at 135 pounds. She was hurting very badly and was having trouble standing to pose for pictures. It was scary to see and this isn't the first issue with her. She's had one fight cancelled after falling ill after weighing in, one fight cancelled after she missed weight, and she has looked like this almost every time she weighs in.

Something very serious is going to happen one day, and it feels like a broken record saying this, but weight cutting situations like this don't need to be happening, and things have got to change. She didn't need to cut the extra pound because it wasn't a title fight, but her coach said she wanted to, which is unfathomable. Everyone around her need to be held accountable. What was even worse was the California commission all but saying she was good to go and there were no concerns on their end, which is also unfathomable.

With the win, de Randamie has put herself in the position to be the next challenger for Amanda Nunes and the women's bantamweight title. The win over Ladd was her fifth straight win dating back to a first-round knockout loss that came at the hands of Nunes. There aren't many clamoring for a rematch between Nunes and de Randamie, and while it seems more than likely the result won't be much different, there aren't many other choices for Nunes' next challenger.

The event, UFC On ESPN+ 13, was held at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, the promotion's second visit to the arena and sixth event overall in the city. It drew 10,306 fans for a gate of $938,734. It was the lowest attended Sacramento event they've had, but a hot crowd all night nonetheless.

Among other big winners on the night were Team Alpha Male members Josh Emmett and Andre Fili, was well as former TUF winners Julianna Pena and Ryan Hall. Emmett and Fili both scored first-round knockout wins, while Hall scored a decision win over another Alpha Male member, Darren Elkins. Pena, who was fighting for the first time since January 2017 after giving birth to her first child, scored a decision win over Nicco Montano, the first UFC Women's Flyweight Champion, who also returned for the first time due to a lengthy absence that saw her stripped of the championship after being rushed to the hospital the week of a title defense, and also missing time due to a USADA suspension stemming from a contaminated substance.

The entire show aired on ESPN+, so there are no viewership numbers. The only thing that showed up on Google searches for the day was Urijah Faber at over 200,000 searches, good for fourth on the day.

They gave out four Performance Of The Night bonuses with Urijah Faber, Josh Emmett, Andre Fili and Jonathan Martinez all taking home the extra $50,000.

1. Benito Lopez (10-1) beat Vince Morales (9-4) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28 in a bantamweight fight. Lopez was the first of six members of Team Alpha Male on the card. Morales took the fight on short notice. Lopez was attacking with leg kicks in the first and Morales was doing a bad job of checking them. Morales dropped Lopez late with a right hand and landed from the top. Lopez got up and landed a late flying knee. I had the first for Morales. Lopez was back to attacking with leg kicks in the second round and Morales still wasn't checking them. Second round was slower pace as Lopez continued to land the leg kicks. I had the second for Lopez. Lopez was still landing leg kicks in the third but Morales was opening up more with his punches and really landing them both to the head and body. Lopez' leg kicks started getting heavier towards the end. Third round was really close and depended on how you scored the kicks of Lopez against the punches for Morales. I had the third for Morales, and the fight 29-28 for Morales. It was a close fight overall but most thought Morales won the fight, so Lopez getting the decision was a real surprise. Every single media score was for Morales. The judges had weird cards. One judge gave Lopez rounds one & two, one gave him two & three, and one gave him one & three. Lopez got $24,000 for the win and Morales got $14,000 for the loss.

2. Brianna Van Buren (9-2) beat Livinha Souza (13-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a women's strawweight fight. Both were former Invicta champions and Van Buren was making her UFC debut as an injury replacement for Cynthia Calvillo. Van Buren won three fights in one night during her last Invicta appearance. Van Buren looked real good right from the start. She was landing leg kicks and punches in the first and Souza couldn't get much offense going. Van Buren was also landing in the clinch. Souza got a late takedown, but Van Buren won the first. Van Buren had a strong second round as she was landing combos to the head and body and landing lots of kicks very well. She rocked Souza with a head kick as well. The pace slowed in the third and both got takedowns and it was all Van Buren on the feet. Souza tried to land spin kicks but nothing was connecting. I had it 30-27 for Van Buren. She called to fight on the San Francisco card in October and wanted a top-ten opponent. She looked good here. All media scores were for Van Buren. Van Buren got $24,000 for the win and Souza got $12,000 for the loss.
3. Jonathan Martinez (11-2) beat Liu Pingyuan (15-5) in 3:54 in the third round in a bantamweight fight. They had a real good first round with both landing punches and kicks. Pingyuan was in control early before Martinez rocked him with a knee and had a late flurry of punches and kicks to steal the round. The second round was real bad with neither man doing much of anything and a lot of circling around. Martinez got the round as he was more active. The third round picked up the action as both were landing. Pingyuan was landing more early but Martinez started to get comfortable. Out of nowhere, Martinez landed a huge knee that landed flush on the chin of Pingyuan and Pingyuan went out cold. Great finish by Martinez. Martinez got $78,000 for the win with the performance bonus and Pingyuan got $14,000 for the loss.
4. Ryan Hall (8-1) beat Darren Elkins (24-8) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in a featherweight fight. This was Hall's first fight of the year. Hall has a unique style in that you know he's looking to take you to the mat to try and submit you, and he has an awkward striking style. It was effective in this fight, and Elkins is very tough. Hall kept going for the Iminari roll but Elkins was wise to it, so Hall decided to go with spin kicks, and they were doing damage. Hall dropped Elkins in the first with a spinning wheel kick and almost had Elkins in a guillotine. Hall dropped Elkins again in the second round, this time with a left hand. Elkins got up but was still stumbling around, and Hall sent him to the ground again with a punch. Hall was up after two rounds. Hall kept going to the mat in the third, trying to goad Elkins down there, but Elkins wasn't biting. Hall was landing spin kicks while standing but Elkins was doing more damage when he landed, and Hall spent the latter part of the round running away from Elkins. I had the third for Elkins, but the fight 29-28 for Hall. All media scores gave the fight to Hall. Hall called for a fight in December in Washington, DC, and called for a ranked opponent. Not many guys are clamoring to fight him, but there are definite opportunities to defeat him, though he is improving fight-by-fight. Hall got $70,000 for the win and Elkins got $62,000 for the loss.
5. Julianna Pena (9-3) beat Nicco Montano (4-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 29-27 in a women's bantamweight fight. Montano was the former flyweight champ who was moving back up to 135 pounds for this one. Pena was fighting for the first time since January 2017 after giving birth and was a late replacement for Sara McMann. The first round was a lot of clinching early until Montano got a takedown and was in control from the top the rest of the round while defending from submission attempts. Montano got the first. They were clinching in the second and Montano got a takedown but they got up. Pena got the neck and got a takedown and was working from the top the rest of the round. It was tied up after two. In the third round, both women scored takedowns but Pena spent more time on the top and outlanded Montano by a wide margin both on the ground and when they were on their feet. Pena got the third. I had it 29-28 for Pena, and all media scores were for Pena. Both women looked good here after long layoffs. Pena got $80,000 for the win and Montano got $30,000 for the loss.
6. Andre Fili (20-6) beat Sheymon Moraes (11-4) in 3:07 in a featherweight fight. Fili looked much bigger than he ever had before and Moraes is also a big featherweight. They were trading early and Fili rocked Moraes with a head kick. Moraes was on shaky legs and then Fili dropped him with a right hand and swarmed on top to finish Moraes off. A huge win for Fili who looked real good in this one. Fili got $130,000 for the win with the performance bonus and Moraes got $21,000 for the loss.
7. John Allan (14-5) beat Mike Rodriguez (10-4) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in a light heavyweight fight. Allan was making his UFC debut on short notice as an injury replacement for Gian Villante. He had just fought two weeks ago. Rodriguez was landing kicks in the first while Allan was landing harder punches. Allan got a takedown and was threatening with a choke but couldn't get it. I had the first for Allan. Allan got a takedown in the second off some good punches from Rodriguez but Rodriguez was able to reverse to top and landed elbows. Allan tried a guillotine and jumped into guard but Rodriguez escaped and landed. Rodriguez got the second. Third round was close with both men landing but Rodriguez was gassed. He landed a flying knee but Allan ended up scoring two takedowns and finished the fight with ground-and-pound. I had the third for Allan, and the fight 29-28 for Allan. Media scores were 82% for Allan and 18% for Rodriguez. Allan got $24,000 for the win and Rodriguez got $20,000 for the loss.
8. Marvin Vettori (13-4-1) beat Cezar Ferreira (13-8) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. Vettori was fighting for the first time since April 2018 after a USADA suspension for a contaminated substance. Ferreira was throwing lots of leg kicks early in the first but Vettori was landing some punches. Vettori got a takedown off a kick from Ferreira and got the mount and ended the round with punches and elbows from the top. Vettori rocked Ferreira in the second and got a takedown. They got back to the feet but Vettori was in control on the feet. Third round was slower output from Ferreira as he looked tired and wasn't doing much while Vettori kept landing hard punches and he hurt Ferreira late with a left hand. I had it 30-27 for Vettori as did all of the media scores. Vettori called out Paulo Costa after the fight. That is shooting big, but Costa already has a fight lined up and is a way bigger name. Vettori got $40,000 for the win and Ferreira got $45,000 for the loss.
9. Karl Roberson (8-2) beat Wellington Turman (15-3) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 in a middleweight fight. Turman was making his UFC debut as an injury replacement for John Phillips. Roberson was landing punches, kicks and knees in the first. Turman got a takedown and took the back but Roberson spun to the top and landed lots of punches from the top. I had the first for Roberson. Roberson was landing on the feet in the second but Turman was able to get the back standing and got a takedown. Turman was threatening with a choke but Roberson was able to escape and ended the round on top. Roberson outlanded Turman in the second but I gave Turman the round as he was in lots of control on the ground. Third round saw Turman get a takedown into mount and was landing punches. Turman then got a deep rear-naked choke locked in but Roberson escaped. Turman got the mount back and was working for a choke but Roberson escaped again and ended the round with punches from the top. I had the fight 29-28 for Turman. This seemed like a controversial decision but the second round was close enough where you could give it to Roberson, so not a robbery. Media scores were 25% for Roberson and 75% for Turman. Roberson got $50,000 for the win and Turman got $12,000 for the loss.
10. Josh Emmett (15-2) beat Mirsad Bektic (13-2) in 4:25 in a featherweight fight. The crowd was behind Emmett big time with loud chants for him. They were both throwing heavy punches with the feeling someone was going out if something connected. Emmett dropped Bektic with a stiff jab and Bektic was in a lot of trouble. Emmett swarmed on top to start with ground-and-pound and Bektic gave up his back. Emmett landed a hard right under the armpit to the chin and finished Bektic off. This was a huge win for Emmett as Bektic was someone that lots of fighters were avoiding. The crowd went crazy. Emmett got $148,000 for the win with the performance bonus and Bektic got $38,000 for the loss.
11. Urijah Faber (35-10) beat Ricky Simon (15-2) in :46 in a bantamweight fight. Faber got the gigantic superstar reaction coming out as expected. Simon came out crazy with a flying knee that connected on Faber. Faber then dropped Simon with a hard right hand and Simon was in all sorts of trouble. Faber was able to get on top and wouldn't stop landing punches until referee Mike Beltran stepped in and stopped the fight in less than a minute. An absolutely incredible reaction from the crowd and it felt like one of those magical moments, probably bigger than when he won his "retirement" fight. He talked about Henry Cejudo's callout of him post-fight and seemed interested but noted he knows he needs some wins and there's a lot of teammates at his weight class. This was worth going out of your way to see from the walkout to the post-fight promo. Faber got $390,000 for the win with the performance bonus and Simon got $23,000 for the loss.
12. Germaine de Randamie (10-3) beat Aspen Ladd (8-1) in :16 in a women's bantamweight fight. This felt like such an afterthought after the Faber fight. de Randamie dropped Ladd with the first punch and then followed it up with one that hit the shoulder and Herb Dean stopped the fight in just 16 seconds. It looked very early as Ladd, while she did get dropped, recovered pretty quickly and was ready to defend on the ground and didn't get a chance. To her credit, Ladd didn't seem upset, but it's not like she could do anything about it. de Randamie got $90,000 for the win and Ladd got $35,000 for the loss.

Evolve’s tenth anniversary show was the first non-WWE live event on the WWE Network on 7/13, a show from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia that included surprise appearances by Paul Heyman and Johnny Gargano.

It was interesting because it seemed out of place in a sense, as it was a true independent show, hard working guys and women for the most part making little money before appreciative fans, making up in effort what they lack at times in polish. Of all the Saturday night events televised, this was very different. It wasn’t filled with great matches, but it was a smooth show that was easy to watch, with a big plus being Lenny Leonard going solo as an announcer and really doing what an announcer should do, introducing the talent, explaining the angles and giving the history. If you were an Evolve regular, or a first-time viewer as many were, nothing major would have gone over your head as it was all laid out.

The show more than 800 fans and overall for what it was, it had to be considered a positive. Whether Vince McMahon would consider, or even care about a broadcast that did look out of place from a production standpoint, was on the network is an interesting question. In that sense, for the comparison of what McMahon has pushed as a well produced show, his wrestling show couldn’t touch the two rival shows. But everyone knew that going in. As far as a show, obviously it’s not a G-1 show, but it was tighter and at three hours with shorter matches, there were points in favor of this show even though, with the exception of Matt Riddle, Drew Gulak, Akira Tozawa and Adam Cole, the quality of the wrestlers weren’t there.

But this was about looking at guys who may be the future. And that’s a funny thing. The best worker on the show was easily J.D. Drake, a 300 pounder with a bad look who is a very good worker. He reminded me of Dick Murdoch, although honestly Trevor Murdoch would be a closer comparison in that you look at him and think he’s not going to be athletic, but he is. The contrast was right there in his opponent in the WWN vs. Evolve title match, Austin Theory, who was everything Drake wasn’t.

Drake has been around 15 years and wrestling has led to hardships and heartaches in his life. He’s quite good at it, but given his look, there’s a good chance he’ll never get anywhere with it. Theory on the other hand, is 21, got a good look, a former competitive bodybuilder, still very green, and it’s pretty much a lock he’ll be with WWE sooner than later. It’s a lock he’ll be signed, but given the talent depth in WWE, it is far from a lock he’ll make it there, but he does have the shot.

The rest of the show saw guys with the size and bodies and athletic ability from WWE, like Babatunde and Arturo Ruas, and guys without the look or bodies but who worked even harder who are Evolve regulars.

1. Josh Briggs pinned Anthony Greene in 11:49. Briggs is a tall former college football player. He’s fit but not at all muscular. Greene, managed by Brandi Lauren, is more experienced but just seemed like a guy you’d see on any independent show. Brigs used a turnover slam into a GTS and got the pin with a power bomb. **

2. Stephen Wolf won a four-way over Curt Stallion, Sean Maluta and Harlem Bravado in 9:19. This was good action with lots of flying. Wolf is small but talented. Stallion has a good look but is thin. Maluta has been on NXT a few times and Bravado has size and ability but not the look. Wolf did a running flip dive and actually overshot everyone. Maluta did a flip dive. Stallion did a Fosbury flop. Wolf pinned Bravado after a shooting star press. ***

3. Arturo Ruas pinned Anthony Henry in 9:46. This was a worked shoot style match most of the way. Both were good at this but Ruas was so much bigger and more muscular. Henry got a bloody nose early. They traded slaps until Ruas hit the spin kick for the pin. ***1/4

4. Brandi Lauren pinned Shotzi Blackheart in 9:51 in a street fight. From a work standpoint it really wasn’t very good, but Blackheart worked so hard here. They billed Blackheart from the Black Lagoon. She told me when I met her that she was from San Jose. I don’t know of any Black Lagoons here. Natalia Markova attacked Blackheart and since it was a street fight her beating down Blackheart was legal. Blackheart hit a tope on both. Blackheart also ended up with a bloody nose. Lauren kicked a chair into Blackheart’s face. The match fell apart at one point with a botched attempt at a sliced bread. Blackheart missed a dive when Greene came out and pulled Lauren to safety and Blackheart crashed into about seven chairs. Greene gave Lauren and kendo stick and she beat down Blackheart with it to lead to the pin. **

5. Babatunde pinned Colby Corino in 3:10. Corino has the exact same type of facial expressions and face as his father. Mostly a squash with Babatunde using a neck hanging tree, an elbow drop and splash for the pin. *

After the match, Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy, the tag champs, and Maluta came out. Kingston said that Babatunde has had everything handed to him in wrestling because he’s big and a football player, while they’ve all gone on the road all over the place for no money. They surrounded the ring, when The Skulk group came out for the save. Somehow Babatunde disappeared in all this, which is pretty difficult given he’s 6-foot-9 legit and 355 pounds.

6. A.R. Fox & Leon Ruff beat Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy to win the tag titles in 8:19. Fox has always been a guy who does cool moves. Ruff is even smaller, and does lots of flying moves. Fox did an inverted shooting star press to the floor and somehow nobody caught him and he crashed when he wasn’t supposed to. He still got up. Kingston superplexed Ruff into a power bomb by Gacy which reads cooler than it looked here, but probably could be a cool spot. Ruff did a running flip dive over the post putting Gacy through a table while Fox hit a 450 on Kingston for the pin. ***

7. Matt Riddle pinned Drew Gulak in a non-title match in 13:37. It really speaks for how little Vince McMahon values the cruiserweight champion when he allows him to lose in the same city the night before he’s defending the title on PPV. No way he would allow that for a title he cared one iota about. Riddle and Gulak were together in Evolve in the Catch Point group of shooters and Gulak came out with his Catch Point robe. They had a shoot style match that was really well done by both guys. Riddle came off like a superstar and Gulak like a strong worker. Gulak survived Riddle’s submissions, then got the Gu lock in the middle, but Riddle reversed it into a cradle tombstone dropping Gulak face first on the mat for the pin. ****1/4

Billy Idol came out. Not that Billy Idol. He started coughing and the lights went out. Paul Heyman was in the ring. He said he was honored and privileged to be here, noting he doesn’t do reunion shows or conventions and that he wasn’t even asked to come to this show because everyone knows he always turns stuff like this down. He said he asked to be here because this promotion is the future and he knows more about how the business with Evolve after coming here than he did when he arrived. He also called the building home. The fans went crazy for him with ECW chants. He was sweating like crazy and did the ring intros for the double title match.

8. Evolve champion Austin Theory beat WWN champion J.D. Drake in a title unification match in 16:20. Drake was easily the best non-WWE guy on the show. He completely carried this match. Theory was like Tino Sabbatelli, a guy with a look who would have just because of his look done well in the 70s and 80s but with the depth in the business now it’s not a lock, just as Sabbatelli, a far better athlete than Theory with a better look, has never really made it. Theory made it trifecta of guys bleeding from the most. His nose may have been broken. Drake did a tope, a moonsault, and stunner. Theory jumped so high from the stunner that he looked like he was actually mimicking Fosbury. Drake missed a second moonsault and Theory hit three superkicks and got the pin with a turnover slam. After the match, Theory put Drake’s belt ont he ground and held his up. The idea came across like they were dumping the WWN belt and only having the Evolve belt. But he definitely made the WWN belt look like nothing. The lights went out and Briggs was in the ring and choke slammed Theory. There was no reaction at all to his choke slam, and Briggs held up the title. When the lights went out, people were expecting a big surprise and not an unknown guy who worked the opening match. ***1/4

9. Adam Cole pinned Akira Tozawa in 13:15 to retain the NXT title. Good match. Tozawa did a tope and flip plancha off the apron. Lots of near falls. They did a spot 10:00 in when both threw lots of superkicks and both ended up down. This was the fall down and get the “This is awesome” spot. Except they didn’t. The crowd instead chanted “Yowie Wowie,” which they did earlier. Chanting that at a non-Wyatt match came across as total cringe. Johnny Gargano came out. Tozawa used schoolboy off the distraction but Cole kicked out. Tozawa used a German suplex and went for the senton. Cole got his knees up and jumped off the middle rope with a Canadian Destroyer, the Panama Sunrise, and then hit the last shot for the pin. ***½

Gargano ended the show with a promo, saying that pro wrestling in 2019 is pretty cool because of the fans. He said without the fans there would be no Gargano, Tozawa or Cole and thanked the fans because they were the ones who allowed all of them to live their dreams.

The DDT promotion, the most popular full-on comedy promotion in the world right now, ran one of its two signature events of the year, Peter Pan, on 7/15 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo.

It was the same building that New Japan had run Saturday and Sunday. Normally this show is held at Sumo Hall but this year they put it at the Ota Gym and made tickets free (well, you had to pay the processing charge for tickets) with the idea of trying to get people to sample the product and become fans. But you shouldn’t do that with your biggest show of the year. The problem was that when tickets are free, you get people getting them who may or may not want to come. So while all 3,798 tickets were out, there were actually a lot of empty seats because some of those people didn’t bother coming.

The biggest news in the ring was Konosuke Takeshita, generally regarded as their best wrestler, captured the KO-D title from Tetsuya Endo in the main event.

But the biggest news out of the ring is that they announced Peter Pan next year would take place on June 6, 2020, at the main building at the Saitama Super Arena, the longtime home of major MMA shows. They are also going to run a big show in November at Sumo Hall called Ultimate Party 2019.

Takeshita, 24, became champion for the fourth time, tying All Japan’s Shuji Ishikawa, Dick Togo, Kudo and Danshoku Dino with that number for third place in the 19-year history of the championship. The record setters are Harashima with nine and owner Sanshiro Takagi with six. The best known former champions, Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega, held the title three and once respectively. There were people who called the Takeshita vs. Endo match the best match of the weekend. The star ratings here are by Patrick Tobin, who obviously did not agree with that sentiment.

A sign of DDT and its wackiness is that in the press conference after the show, when Akito talked about beating Asuka (not the WWE performer but a transgender wrestler) he said that Asuka berated the size of his dick before the match but he said we proved that the best technique leads to the best matches and that “I think I have become the shining star of small penises now.”

They also have an 8/2 match with Daisuke Sasaki vs. Masahiro Takanashi in a last man standing match at Shin-kiba as part of a week of fan fest beer garden shows. The idea is that at every show the fans are encouraged to drink before the show starts in the beer garden. But for the last man standing match, the idea is that Sasaki and Takanashi will drink heavily before the match and go in drunk (as in a working version of drunk and then do a comedy last man standing match based on both being hammered.

1. Kota Umeda pinned Keigo Nakamura in 5:07 after a penalty kick. **

2. Rika Tatsumi & Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino beat Yuna Manase & Natsumi Maki & Himawari Unagi when Tatsumi pinned Unagi after a hip attack in 10:38 in a match from Tokyo Joshi Pro. **½

3. Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Iino & Mizuki Watase beat Yuki Ueno & Naomi Yoshimura & Nobuhiro Shimatani in 12:11 when Iino pinned Shimatani after a spear. ***½

4. Kazusada Higuchi & Ryota Nakatsu beat Kota Umeda & Kouki Iwasaki in 13:26 when Higuchi pinned Umeda with the Goten, a thunder fire power bomb into a choke slam. This was a battle of the first generation dojo graduates years ago who started with the DNA promotion, a DDT sub-brand. ***

5. Yoshiko beat Saki Akai with a diving senton off the top rope in 8:31 in a women’s match. This was said to be good. Yoshiko is still very controversial for ending the career of Act Yasukawa in Stardom a few years ago on purpose by just beating her up and punching her already damaged eye. Akai is a former model. Akai is so skinny her offense doesn’t look good but Yoshiko was good. **½

6. Akito beat Asuka in a light tubes death match to keep the Extreme title in 11:38. The match would end with a pin, submission of light tube break on someone’s head. Asuka gave Akito a roundhouse kick to the head, but in doing to, Asuka head hit the light tube and broke it, so he was the loser. This was a comedy gimmick match but I was told it could not have been worked more perfectly and if you’re into learning that type of style this is a great match. ****½

7. Yukio Sakaguchi won the Ironmetal heavyweight title, which is a comedy belt something like the 24/7 belt. This was up in a Rumble style Battle Royal. During the match, Gorgeous Matsuno pinned champion Lucky Ikeda to win it. Tomomitsu Matsunaga pinned Matsuno to win it. Mad Paulie pinned Matsunaga to win it. Kazuki Hirata pinned Paulie. Sakaguchi then won the Battle Royal to wind up as champion. The biggest names in the Battle Royal were Joey Ryan, Hiroshi Yamato, Shiro Koshinaka and Antonio Honda. ***

8. Hideki Suzuki beat Yukio Naya in 7:06 with a keylock. Suzuki is a veteran star. Naya is the grandson of Taiho, one of the biggest stars in sumo history.

Naya is 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, so very large for a Japanese pro wrestler, as is Suzuki. ***

9. Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takahashi beat Mike Bailey & Mao in 11:24 when Brooks pinned Mao after a praying mantis bomb, which is a combination double arm piledriver and a superkick by Bailey double team move. Good match with lots of high flying. Bailey landed badly on his neck at one point taking a German suplex. ***½

10. Sanshiro Takagi won a weapons Rumble match over Super Sasadango Machine in 28:56 to become the first DDT Over-40 champion. The rules of the match were that every few minutes, instead of new people entering the match, people brought in ten new weapons into the match. Takagi won after slamming Machine onto stacked plastic containers. One of the weapons used was a person, a medical technician who came to the ring to draw blood from Takagi’s arm and then Machine started working on that part of the arm. Another weapon was the debut of Miyako Matsumoto, who left the Ice Ribbon promotion earlier in the day. She then asked Takagi if she could join DDT. After the match and winning the title, Takagi announced next year’s Saitama Super Arena show and said his goal is to sell it out. The usual building holds 20,000, but they have the ability to expand it because the floor is on wheels and they can put a new section in, up to 35,000. When Floyd Mayweather fought there New Year’s Eve, there were just over 30,000, and that’s with a huge stage. Pride had shows there with more than 30,000, although announced crazy inflated numbers of close to 50,000 when they did. ***½

11. Shinya Aoki, the MMA star, beat Danshoku Dino with a choke at 2:54 of the fourth round. This was pretty much all comedy. They announced it was ten three minute rounds. They used a woman pro wrestler as ring card girl before the second round, and then brought out a male pro wrestler as the ring card boy after the second round was over. ***

12. Daisuke Sasaki & Soma Takao beat Harashima & Yasu Urano in 20:38 to retain the KO-D tag titles with Takao pinning Urano with a reverse Gori especial bomb. After the match, Ryan & Yamato came out and challenged Sasaki & Takao to a title match on 7/21 at Korakuen Hall. ****

13. Konosuke Takeshita won the KO-D Open weight title from Tetsuya Endo in 31:38 in what people were calling a match of the year candidate. Takeshita won using the Walls of Jericho, which are called the Walls of Takeshita. He wrenched ti even farther and bent Endo almost in half backwards. We were told that in front of a better crowd maybe this could have been a five star match, but the crowd was totally behind Endo. But this I was told would stand up to be a G-1 level match. Takeshita after the match said that they were pushing and striving to make DDT second to none in the world. Chris Brookes came out to challenge Takeshita for the title on 7/21. ****

Smackdown on 7/16 had a 14.5 percent increase from the week before, doing 2,122,000 viewers/

It was the best number since the draft show. The key things advertised was a Shane McMahon team meeting and an interview (that never happened) where Daniel Bryan would be discussing his future, and there was a big buzz where people viewed that as a retirement speech so that may have been part of the gain.

It was the best number since the draft show on 4/16 that did 2,219,000 viewers.

Smackdown was seventh on cable for the night, trailing only news shows.

It was down 7.5 percent from the same week last year.

The show did a 0.40 in 12-17 (up 25.0 percent), 0.48 in 18-34 (up 23.1 percent), 0.82 in 35-49 (up 22.4 percent) and 0.94 in 50+ (up 8.0 percent).

The audience was 61.2 percent male in 18-49 and 59.2 percent male in 12-17.

Raw on 7/15 had a few interesting notes. The show averaged 2,453,000 viewers, which was up 4.3 percent from last week. Although there were more viewers on the 7/1 show, the actual rating was the highest since 4/15.

But with the combination of last week’s show going against Home Run Derby and this week’s being the day after a PPV without any strong competition, the increase should have been more than that.

But there is a positive. Raw was fifth for the night on cable, which is better than it has been doing. And the show grew in audience, with strong second hour growth and held the audience well in the third hour. The third hour actually beat the first hour which rarely happens. The first-to-third hour increase was the second highest since the show went to three hours. The only one better was the June 25, 2018 show which had a Rollins vs. Ziggler IC title match in the third hour. In particular, with women and teenagers there were tremendous first-to-third hour growth. As noted previously, teenagers were Paul Heyman’s target market so the stats are positive.

From hour one to hour three, Women 18-49 grew 18.0 percent. Men 18-49 grew 9.2 percent. Teenage girls grew 36.0 percent from hour one to hour three. Teenage boys grew 38.0 percent from hour one to hour three. The only audience that dropped as the show went on was a 2.9 percent drop in the over 50 audience.

The key things promoted on the show was the women’s elimination match for the SummerSlam title shot at Becky Lynch, and the Battle Royal for the Universal title shot at Brock Lesnar. Clearly interest in who would be in two of the main events, because it’s SummerSlam, the No. 3 show of the year, was very significant to viewers 12 to 49.

The show was down 14.1 percent from the same week last year.

The first hour did 2,379,000 viewers, which is not good for a first hour after a PPV. But the second hour did 2,503,000 viewers and the third hour did 2,478,000 viewers.

The show did a 0.51 in 12-17 (up 21.4 percent from last week), 0.61 in 18-34 (up 22.0 percent), 0.99 in 35-49 (up 5.3 percent) and 1.01 in 50+ (down 1.9 percent).

The audience was 65.5 percent male in 18-49 and 61.3 percent male in 12-17.

Bellator on 7/12 did 325,000 viewers for a show headlined by Julia Badd retaining the featherweight title over Olga Rubin. It was the fourth best number for Bellator this year out of seven shows on Paramount. Bellator ratings have dropped 21.7 percent this year, so their drop is bigger than that of WWE.

The Pro Fighters League show on 7/11 on ESPN 2 did 227,000 viewers, by far its best mark to date. For a comparison, the Summer League Basketball game that followed did 246,000 viewers. This was the show to determine who went to the final four in women’s lightweight and men’s welterweight tournaments and was to include both Kayla Harrison and Sarah Kaufman, the two biggest women stars. Kaufman’s opponent missed weight so she didn’t fight and got a walkover win.

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CMLL: A public mass for Paco Alonso took place on 7/12 in the afternoon in Mexico City. Fray Tormenta, the famed priest who the movie “Nacho Libre” was somewhat based on, presided over it. Atlantis Jr., Negro Casas and Amapola all spoke and lots of wrestlers were there, including Rayo de Jalisco Jr., who flew in for it. Both CMLL and New Japan had ceremonies for him at shows this past week. I didn’t hear of anyone in the U.S. acknowledging him, but the only ones who may have would be ROH, who didn’t have a show. I didn’t see anything on the ROH site and for the U.S. media, it now appears the only people who get any acknowledgment are those WWE comments on so they use the WWE comments as the keys to their story

. The 7/19 show looks to sell out and turn people away with Jushin Liger’s farewell to Arena Mexico and L.A. Park’s return. Arena Mexico is heavily walk-up tickets from tourists but two days ahead most of the building was already sold out. Liger is in a four-way main event with Negro Casas, Caristico and Ultimo Guerrero, probably his choice of the three people in the promotion he wanted to work with for the last time. The Park family of L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park & L.A. Park Jr. vs. the Munoz family of Rush & Mistico & Bestia del Ring is the semi. There is also an increibles match where Forastero & Sanson & Cuatrero take on tecnico Volador Jr. as their fourth member to face Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Templario & Soberano Jr., plus Marcela defends the CMLL women’s title against Amapola

The 7/12 show at Arena Mexico was headlined by Ultimo Guerrero over Ciber the Main Man in a short three fall main event when Ciber hit the referee and then gave Guerrero a low blow. He had Guerrero in a submission but the ref raised Guerrero’s hand. We’re getting near Anniversary time and hopefully this isn’t it. The Munoz Brothers teamed up for a rare time, Rush & Dragon Lee & Mistico, beating Gilbert El Boricua & The Chris & Mr. Niebla. They also had a non-title match with Mexican trios champs Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson over Titan & Valiente & Volador Jr., and Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Stuka Jr. over Ephesto & Hechicero & El Hijo del Villano III with a two straight fall bout ending in second fall DQ when III unmasked Jr. They also had the micros on the show

Jushin Liger’s Arena Lopez Mateos farewell show scheduled for 7/18 was moved to 7/21, meaning Bandido is off because of the ROH show that night in Lowell, MA. Liger & Mistico will headline against Ultimo Guerrero & Caristico

The 7/15 show in Puebla was the 66th anniversary of the 1953 opening of Arena Puebla. The main event saw Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson over Rush & El Terrible & Bestia del Ring in a battle of rudo teams. In a semi trios match, Negro Casas pinned Soberano Jr., in the third fall. This led to Casas, whose fifth grandchild came into the world earlier that day, challenging Soberano for his Mexican national welterweight title next week.

AAA: PW Insider reported that both the 9/15 show in Madison Square Garden and the 10/13 show at the Forum in Los Angeles will be on PPV. I’m just saying this because the inclination will be to do the opposite, but if you are going to order the shows, order the Spanish language version. You will be much happier in the long run. What’s notable is what WWE has its Clash of the Champions PPV on 9/15 from Atlanta. PW Insider reported 10/13 would also be a WWE PPV date but the last WWE schedule we had listed a 10/6 show in Sacramento as a PPV date

. They had a big crowd in Tijuana for a combined show with EMW on 7/12 that included U.S. wrestlers Douglas James, Jake Atlas, Willie Mack, Eddie Edwards, Gringo Loco, Michael Elgin and Nick Gage. The main event was an extreme match with Pagano winning over Joe Lider, the original Psicosis and Gage when Lider was pinned. Psycho Clown won the vacant EMW heavyweight title in a four-way over Murder Clown, Taurus and Elgin when he pinned Taurus. The title hasn’t been around since 2017 when Mil Muertes was the last champion. The highlight was a three-way with Laredo Kid & El Hijo del Vikingo beating Arkangel Divino & Black Boy and Jake Atlas & Douglas James.

DRAGON GATE: The company’s signature event of the year, the Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival, will be the company’s first show live on its streaming service with English language commentary as noted last week. Rich Bocchini and Larry Dallas will do the 7/21 show from Kobe World Memorial Hall on the https://DragonGate.live streaming service with the show starting at 2 a.m. Sunday morning Eastern time and 11 p.m. Saturday night Pacific time. The nine-match show has Super Shisa & K-Ness & Shachihoko Boy & Problem Dragon & Draztick Boy vs. Kennichiro Arai & Jason Lee & Keisuke Okuda & Dragon Dia & Jimmy, a three-way trios match with BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria vs. Genki Horiguchi & Yasshi & Punch Tominaga vs. Hyo Watanabe & Yuki Yoshioka & Kota Minoura, a handicap match with former K-1 & gimmick MMA fighter Choi Hong-man (7-foot-2, 330 pounds) vs. Ryo Saito & Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa (who is like 100 pounds), Kzy vs. Shun Skywalker, Takashi Yoshida & Yasushi Kanda & Kazma Sakamoto defend the Open the Triangle Gate titles against The Strong Machines (an undefeated trio), Susumu Yokosuka vs. Flamita for the Open the Brave Gate title, Ultimo Dragon (in his first match with the promotion in 15 years) & Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuji Kondo & Takuya Sugawara, a three-way for the Open the Twin Gate titles with Yamato & Kai defending against Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida and Eita & Big R Shimizu, and a main event of Pac defending the Open the Dream Gate title against Ben K.

ALL JAPAN: They are planning a major show for 9/8 in Ishikawa, bringing back Hall of Famers Keiji Muto and Hiroshi Hase for one night

They had a Fan Appreciation Night on 7/10 at Korakuen Hall before 917 fans. It was a bunch of unique matches headlined by Zeus beating Ryoji Saito in 22:59 with a jackhammer where the winner would get a shot at Kento Miyahara’s Triple Crown on the 7/28 show in Osaka, which is also the final night of the Junior Tag Battle of Glory tournament

They announced the Royal Road tournament, which is a 16 man single elimination tournament like the New Japan Cup, takes place from 8/7 to 9/23. The first round matches are Kento Miyahara vs. Joe Doering, Naoya Nomura vs. Sam Adonis, Zeus vs. Dylan James, Taishi Takizawa vs. Gianni Valletta, Yuma Aoyagi vs. Kai, Shuji Ishikawa vs. Ryoji Sai, Jake Lee vs. Suwama and Yoshitatsu vs. Jiro Kuroshio

They ran Korakuen Hall on 7/17 before 1,066 fans. Main event was Miyahara & Aoyagi over Zeus & James in 19:37 (****) when Miyahara pinned James with the shutdown German suplex. There were also two matches to start the Junior Battle of Glory tag team tournament. Atsushi Maruyama & Black Menso-re beat Dragon Gate’s Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria (***½), Banana Senga & Tsutomu Oosugi beat All Japan’s Yusuke Okada & Hikaru Sato (***3/4)

There will be an Atsushi Aoki Memorial show and convention on 8/11 at Korakuen Hall and because it’s for Aoki, three wrestlers from NOAH will be on the card, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura and Shuhei Taniguchi. The main event is Miyahara & Marufuji & Aoyagi vs. Suwama & Ishikawa & Taniguchi, plus Jun Akiyama & Sugiura vs. Nomura & Hitoshi Kumano

I was told the 6/30 Miyahara vs. Yoshitatsu Triple Crown title match at Korakuen Hall was ****½, and it wasn’t a one man performance either. There was a really beautiful spot of Miyahara grabbing a German suplex on Yoshitatsu who had been climbing the ropes and was ont he second rope. Yoshitatsu held onto the ropes to block while Miyahara kept pulling and Yoshitatsu slowly lost his grip. The tag title match of Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Odinson & Parrow was said to be ***½ and said to be a miracle performance by Suwama & Ishikawa. Odinson has improved since the last time, as he’s a good athlete. Parrow showed more charisma, but on this night, the match worked and people were into Parrow & Odinson. It ended when Suwama gave Odinson a belly-to-belly off the top rope while Ishikawa power bombed Suwama, in a tower of doom like spot.

NEW JAPAN: they announced the a Super Juniors tag team tournament series will start on 10/16 at Korakuen Hall with the finals at the Power Struggle show on 11/3 at the Edion Arena in Osaka

While we don’t have actual numbers because AXS isn’t covered by Nielsen, the ratings for this year’s Best of the Super Juniors finals were up 15 percent from last year, which is probably a combination of the quicker turnaround, the interest in Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi this year compared to Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori last year, and probably the biggest factor is it was Jon Moxley’s first match since leaving WWE. The Dallas show was up six percent in live viewing from last year’s San Francisco show. That’s a big deal because San Francisco was heavily built around Kenny Omega vs. Cody for the IWGP title, plus The Young Bucks were in the tag title match and this year it was pure Japanese with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, and that’s with ratings for a lot of shows declining over the course of the year and this was live major show vs. live major show. That’s a good sign because New Japan has had a harder time selling tickets to its U.S. shows as Dallas, even as a G-1 event, was well down from San Francisco (you can talk MSG but there were so many factors with MSG including that the tickets were sold when Omega was IWGP champion and all sold out the first day of public on sale). Long Beach is also way down for the Walter Pyramid show for the Super J Cup finals as compared to the previous shows in the building. Ratings should be expected to continue to increase with moving to a two-hour same day broadcast format

The announcing situation ended up being a really big story this past week. At the two Ota Ward Gym shows in Tokyo, Kevin Kelly, Rocky Romero and Chris Charlton were at the table, but Charlton said almost nothing. Basically a decision was made that Charlton would be used only as a translator and not to announce the matches, although he did occasionally say stuff. I had mentioned this, and that led to the New Japan office getting flooded with complaints from English speaking fans of Charlton. The problem is that the decision came from outside New Japan. It was believed to have been made by TV-Asahi, which is partners in NJPW World. The situation is that TV stations have this idea of voice and look for announcers and Charlton doesn’t have the traditional voice that they would expect. He’s more a guy with incredible historical and trivial knowledge of New Japan that would appeal to hardcore fans, and NJPW World, in English, is a pure hardcore fan service. Obviously Kevin Kelly has gotten very popular over the last two years as the lead guy, Don Callis was popular but his duties with Impact make it difficult for him to do many dates or keep on top of the company. But the announcing for the Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi G-1 final last year was one of the better announced matches I’ve ever seen (granted, a match like that has its advantages like Omega vs. Okada IV had) and since then Charlton was someone I always looked forward to on the shows that he did. After answering a question about what fans should do on the 7/16 show, both New Japan and TV-Asahi were flooded with correspondence regarding Charlton’s role. New Japan was always behind him but the outside forces who made the decision, in seeing so much reaction, made the call on 7/17 to have Charlton back in his former role starting with the shows this week

They announced a tournament in Revolution Pro Wrestling for a U.K. tag team to get a spot on the 8/31 Royal Quest show. It will be an eight-man tournament with the first round on 8/4 at the Cockpit in London, the semifinals would be on 8/11 in Southampton (if there is a date problem a semifinal could be on 8/18 in Cheltenham) and the finals would be 8/30 for the Revolution Pro show at York Hall in London, which they are running the day before Royal Quest and will have New Japan talent on it

New Japan was taking surveys of fans outside the American Airlines Center. The 25 questions were mostly looking to find out demographics of their live audience. They asked about age and sex but not ethnicity or income. They asked about how many sports events you attend and which sports, favorite pro wrestling promotions, favorite part of wrestling (match quality, ring entrances, storylines or buying merchandise), what you think are the differences between NJPW and WWE, how did you become a fan, did you drive or fly to Dallas. What was notable is that when asking what promotions you watch, AEW was not listed as a choice.

HERE AND THERE: The U.K.-based Fighting Spirit magazine, which in my opinion was the best of the English language magazines. It had all kinds of great features with top tier writers like John Lister and Will Cooling, plus strong columns from people like Nick Aldis, Jim Cornette (tremendous history lessons in his columns) and Rob Naylor among others, has one issue remaining until it will be folding. The magazine launched in April 2006 and the final issue comes out on 8/15. This is really sad news to me. I get two U.K.-based magazines, the other being “Wrestletalk,” which also has some good features. Brian Elliott, who I have a ton of respect for, went out of his way to personally call everyone on the staff. He took over in 2010 and the magazine really picked up at that point, with emphasis on real news and intelligently written articles, with coverage of both the U.K. scene but all promotions including talking about Japan and Mexico, which the other magazines that operated at the time didn’t cover well. At other points, Lance Storm, Bill Apter and Steve Austin had columns. Those close to the situation have said that even though people see the U.K. scene as hot, popularity of wrestling has declined significantly in recent years across the board. Magazine circulation was largely driven by mainstream popularity of WWE, since it was a newsstand mag. That business itself is difficult as only a few magazines of that type remain in the world. With the great decline of interest in WWE, which has declined in recent years far faster than the U.S., the publishing company looked at the bottom line and made the decision. Uncooked Media, the parent company, wasn’t willing to wait it out to see if things would change, or if a weekly AEW show ITV 4 would help sales. The feeling was only that with WWE moving from Sky to BT, that it’s popularity was going to take a hit in the U.K. in 2020. As far as English magazines, I think Wrestle Talk and Pro Wrestling Illustrated are the only ones left

Viceland has reached a deal to air a second season of Dark Side of the Ring, with the pro wrestling documentaries. This would include documentaries already shot on the death of Dino Bravo and one on Chris Benoit. There will also be some new topics that are likely to be announced over the next week. I expect we’ll see more topics related to Jim Cornette, who was considered a big hit in several of the episodes

Betty Gilpin of GLOW was nominated for Emmy’s as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy series. GLOW was also nominated for Outstanding Stunt Coordination on a Comedy or Variety show, Outstanding Makeup for a single-camera series, and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera series and Outstanding Period Costumers

“Stuber,” the comedy starring Dave Bautista, opened in fourth place at the box office this past weekend taking in $8,225,384

The Nacional Lucha Libre group that Alberto El Patron is the face of, debuted on 7/11 in Mexico City at Sala de Armas. It was said to be a good crowd, almost full. The two sons of Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galena del Mal beat L.A. Park and El Hijo de L.A. Park. Rey Horus beat Bandido in a match the crowd liked. Chavo Guerrero Jr,. & Mecha Wolf 450 beat Matt Sydal & Super Nova. In a legends match Canek & Solar I beat Negro Navarro & Heddi Karaoui. Main event saw Alberto & El Hijo del Fantasma & Park over Mesias & MVP & Apolo. This was a TV taping and they are supposed to have a regular show, but have not officially announced any future dates. They set up an undercard feud with Sexy Dulce, the former Sexy Star, and Kamille, who I believe is the woman who seconds Nick Aldis in the NWA title matches. Dulce is now doing pro wrestling, MMA (Combate Amercias) and boxing at the same time. A fight broke out in the stands during the main event and Park and MVP went into the stands to break it up. They did a red carpet entrance before the show with interviews with the bigger names and that got them some media. Alberto put over the idea that other big promotions tried to stop them from getting out of the gate but those companies would love to have their level of talent. Alberto said he would be the president of the promotion but not wrestle on every show

There was more this week to the story of George Murdoch, formerly Brodus Clay and Tyrus, and now a host on the streaming Fox Nation service, and his former co-host Britt McHenry. The two did a show together until she complained about texts he had sent. He was never suspended and was instead given his own new show. The Huffington Post ran a story covering the content of the text messages that created the situation. In one text, Murdoch told his former co-host “Just pull your boobs out now why don’t you. Just grin and bare it.” In another he wrote, “Keep being negative and I’ll send you another dick pic.” Murdoch was pulled off the show in April after McHenry complained to FOX management. She claimed he sent sexually harassing texts between November (when the two were assigned to the same “UN-PC” as co-hosts) and January. Another one said, “I love the fact you (sic) always working if we ever had sex I feel like after an orgazzum (sic) you say speaking of feeling good did see the story on the puppy rescue we should do a segment on it hand me my phone.” McHenry had showed the text messages to friends before going to management, asking them how she should handle the situation. Murdoch is still a regular guest on Saturdays on The Greg Garfield Show on Fox News and regularly appears on Dana Perino’s “The Daily Briefing.” I have no clue how they can still employ him

Beau James, a promoter/historian/wrestler in the Kingsport, TN area, talked more about the fire that destroyed the home of Don Wright. Wright has wrestled in the area for the past 55 years, including doing a match two days after his home burned down. He said he had never missed a booking and didn’t want to start now. A lightning strike sent a power surge through their home, starting a fire that destroyed their home and vehicle, a camper. The accident took place on 7/4 while the family, Don, his wife and the five grandchildren they are raising, were at Roan Mountain camping for the holiday. They were called by neighbors who feared for their lives. Lightning his a transformer in front of the house and blew the outlets. All of their pets were killed and the fire destroyed everything in the house, leaving their house with just some blocks and they had no clothes other than what they are wearing and one change of clothes they all brought for a two day trip. He also lost $18,000 in antiques and collectibles. More than $11,000 was raised in a Go Fund Me, $5,000 each from Jonathan Good (Jon Moxley, who didn’t want credit since he changed his name to anonymous on the donation) and Tony Khan

Fenix, Tony Deppan, Joey Janela, Lucky Kid and Jake Atlas were added to the PWG BOLA lineup for September

John Nord, 59, who wrestled as Nord the Barbarian and The Berzerker as a protégé and copy of Bruiser Brody, was sentenced to probation this past week after his seventh arrest for DUI’s mostly related to charges of driving while on painkillers. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and this would be tragic, Nord was diagnosed with ALS, the Lou Gehrig disease. He’s heavy into painkillers to cope with the pain and damage to both his body and brain and uses a wheelchair. The prosecution argued Nord should serve four years in prison because he represents a significant public safety threat because he has continued to drive in his condition. Nord’s attorney argued that he is getting treatment and that he is in assisted living facilities and will be for the rest of his life. The judge said this case sentencing was very difficult, noting that Nord was a great athlete (he was a good college football player who played in the USFL before getting into pro wrestling) but it was those gifts that also contributed to where he is now. “Life has handed you a lot of special things. On the other hand, it’s taken away a lot of what makes you you.” He was put on five years probation under the condition that he stay in assisted living and does no driving whatsoever, which would be a probation violation and send him to prison. He also told Nord to check in with him in three months on how he is progressing.

MLW: The company announced what it is calling its most lucrative television deal to date with StarTimes in Africa. The deal was with a company in China that has distribution in Africa

An update on the 7/25 TV tapings in New York is that the card has Jacob Fatu vs. Tom Lawlor for the heavyweight title, Teddy Hart vs. MJF for the middleweight title, L.A. Park vs. Jimmy Havoc, Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Timothy Thatcher, Austin Aries vs .Ace Austin, Rey Horus vs. Bestia 666, Savio Vega vs. Alexander Hammerstone and Low Ki vs. Jimmy Yuta. They’ve also announced a 12/5 return to the Melrose Ballroom

Court Bauer said that in regard to rumors of Tony Schiavone with either WWE or AEW, literally hours before Schiavone debuted with AEW doing the Events Center on the Road to All Out, and after he had appeared on a video package during Saturday’s show taped at Double or Nothing put together where he and Jake Roberts were two of the people talking about the Young Bucks vs. Rhodes Brothers match) that Schiavone has a two-year exclusive contract with his company and he returns in August. Fatu, who everyone knows about, also has an exclusive deal.

ROH: Starting with the 7/20 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom, ROH will be streaming its TV tapings live on Honor Club. Previously they streamed all house shows and PPVs, but the TV tapings were saved to be television exclusives. AAA does the same thing, basically scooping its television show (which airs on a network in Mexico) by several weeks for free on Twitch. Actually in this case they will tape exclusive television matches from 7-8 p.m. and then go live with the rest of the show at 8 pm. Kelly Klein vs. Karissa Rivera for the WOH title is one of four matches that will not be streamed. But all of the key matches will be, including Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal for the ROH title, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Briscoes in a street fight for the ROH tag titles, Marty Scurll & PCO & Brody King & Flip Gordon vs. Bandido & Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams & P.J. Black, Dragon Lee vs. Jonathan Gresham, Rush vs. T.K. O’Ryan and Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas vs. Moses Maddox & Jasper Kaun (The Soldiers of Savagery) vs. Coast 2 Coast

ROH has announced Matt Taven vs. Alex Shelley for the title on 8/9 in Toronto, Kelly Klein vs,. Tasha Steelz for the WOH title, plus a six-man tag with Caristico & Soberano Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs. Cavernario & Hechicero & Templario. Nick Aldis also defends the NWA title against a member of Villain Club and Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa return on that show

Names announced for the Top Prospect tournament that starts on 7/21 in Lowell, MA so far are Brian Johnson, Dante Caballero, Joe Keys, Haitian Sensation, Austin Gunn (Billy’s son) and Dak Draper. The Lowell show has a six-man tag title match on top with Scurll & PCO & Brody King defending against Williams & Haskins & Bandido, Rush vs. Dalton Castle, Dragon Lee vs. Kenny King, Tonga & Loa defend the tag titles in a three-way with Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas and Mark & Jay Briscoe, Taven & O’Ryan & Marseglia vs. Lethal & Shelley & Gresham, Shane Taylor vs. Eli Isom for the TV title and Silas Young vs. Black.

IMPACT: Brian Cage, 35, married Melissa Santos, 35, who currently works here as a backstage interviewer after making her name as the ring announcer for Lucha Underground (she still isn’t the ring announcer here and she was the best at that) on 7/11 in Los Angeles. A number of Impact wrestlers attended. A return Cage vs. Michael Elgin title match, in a street fight, will be at the 7/19 taping in Windsor, ONT. Cage has also pulled out of several dates due to injury including dates after 7/19. He was not at the 7/12 Bar Wrestling show in Baldwin Park, CA, but Santos was. She said that an injury flared up and he had to go to the emergency room after the wedding that he had hurt on the 7/10 Bar Wrestling show and that he was in severe pain. , , They’ve also announced Tessa Blanchard against Mad Man Fulton, who is 6-foot-8 and close to 300 pounds. They are trying to get Blanchard over as this major star by facing guys, who as better bases and often better workers allow her to have better matches and fight from underneath, but visually I’m not sure about this. And also, as much as intergender is a thing on the indies if you want to get past that small audience, I’m not sure the visual of Blanchard being beaten on by a guy that size is the answer. Granted, Impact is on Pursuit and right now with the size of their audience, none of this matters one iota. But that was a key reason that Lucha Underground lost its buzz and declined in ratings, not the only reason, but I know too many people who tuned out, not because of an occasional match like that which is no big deal, but because they overdid it. Other 7/19 matches are Jordynne Grace vs. Keira Hogan, Willie Mack vs. Rob Van Dam, Rich Swann vs. Jake Crist for the X title and Josh Alexander & Ethan Page vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz for the tag titles.

AEW: The Young Bucks did an interview with Chris Van Vliet and said there was a time when they and Kenny Omega were in a room together last year and all three believed they were going to WWE. He said that Tony Khan made the right offer and the one thing AEW offered that WWE couldn’t match was the ability to control their own destiny. They also said that the tag team tournament brackets are almost finalized and that the tournament will be part of the early television shows. Regarding Pac, they said it’s about 99 percent that he’s coming in and it’s just a question of when. Essentially when he’s agreeable to lose within doing programs which would likely be after he drops the Open the Dream Gate title. Once they know a date that he’s dropping the title, one would think they’ll come up with a program for him and it’s pretty much working out a schedule that works for both sides. But he would still likely have to sign a long-term deal at some point and before he was hesitant on that. They also said that, depending on the size of the market, that the TV’s will be taped in 5,000 to 12,000 seat arenas. Keep in mind that with the staging, that most of the NBA arenas these days are going to sellout with 13,000 to 14,000 fans for a pro wrestling TV set up. Given it’s midweek and that Smackdown often draws in the 3,000 to 5,000 range, and WWE is so much larger, doing 3,000 a week in the current economy in theory would be the expectation

Kylie Rae has been out of action. The situation has been kept quiet but it is a medical issue and she is expected back soon

Being the Elite this week had the Young Bucks in the Jaguars football stadium and talked about running a show there some day. Brandon Cutler was around even though he wasn’t on the Jacksonville show because his wife makes a lot of the guys’ gear and he was delivering it. MJF started laughing at him and calling him a loser. Sammy Guevara was then telling Cutler what a jerk MJF was but also being condescending to him, but as Cutler was leaving Guevara said “what a nerd.” MJF saw Marko Stunt and thought he was a kid who lost his mom, and then said, “Wait a minute, you’re Marko Stunt. I know where your mom is. She’s in my hotel room.” Then he walked away laughing and said Stunt looked like he was six. They showed Peter Avalon in a library doing curls with books. Then they showed The Librarians doing a promo with the Young Bucks filming and they talked about how big the Librarians were on google trends and walked away saying how their storylines were so much better than “the WWF.” Basically it was their tongue in cheek acknowledgment that it wasn’t working while playing the role of incompetent management that thought the act was getting over big. After they left, Avalon said he wasn’t feeling it, that they weren’t librarians and he just did that to get his foot in the door. But Leva Bates said she loved the gimmick so much she’s gotten certified to be real librarian and wanted to help him with the gimmick but he left and said he was going to talk to creative. The rest was mostly clips from the weekend show.

UFC: Information has come out in Cung Le vs. UFC lawsuit discovery phrase. Total revenues for Strikeforce in 2009 were $8.9 million and in 2010 that increased to $13.1 million. The company was a money loser because it ended up being sold in 2011 to UFC. Bellator’s revenue were $3.4 million in 2010, $6.5 million in 2011, $10 million in 2012 and $15.4 million in 2013. The company lost $100 million from its inception through recently according to work by MMA reporter John Nash. He reported that the company would gross $80 million this year and turn a profit. That’s where the $33 million in DAZN money comes in. It also should be noted that because the promotion is owned by its network, it’s not up for television rights bidding and revenue in that manner, nor would that figure offset losses in the presentation of the events. In documents which were analyzed by Paul Gift of Forbes, the World Series of Fighting, which has since folded and is now the PFL, grossed $200,000 in 2012, $1.4 million in 2013, $2.2 million in 2014, $2.1 million in 2015 and $1.8 million in 2016. Their television deals were $109,000 per year. So they must have lost a ton of money each year running multiple cards and paying so many fighters with that little revenue. Also tells you how scary the PFL model must be because they are booking more expensive buildings, not selling tickets, and having tournaments with $1 million first prizes in multiple weight classes each year. So of the top groups, I don’t know the status of Rizin but they spend tons of production but they also have network TV in Japan, but ONE and PFL must be losing ridiculous amounts of money at this stage

Also out in the lawsuit was the total pay of talent by UFC: $79,327,000 in 2012, $75,502,000 in 2013 and $97,907,000 in 2014. The numbers from 2015 on were blacked out in public information when it comes to discovery. Part of the lawsuit is the claim that fighters deserve 42 to 52 percent of the revenue garnered from television, live gates, PPV and on demand broadcasts and that UFC, by having a monopoly of between 95 and 98 percent of the major league (described during 2009 to 2013 in the documents as UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator and WSOF) market share that they have been artificially been able to keep pay down because of the lack of competition. The actual percentages of those revenues that went to fighters was 19.4 percent in 2011, 18.6 percent in 2012 and 20.3 percent in 2013. An estimate of 21 to 22 percent of revenue to fighters was listed for 2008 to 2010. Strikeforce, which ended up being sold, clearly was overpaying fighters based on revenue, as in 2008 and 2009, fighter pay alone ranged between 93 and 97 percent of revenue while in 2010 it was 51 percent. If by some reason the Le and Jon Fitch side wins this case, that some lawyers will go after WWE because you have the same situation, but only far worse and the percentage WWE pays to talent is far lower than UFC. The problem is the lawyers here were able to get a number of fighters to be the point men in the suit. Le was a star who retired and Fitch knew he was never coming back. In wrestling, few will burn that bridge, although it is true tons of people signed up in the concussion lawsuit but there weren’t the top stars that were current because most of them still hope for a return. I’ve never expected the plaintiffs to win this case, but it is still going on and there are major lawyers on both sides. With a win, I can’t see how WWE wouldn’t be the obvious next target. But I can’t see how you can rule because a company was very successful and perhaps they should pay their fighters more, lots of highly profitable companies in the country are very successful and could afford to pay workers more and while UFC has in the past before they were established at this level done shows head-to-head to hurt others, it’s done nothing even remotely like what WWE has done in competition

Other testimony Gift reported talked about Hector Lombard, who was Bellator champion, coming to UFC and signing an eight-fight deal for $205,000 per fight plus a $75,000 win bonus. But after three fights, where he lost two, he was told he could either be cut from that deal, or stay in UFC with a one-fight deal for $100,000 flat, which he agreed to

A story by Damon Martin at MMA Fighting on Endeavor going public quoted Todd Jeuenger, a Wall Street senior analyst at Bernstein, noting this is a high risk investment. While UFC is very much like WWE in the sense they are guaranteed to be hugely profitable, there is a big difference because WWE doesn’t have much in the way of debt, while Endeavor has $4 billion in debt from its various purchases, including the UFC. And while UFC itself is very profitable, overall Endeavor is not and would be far worse off without the huge UFC profits. The estimate is that an IPO could raise $900 million for Endeavor, but that is far less than their debt. But Jeuenger praised the owning of UFC as part of the portfolio noting the opportunity to own a stake in a dominant sports league in a growing sport with global potential doesn’t come along every day, noting MMA has international appeal, a young skewing audience and has a demographic that is hard to reach

The actual numbers for the 7/6 UFC 239 show in Las Vegas were 15,284 paid and 16,580 in the building with a gate of $6,063,707.11. If was the fourth largest paid attendance and fourth largest gate for UFC since they started running the T Mobile Arena

In what could be one of the great crowd pleasing fights of the year, Justin Gaethje is scheduled to face Donald Cerrone to headline a 9/14 show in Vancouver

Daniel Cormier talked to ESPN and noted that after lower back surgery, his weight got up to 261 pounds. He says he’s fine, but that weight figure, 40 years old and back surgery and then fighting Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title all combined has a bad mix. He said if he does fight Jon Jones next, he wants it at 205 and not heavyweight because he lost to Jones at 205. He did note that his coach, Bob Cook, wants that fight at heavyweight feeling Cormier is stronger than trying to get to 205

Ali Abdelaziz, the manager of Jorge Masvidal, said that his fighter will only accept one of two fights next, a title fight with Kamaru Usman or a fight with Conor McGregor

This week’s show is an ESPN card from San Antonio, scheduled for 6 p.m. to midnight. The show starts with Felipe Colares (8-1) vs. Domingo Pilarte (8-1), Jin Soon Son (9-3) vs. Mario Bautista (6-1), Gabriel Silva (8-0) vs. Ray Borg (11-4), Roxanne Modafferi (23-15) vs. Jennifer Maia (16-5-1), Sam Alvey (33-12) vs. Klidsn Abreu (14-3), Raquel Pennington (9-7) vs. Irena Aldana (10-4) and the prelim card ends with Alex Caceres (14-12) vs. Steven Peterson (17-8). The main card opens with Andrei Arlovski (27-18) vs. Ben Rothwell (36-11), Francisco Trinaldo (23-6) vs. Alexander Hernandez (10-2), James Vick (13-3) vs. Dan Hooker (17-8), Greg Hardy (4-1) vs. Juan Adams (5-1), Walt Harris (13-7) vs. Aleksei Oleinik (57-12-1) and a main event of Rafael dos Anjos (29-11) vs. Leon Edwards (17-3). They get so few shows on ESPN that you’d think they would fill them with young guys they want to build. With Harris and Hardy they are instead building around heavyweight sluggers really nobody who right now would be considered a guy who could be in a main event on PPV going forward, which is what you’d think you’d want your ESPN shows to have

Macy Chiasson vs. Lina Lansberg, Michal Oleksiejczuk (who has a 12 fight winning streak) vs. Ovince Saint Preux, John Phillips vs. Alen Amedovski and Ion Cutelaba vs. Khalil Rountree Jr., have been added to the 9/28 show in Copenhagen, Denmark

A rumored Mark de la Rosa vs. Kai Kara France fight is now official for 8/31 in Shenzhen, China.

BELLATOR: As if there aren’t enough big shows in Japan at that time of the year, Scott Coker told ESPN he’s in talks about holding a show on 12/29 at the Saitama Super Arena, and his planned main event is Fedor Emelianenko vs. Rampage Jackson, and if Jackson can’t do it, his second choice is Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett

The company announced its featherweight Grand Prix first round, which will take place with four fights on 9/7 in San Jose and four more on 9/28 at the Forum in Los Angeles, both shows being DAZN exclusives. San Jose will have Sam Sicilia (16-9) vs. Pedro Carvalho (10-3), Emmanuel Sanchez (18-4) vs. Tywan Claxton (5-0), Pat Curran (23-8) vs. Adam Borics (13-0) and Daniel Straus (26-8) vs. Derek Campos (19-9). Los Angeles will have Patricio Pitbull Freire (29-4) defending the title against Juan Archuleta (23-1), plus Darrion Caldwell (13-3) vs. Henry Corrales (17-3), Daniel Weichel (39-11) vs. Saul Rogers (13-2) and A.J. McKee (14-0) vs. Georgi Karakhanyan (28-9-1, 1 NC). Given the type of guys in the tournament, this looks great. McKee has been a project and now there are so more easy ones. Plus, there will be three title matches during the tournament over the next year. Scott Coker said on ESPN that he hopes to end the tournament in September 2020. He also said that he’s targeting October for the Rory MacDonald vs. Douglas Lima fight for the welterweight title and the $1 million Grand Prix first prize

Julia Budd (13-2), who hasn’t lost since years ago against Ronda Rousey, retained her featherweight title beating Olga Rubin (6-1) via knockout in 2:19 of the first round on the 7/12 show in Thackerville, OK.

Andrey Koreshkov vs. Lorenz Larkin was announced for a 10/4 show in Temecula, CA which is a minor show on Paramount

Michael Page vs. Richard Kiely was announced for 9/27 in Dublin.

WWE: FOX had a summit meeting on 7/17 talking to the affiliates about the fall schedule. They spoke about WWE and these were the key points in the presentation. Smackdown will be airing 51 weeks a year on FOX. It will be preempted for the World Series (although it may move to FS 1 that week). There will be a one-hour launch show in late September to build to the 10/4 debut at the Staples Center to introduce the WWE and its talent to the FOX audience. FOX is in talks about getting NXT onto television. While not said, I can definitely see NXT on FS 1 head-to-head with AEW. It’s kind of a no-lose situation for WWE. If the ratings are close with NXT on a weaker platform, it’s a blow to AEW. If NXT does significantly better, yes they did beat WWE but again, are on a stronger station and they only beat the developmental brand. Plus, if it siphons viewers from AEW, even 10 percent, it accomplishes the goal. This is not a done deal yet, but the weekly talk show on FS 1 is a done deal, as has already been announced, with Renee Young as the host. FOX wants everyone to promote WWE as a legitimate sport, not that the outcomes are real, but that it is a choreographed sports presentation as part of a Thursday through Sunday sports block in the fall with the NFL on Thursdays and Sundays and College Football on Saturdays. In mid-September, they will start promoting the 20th anniversary of Smackdown show, which the presumption is will be the 10/4 episode. They pushed at the meeting that there will be a lot of surprises on that show. They are also planning a huge promotion for WWE where wrestlers will be taking a moving truck to big, middle and even small markets to promote the move to FOX. They are also planning a digital primer, where viewers can get a behind-the-scenes look at the product, which will teach viewers inside terms

Bayley did an interview with Kristine Leahy on FS 1 which turned into something that got a decent amount of talk because Leahy was shocked that talent was driving themselves to shows and Bayley was so naive as not to realize that very few acts that generate that kind of revenue do that. Bayley brought up that it’s hard, as you often after a show (which would be late at night) drive four hours (and it could be a lot more, or less) to the next city in some small town places and sometimes you worry about running out of gas. She said that she’s never run out of gas but there are times she’s taken her foot off the gas pedal while trying to find a gas station. Leahy couldn’t believe that they didn’t have drivers and she said there are 30 people on shows and that wouldn’t be possible and thought there was no other way. Like even minor league teams have buses that take everyone to and from the games and pay for hotels on the road and here they are with a $900 million and soon to be $1.2 billion a year company and don’t have that. Leahy asked about their CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) and Bayley acted embarrassed for a second but did manage to get the subject changed talking about how the people you travel with you create bonds and friends for life with. After the interview was posted, Leahy even tweeted that she’d love to help them with their next CBA, not realizing just how far WWE talent is from getting a CBA. But to me, the big news wasn’t the interview, but that FS 1 took down the interview after it garnered controversy. It’s really sad but not surprising. FS 1 fired Ariel Helwani from UFC Tonight when he had done a great job on the show, simply because for whatever reason, one day Lorenzo Fertitta wanted him off the show. Now, there is a qualifier as UFC Tonight was presented as an FS 1 look at UFC, and FS 1 had some control over it, but as it turned out, Helwani’s check actually came from UFC and not FS 1, which is a separate issue. UFC has a level of controlling the narrative that they want, but nothing like WWE. We already saw with Jonathan Coachman and ESPN when ESPN agreed to do WWE segments weekly on ESPN News, how they ran from any real news or controversy, and after Coachman’s embarrassing performance on Twitter after he ran down the concussion lawsuit by claiming he’d had dozens of concussions (which hardly came across as a defense) and made up a story about how all the ex-WWE wrestlers are paid enough by WWE every year to pay all their bills and all Vince asks is that they come to WrestleMania weekend and sign autographs, which was flat out ridiculous. When those statements were exposed as ridiculous, and Coachman’s embarrassing defense on Twitter followed, ESPN ended up canceling the WWE segments. Coachman said he was giving up that segment and as it turned out, the segments disappeared. Coachman was part of the next cuts (and ended up back in WWE). But UFC Tonight on its own station was Edward R. Murrow compared to the WWE segments on ESPN. WWE will be getting a talk show on FS 1, and it’s just inevitable some story will break and at least we know FS 1 is not likely to adhere to any semblance of actual reporting when they have the party under contract

An interesting stat regarding Raw and Smackdown viewership. For the 7/8 and 7/9 shows, 37 percent of WWE television viewers watched Raw and Smackdown, 43 percent watched only Raw and 20 percent watched only Smackdown

The company is opening a Talent Brand Management department. The idea is to directly oversee all branding (this would include social media) of talent on platforms both with WWE and outside WWE. You know, like companies do with all independent contractors. They will work to establish a clear identity for the individuals, grow their brands both inside And outside of WWE, manage external agencies and parties representing WWE talent (this is a key ne), establish ways to track growth of talent brands, establish rate cards for talent outside of WWE working, and establish new opportunities for talent. They are looking for a Vice President and a Director to head the division. The heads of the department will report to Stephanie McMahon, who hasn’t overseen an actual department since she left creative

Braun Strowman, 35, has signed a new four-year deal

WWE failed to get the Emmy nomination for Raw that they had pushed for in the category of Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Well, not that this played a part in it, because I’m sure it being pro wrestling would have made it difficult to begin with, but the show this past year was about as far from outstanding as the distance between the Earth and Alpha Centauri

Jeff Hardy, 41, was arrested on 7/13 at a hotel in Myrtle Beach, SC. Hardy was charged with public intoxication when officers responded to the Ocean Enclave by Hilton Grand Vacations at about 11:15 a.m. that day with the report of an intoxicated man who was passed out in a public stairwell. Hardy smelled of alcohol, didn’t put up any resistance and admitted to have been drinking Vodka. Police arrived and arrested Hardy and he was booked into Myrtle Beach jail where he was arrested later in the day on $153 bond. It’s considered like a ticket and it won’t be on his record and the case is considered closed. WWE made a statement on his arrest saying, “Jeff Hardy is responsible for his own personal actions.” Because Hardy is so popular and everyone likes him, despite having a track record, he has not been pressured into getting help. Hardy had failed two drug tests in WWE, had some major issues with Impact most notably being impaired before a PPV in show which led to an abortive main event with Sting and just after leaving WWE in 2009 was arrested on charges of trafficking in controlled prescription pills and possession of anabolic steroids when a search of his home fond 262 Vicodin pills, 180 Somas and 55 milliliters of steroids as well as a residual amount of powder cocaine and drug paraphernalia. Hardy eventually pleaded guilty and spent 11 days in jail in 2011 and was fined $100,000. He had an incident in the Nashville airport where he appeared to be intoxicated on the day after a WWE show and wasn’t allowed to get on the plane and fly home, although he was not arrested. He was arrested in 2018 for a DUI after an auto accident. Hardy right now is on leave from WWE after reconstructive knee surgery. It was not a good message when after his problems he appeared on a Table for 3 episode on the WWE Network and was drinking and they were kind of making fun of his issues like is was comedy. That DUI last year, especially given his track record, should have been a sign for the company to at least attempt to get him treatment, although the company’s policy on DUI’s across the board of late has been to ignore them and issue the same pat statement

The WWE’s second quarter investors call takes place on 7/25 which is where they will release the key financial info. It’ll be interesting if they still break down WrestleMania and non-WrestleMania attendance for the quarter, because that’s where you get the real Mania paid number (it was 68,900 the last time they sold out at MetLife so the number would be expected to be that large this year as well). The key is if they don’t break it down, because of Mania, it would hide the expected decline in attendance better. If they break it down separately, the expected decline would be more obvious. The key thing is if they make any remarks about the U.K. television deal with BT Live. Investors were expecting big increases for the India and U.K. deals. For all belief, India’s increase will be huge. But with the popularity decline in the U.K., and Sky passing on the deal, they didn’t have much leverage and BT hasn’t been paying big figures for sports rights. In addition, it’ll be interesting how moving to a service in far fewer homes will be explained. Obviously it’ll be interesting how Heyman and Bischoff are categorized since really, even though it’s pushed like a new position, they are really in roles similar to what HHH and Road Dogg and others had as people with influence but it’s still Vince’s game. Other topics will be if any of the callers bring up AEW, and if the expected decrease year-over-year in network subs (something that has never happened before) will be asked about. We already know the ratings decline. In the past two calls, the ratings and attendance declines were addressed first that they know it’s an issue but they know the issue and know how to fix the issue so it will change. So that’s six months that there has been no fix or change. Three months ago it was blamed on injuries or illnesses to key talent, and that got a mixed reaction as everyone in wrestling saw through that since Reigns had already returned and the attendance didn’t rebound. But in the investment world, they did parrot that line. But now it has to increase and it won’t. The last call led to a huge decline in the stock price. Long-term, the reality is the company is in great shape, but the argument is that even so, the stock price may be too high. But the real challenge will be in six months, because the big stock price was based on India and U.K. increases and that all categories, like attendance, merchandise, licensing and ratings will go up because the weekly Friday night show on FOX will lead to a boom period for the company. While FOX will hotshot early and promote hard and they’ll get off fast, by the end of the year they will level off to whatever lever they are going to be at. If it’s more than three million viewers that would be a positive. If it’s closer to two million, then FOX probably isn’t leading to a domestic boom period

Bischoff was not at Raw or Smackdown this week. He actually started at work on 7/17. He ended up having no influence on Smackdown this past week and right now those in creative were told that he will most likely not be involved with the creative process and that it looks like his job will be to interface with all of the departments in the company as well as with FOX. However he is to be the leader of the Smackdown side of things, which currently has no leadership, just Ryan Ward and others pitching ideas to Vince. Things were a mess this past week since at first Bryan was supposed to be in the Battle Royal no Raw, then pulled for a big announcement that would take place on Smackdown about his career. This was pushed hard all day in social media and even talked about multiple times on the show. Then all that happened was Bryan being frustrated that he was unable to elevate the tag team belts higher. New Day came out and offered Bryan & Rowan their tag title rematches and Bryan & Rowan came out, left, came out, left and then came out and left. And then the show ended without any such announcement

Morgan’s promo time, loss to Charlotte and promo after losing about how she’s got to be real is to lead to a new character and a new look. I always saw, dating back many years, marketing similarities between Morgan and Paige VanZant in UFC, and even though VanZant was a mediocre fighter, UFC was able to market her into a major star and drawing card (her getting on Dancing With The Stars helped but she was on the way either way) while WWE, which can control outcomes, never got anywhere with Morgan. Part of it was Morgan debuting as a heel when that character has to be a babyface to work

There is a definitely a movement to change the silliness of how they keep having to do run-ins and create reasons that mean little storyline wise to stop matches when they have matches go through a commercial break. They actually did, with the long women’s match on Raw, have the first match on Raw since the new doctrine where they wrestled through a break. They did two breaks in that match and the second break was silly as when they were down to the last two in the women’s match, they literally stopped the match for three minutes to take a break

Paul Heyman for Raw is trying to go with the idea of having backstage interviews have less of the fake dialogue and come across more realistic, and that there would be more consequences, essentially what AEW promises with the idea that wins and losses will matter and that angles won’t just be forgotten and dropped, and if someone gets hurt one week they won’t be fine the next week. Obviously with Strowman, that was barely the case, as he was supposedly gravely injured, missed one week of TV, and returned selling nothing. Wrestlers for the last 15 years have complained about how they’ll do a big match and want to sell the beating the next day on Raw, and Vince will allow mid-card guys to do that but when the top guys want to, Vince nixes it because the guys he wants to protect he doesn’t want to have on television appearing to be weak

Tamina suffered a concussion at the 7/12 house show in Augusta, ME. I believe her match was stopped and they were giving her medical attention in the ring. It’s funny because when Dr. Chris Amann called the office for his report, he sounded more concerned about how this would all blow up on social media because they tended to her in front of the fans

There was a report that Harper is going back on the road. If that’s the case, it’s a secret since key people in the company don’t know it, nor do those close to he say that he’s heard a thing. He’s pretty much been told nothing since the decision was made not to use him in early April when Vince didn’t like his match with Dominic Dijakovic

Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee ray for the NXT U.K. women’s title was the first match announced for the 8/31 Takeover show in Cardiff, Wales, a show put together to combat New Japan’s Royal Quest the same day in London when WWE got bad info on New Japan ticket sales and thought the show was going to bomb

Dwayne Johnson was at the Performance Center this past week. No word as to what. His daughter Simone has trained and may still be training there

Bliss wrote that the sinus infection she’s been dealing with over the last two weeks was maybe the sickest she had ever been in her life

Mickie James had successful reconstructive surgery on her right knee on 7/16 in Birmingham. This will be her first major surgery in a 20-year career, which is a remarkable stat. Her doctors estimated mid-April for her return

Tickets go on sale on 7/19 for the Raw and Smackdown shows on 9/9 and 9/10 in Madison Square Garden. I would expect an instant sellout for Raw since it’s the first Raw taping in ten years. It wouldn’t shock me if Smackdown also sells out but that’s not as much of a given. It’s funny because they’ve run Raw at the Prudential Center and the old Nassau Coliseum in recent weeks, drawn 8,000 at both buildings, yet MSG, because it’s MSG, will sell out instantly. They are pushing Rollins vs. McIntyre as the main event for Raw and Kingston vs. Orton for Smackdown

Jiro Kuroshio (real name Sojiro Higuchi), who has been working mostly with Wrestle-1 in Japan, but is one of the most talented of wrestlers in that country, was part of the recent tryout in Shanghai

The stock closed at press time at $72.08 per share, down even though the market itself is on a strong run. The company’s market value right now is $5.626 billion. It should remain steady until 7/25, and then, depending on how the conference goes and how Wall Street reacts to the key numbers

The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Table for 3 with Hardys and Shane Helms; 2. WWE Extreme Rules; 3. Evolve 10th anniversary show; 4. ECW Gangstas Paradise 1995; 5. WWE Chronicle: Ricochet; 6. WWE Then and Now: Hardys; 7. NXT from 7/10; 8. WWE 24: Batista; 9. NXT U.K. from 7/10; 10. 205 Live from 7/9

Notes from the 7/15 Raw show at NYCB Live. The show was very good until the women’s match that lasted forever, and the Battle Royal with all the top stars felt rushed. It had the misdirection finish that seems to be the finish of every Battle Royal. Rollins seemingly eliminated both Reigns and Strowman, only to find that Orton was never eliminated. But Rollins came back to eliminate him to end the show. They drew 8,000 fans. For Main Event, Brooke pinned Logan after a senton. The other match was EC 3 & Eric Young over O’Neil & No Way Jose. Raw opened with Lesnar and Heyman out. Heyman said he told everyone last week that his client was going to cash in the contract and told you during the show. He made a reference which got a pop saying that “I’m the one with the stroke around here right now.” He made a joke about the soon-to-be-fired production team and called Corbin “the most popular athlete in Long Island.” He announced the ten guys in the Battle Royal. Reigns was saved for last and seemed to get the biggest reaction, but the top reactions were Reigns, Orton, Rollins and Strowman. Zayn got no reaction. He said that Rollins started out last night as a stud but left as a gelding, and then told people to Google it because he’s not here to educate people in Long Island. Ricochet & Usos won 2/3 falls over Revival & Roode. Ricochet pinned Hawkins in:23 with recoil, which is the one legged codebreaker since the term codebreaker is banned. Dawson pinned Jimmy Uso in the second fall with a flapjack in 3:15. The third fall was 2:46 with Ricochet escaping from the DDT by Roode, hitting the recoil which Roode took this exaggerated bump for, and then hit the 630 on him for the pin. Styles, Anderson and Gallows came out. Ricochet did a dive on Styles. Anderson & Gallows attacked Ricochet. The Usos got involved. The Usos gave Anderson and Gallows double superkicks. Roode snapped Jey Uso’s neck on the top rope and The Revival gave Jey the shatter machine. Styles used the phenomenal forearm on Ricochet who took a great bump. Anderson & Gallows laid out Ricochet with the magic killer. Viking Raiders beat Jackson James &N Vinny Bruner in 1:21 with the Viking Experience on James. McIntyre went backstage and confronted all the prelim guys and told Alexander that he was going to eviscerate him tonight. Alexander pinned McIntyre in 3:18. The match story was that McIntyre threw Alexander around like he was nobody. Alexander did open doing a running flip dive. McIntyre went for the Alabama slam but Alexander turned it into a front rolling cradle for the surprise pin. This stuff is all about the follow-up. Usually in WWE when they do these things, the star gets his win back the next week and nobody gains from it. They did open a door for Alexander that he hasn’t had. Balor and Joe did interviews building a match. Joe had a black left eye. Reigns did an interview saying that this was his week, winning the ESPY, being on the red carpet with Dwayne Johnson for the premiere of Hobbs & Shaw and then teaming with Undertaker to beat McIntyre & Shane and he said it would continue winning the Battle Royal. Joe pinned Balor in 1:23 with a crucifix pin out of nowhere. Joe attacked him after and started choking him. Balor made a comeback and used a Woo dropkick and the coup de grace. They were playing Balor’s music and the lights went out. When they came back on, it was Wyatt in a clown mask and he laid out Balor with Sister Abigail. That spot got over big. Wyatt came across like a major player in that mask. Maverick was checking into a hotel under the name Mr. 24/7 to consummate his marriage. Renee Michelle, his real-life wife said that she wanted the most romantic room and most expensive champagne. He was up for that. He paid it all in cash and gave the guy at the desk a big tip. R-Truth showed up and went to the guy and asked if Hornswoggle had checked in and gave him $1. Evidently that was a bribe enough since R-Truth ended up in the room. The Street Profits were watching all this on TV. Angelo Dawkins admitted having a crush on Nikki Cross. Ryder pinned Mike Kanellis in :07 with the Rough Ryder. Maria continued to berate Mike. Actually Maria tried to wrestle in the match saying she would have a better chance of winning than he would. They stopped her since she was pregnant. Afterwards she said that her unborn child had a better chance of winning a match than Mike, and then she walked off. Styles & Anderson & Gallows first went to one of those nonsensical no contests with Kalisto & Metalik & Dorado in 2:42. Ricochet came out after Styles. He was pulled off and the match was stopped so they could go to a commercial. They did the match a second time. It was good action. Metalik & Dorado did a double tope and Kalisto did a flip dive. Kalisto did a springboard to Anderson, who caught him and gave him a spinebuster. Anderson actually lose him and had to power him up. Anderson used the boot of doom on Kalisto and Gallows kicked Dorado. Styles beat Kalisto with the calf crusher submission. Rollins did an interview saying he was hurt but he was a man possessed last night. He said Lynch will be okay but didn’t know if she would be on he show. He said that Corbin found out what happened when you push a man too far. That was an interesting inside joke there. Natalya won a four way elimination match over Bliss, Carmella and Naomi in 23:25. This went forever and the crowd turned on it bad, with any negative chant you could think of except AEW. The key one was a barrage of “This is awful” chants to the point that Bliss went right on Twitter after saying the crowd was disrespectful. Lynch came out to watch the match. Not sure why they had Rollins even bother saying he didn’t know if she’d be here. It’s not like her pop would be any bigger and it just made Rollins look like a geek. Carmella superkicked Naomi and Natalya, but then Bliss cradled her to eliminate her in 3:01. The match wasn’t that big, but it was dragging when the crowd turned on it. They booed kicking out of near falls since it meant the match would keep going. Natalya pinned Naomi in 17:18 by reversing a sunset flip into her own cradle. Then they stopped the match for three minutes to do a commercial break. When they came back, with Bliss vs. Natalya, to make sure people cheered Natalya, Cross started yelling at the fans for not cheering Bliss. Fans were chanting “You suck” at Bliss. Natalya attacked Cross, but also managed to get the sharpshooter on Bliss for the submission. Charly Caruso came to the ring to interview Natalya after the match. Natalya said “Lexi sucks,” which is Bliss’ real first name. She said what a difference a year makes, saying her life changed so much (due to her father dying) and said it would be dream to face Lynch at SummerSlam in Canada. She talked about how she and Lynch were friends. Lynch came out and said she may be her friend, but she’s not her friend in the match. Lynch said that she does a lot better in war than in love. Natalya said, “You must not be a very good lover, bitch.” Natalya said she was going to pull the red mop off her head take the horseshoe out of her ass and kick the living hell out of her. That was Natalya instead of doing overly scripted WWE speak doing somebody else’s character Heyman speak. It was just weird to see. Ziggler was on Miz TV. This seemed to be the catalyst for yet another Miz character change. When they did the brand split, before it was dropped, Miz was supposed to be one of the key faces on Raw, but the Shane feud ended up burying him. So now they have to undo that. Ziggler called him a yes man who reads off a Teleprompter. Ziggler said Miz was a guy just happy to be in WWE, not caring about proving people wrong. He asked if it was worth it to kiss everyone’s ass and still not get ont he PPV. Miz said he’d rather not be on the PPV than be on it and lost to Owens in 17 seconds, and said that was Goldberg bad. Ziggler told Miz that he’s become everything that he hated, he’s a walking gimmick T-shirt for the show in Long Island. Ziggler told him that he’s not from Long Island and he’s not from Hollywood either, he’s from Cleveland has become a walking yes man T-shirt selling logo and that he’s everything that’s wrong with the business. He said that all Miz cares about is fortune and fame and that’s all his wife cares about as well. Miz attacked him at that point. Next they went to Maverick’s hotel room. He put rose buds on the bed and had flowers on the be. He came out wearing nothing but his 24/7 belt. She was wearing a robe and kind of appalled he was wearing the belt. Then the guy delivering the champagne came in the room, and wouldn’t leave. Maverick told him to leave. He took off his shirt and had a referee shirt underneath. Maverick freaked out thinking R-Truth was there. He looked under the bed. Finally R-Truth came from the try the waiter came and cradled Maverick, who actually kicked out at two. Then R-Truth did a splash onto Maverick on the bed and pinned him and left with the belt. The impression is that not only did Maverick lose his belt but he still hasn’t consummated his marriage. Graves said that if he was in the room he’d have utilized the small package. Renee Young just lost it and started laughing uncontrollably. Next was the Battle Royal with Lesnar and Heyman on the ramp watching. The match went 7:44 so it was just one guy does a few offensive moves to shine and then he gets tossed. This was supposed to be the top ten contenders, but you had Mysterio who in his last match got beat in a minute, Cesaro who lost on PPV while Black, who beat him, wasn’t in, Zayn who hasn’t been pushed, Lashley who was destroyed in a last man standing match (who did come out with tape on his shoulder and his waist). And then there’s Corbin who the night before lost a match to where if he lost he could never challenge for the title, and was in a match that next night to set up he next challenger for the title. I guess the excuse is that he’s not challenging Rollins for the title and that the stip only mattered when Rollins was champion, although that was never explained. Lashley pressed Cesaro over the top rope and he was out. Strowman threw out Lashley. Big E gave Strowman the big ending. Orton gave Big E the RKO and Zayn threw out Big E. Orton did the RKO on Zayn. Mysterio hit the 619 on Zayn and Orton threw Zayn out. Orton hit the RKO on Reigns. Corbin threw out Mysterio. Reigns did a drive by and Rollins hit a superkick and threw our Corbin. This left Rollins, Reigns, Strowman and Orton. Orton disappeared. Reigns speared Rollins when Strowman moved. Strowman and Reigns were fighting near the ropes and Rollins recovered and eliminated both of them. Orton then attacked Rollins from behind and gave him a draping DDT. Rollins came back with a curb stomp on Orton and threw him out to get the title shot and Rollins said he’s become champion at SummerSlam

Notes from the 7/16 tapings in Worcester, MA. The show seemed largely built around Owens vs. Shane for SummerSlam. The best match was the 205 Live bout with Gable vs. Jack Gallagher, a rematch of their great bout several weeks back that was never followed up on after they had screwed up the finish. Gallagher was counted out when he failed to get in the ring in time and that was not the planned finish but the ref called it as a shoot, as they are instructed to do. I figured it was a great excuse to do it again, but then Gable stopped appearing on 205 Live and they started him on Smackdown lurking around backstage in an angle that was then dropped and he was back on the witness protection program list with Harper and The Ascension. People raved about it and it was a very good technical match to be sure, but really it was similar to a Young Lions prelim level bout in New Japan, just twice as long, and with less heat and explosiveness of movement. The crowd was mostly dead for the match but it was one of the better technical bouts you’ll see in a WWE ring. The crowd was 3,000 which is another weak Tuesday. The dark match opener saw Heavy Machinery beat the B Team with the trash compactor. Smackdown opened with Shane with security waiting for Owens to arrive. Shane told Owens he was having a team meeting but he wasn’t going to allow insubordination like Owens did last week, so told him to go home and take the day off. Shane noted he was Owens’ boss. Owens said he signed his contract with WWE, not with Shane. Shane said that his family owns WWE so he’s his boss and he’s not going to allow Owens to speak more lies and untruths about him in a public forum. Next we had Shane in the ring with the roster of the roster except Owens on the stage. Reigns was the first guy to talk and he said that nobody in this room respects you. Shane said he was fining Reigns. Charlotte kissed up to him and talked about how the McMahon family has been great to her since she was a child. Morgan then called Charlotte a phony and asked “Is there anything real about you?” The one thing we know is if there wasn’t, WWE would have people hinting to her that they’ll pay for any needs to have something not real about her. Charlotte countered noting the color of Morgan’s tongue that she hardly can call people not real. So this was Morgan’s turn. Murphy kissed up to Shane saying he wanted a match with Owens. Crews then talked and said he agreed with what Owens was saying. Vega then said Crews was trying to kiss up to the WWE universe. Elias started talking. Kingston said that Owens made some good points even though he doesn’t like Owens. Shane had Kingston’s mic cut out. Cesaro then said he wanted a rematch with Black on the show. Shane agreed to it. Owens showed up from behind Shane in the ring. Next was hilarious. Owens went for the stunner but Shane took the bump way early. So it was Shane taking this bump like he was in bumping practice and a second later Owens, who isn’t even holding him, dropped down like he was giving a stunner to nobody. Owens to his credit immediately realized how bad it looked and gave Shane a second stunner that looked fine. Later in the show, when they aired the highlights in the repay, they edited out the botch. Black pinned Cesaro in 6:21 with black mass. This was fine, but nothing close to their PPV match. Ziggler was backstage with Shane. He wanted a match with Owens. Shane said that Owens was gone. Ziggler said he’d make calls and get Owens back for the main event. Later in the show, Ziggler was talking to a ref to get Owens’ phone number and evidently called him to return for a match. Bryan said that his dream was to upgrade the tag team division to where they could be the main event and he failed. He said he would make a major announcement later, which never happened. Flair beat Morgan in 2:22 with the figure eight. Morgan was all distraught after losing and said that he’s leaving and when he comes back, she’s going to be real. Ziggler was calling up Owens. Moon picked Bayley as her mystery partner against Rose & Deville. Moon & Bayley won in 1:35 when Moon hit the eclipse on Rose and pinned her while Bayley laid out Deville with the Bayley-to-belly. Bayley was in the ring talking about who gets the next shot and she offered the SummerSlam shot to Moon. Nakamura was doing an interview when Ali showed up, so that’s the new IC title program. New Day came out together. Big E said he was going to spoil Bryan’s announcement and offer them their tag title rematch right now. So I guess the doctrine that champions no longer get automatic rematches that Shane said a few months ago is now forgotten since Big E basically said it was they can get their rematch tonight. Bryan & Rowan came out. Then they left. Then they came out a second time and left. Then they came out a third time. Bryan dropped he mic and left. Joe was out. He still had the black eye from the Kingston match on Sunday. Joe wanted a title shot at Kingston. Elias came out and said Joe had gotten his shot and it didn’t work out. He wanted a shot. Orton then came out and said he wanted his shot. The way they shot Orton, Joe and Elias, it looked like Orton was Kevin Nash standing next to Dean Malenko. Elias then said that we all can’t all get a title shot tonight so why not do a six-man tag against The New Day. Everyone seemed agreeable except Orton, who said he wasn’t interested and went to leave. Kingston started making fun of Orton, saying that he used to be The Viper but now he’s gone a little limp. So Orton agreed to the match. Joe & Elias & Orton beat The New Day in 9:24. They noted this was the fifth anniversary of the formation of The New Day as a team. I can just imagine how many writers made suggestions in that period to turn one on the other two, or to turn then back heel over the last few yeas. This was very good for the time allotted. They pushed Kingston vs. Orton as the as the focal point. Woods did a running flip dive on Joe. Joe then got the choke on Woods while Elias took out E with a running knee. Kingston went for Trouble in Paradise on Elias, but he barely got off the ground and got him to the side of the body. As he turned around, Orton gave Kingston the RKO and pinned him. R-Truth was hiding in the arena in what appeared to be a washing machine. Carmella wanted to take him to Comic Con (in San Diego) this week. R-Truth said he had already served his time (he spent time in prison for a felony many years back). He said he had paid his dues to society. He tried to get out of the washing machine, which wasn’t easy. Anyway, it sounds like they’re going to tape some 24/7 title stuff at Comic Con this week. Sane & Asuka beat Royce & Kay in a title match via count out. Asuka hit Kay with a spin kick and she went out of the ring immediately. She was about to get back in, but then figured out she could save the title by a count out. So she just didn’t get in the ring and was counted in 1:28. Unless you were indoctrinated in American wrestling, the whole idea of this is beyond preposterous. One, it’s stupid and second, why doesn’t every heel do it in every match? Asuka & Sane beat them up after the match and Sane gave Royce the insane elbow. Paige and Asuka & Sane were celebrating in the ring. Paige was wearing super high heels. I guess the memo that the manager isn’t supposed to appear seven inches taller than the people they manage doesn’t count when it comes to women. Crews pinned Andrade in :51. This was like Alexander vs. McIntyre the day before but only shorter. Andrade attacked him before and mostly beat hi down but Crews used a crucifix to get the pin. The main event was Owens vs. Ziggler which went to a no contest in 6:30. Owens hit a superkick and a swanton. Shane came out with McIntyre, Elias, The B Team, Benjamin, AOP, Nakamura, Cesaro, Murphy, Cesaro and Andrade to surround he ring. In the distraction, Ziggler hit the zig zag but Owens kicked out. Ziggler threw Owens’ shoulder into the post twice but he missed a superkick and Owens hit the stunner. Shane pulled Owens out of the ring so he couldn’t get the pin. Owens gave Shane another stunner and ran away with the res of the heels chasing him. Shane said that Owens was going to pay bad. 205 Live opened with a Gulak promo who said the show was hurt by Nese as champion because Nese couldn’t lead a division. Akira Tozawa pinned Samir Singh with a sunset flip. Sunil tried to interfere but Brian Kendrick stopped him. The Singhs attacked Kendrick & Tozawa after, but Kendrick & Tozawa made a comeback. A Humberto Carrillo interview played. The focus was on English saying Carrillo was a great athlete and good looking, and that he was part of a wrestling family. In the end, the video didn’t make you care about him. Mike Kanellis, without Maria, beat Jackson James with crossroads. Maria wasn’t with him but was backstage watching. Mike called out Maverick. He told Maverick that he could have gone to any wrestling company in the world but he stayed with WWE. Wait, wasn’t he introduced as the guy who wrote greeting cards that Maria married who wasn’t a wrestler? Mike said he stayed to show Maria he was a good wrestler by winning the cruiserweights title. He also said he wanted to kick Maverick’s as. Maverick said Mike needs to blame himself for his failures. Basically both cut promos on each other to establish just how much of geek they are both booked to be on Raw. Mike called Maverick a joke. Then he insulted Maverick’s wife. Maverick punched him and dropkicked Mike out of the ring. Gable pinned Gallagher in 16:08 in a **** match. Well, on the sliding scale I guess because a strong technical match that long with no heat would get less than that anywhere else. I thought it flowed better than Styles vs. Ricochet on the PPV and was better wrestling and didn’t feel rushed, but not as explosive as Black vs. Cesaro in battles of great matches with quiet crowds although this crowd was quite a bit more quiet. Gable came out looking like he was swimming in baby oil like he was American Nakazawa. There was no reaction except two guys chanting boring for what was anything but that. More boring chants. Gallagher hit a tope. Gable was supposed to catch him and German suplex him on the floor in the same move. He didn’t catch him so it was two moves. At 11:30, you could see that some in the crowd recognized it was a good match but most were still indifferent to it. Gable went for a moonsault but Gallagher got his feet up. Gable ended with the clean pin with a Chaos theory suplex. The three announcers stood up and gave both guys a standing ovation and put over how wonderful the match was. There were fans at ringside standing but most were just standing and not clapping. Gallagher’s timing was superb here and Gable is a phenomenal talent being underutilized. English even brought up how Gable is one of the best wrestlers in the world but hasn’t been given chances at singles titles. Nigel McGuinness didn’t act like he was held back saying he’s held tag titles on every brand he’s appeared on. The post-show dark match saw Reigns pin McIntyre with a spear in 10:00

The NXT tour opened 7/11 in Winter Haven, FL before 250 fans. Rik Bugez pinned Dexter Lumis. Karen Q beat Deonna Purrazzo, who had Chelsea Green in his corner. The Outliers, Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss managed by Robert Strauss, beat Cezar Bononi & Babatunde. Bronson Reed beat Saurav. Tyler Breeze pinned Shane Thorne. Damien Priest beat Jordan Myles. Killian Dain pinned Mansoor. Shouldn’t winning the biggest Battle Royal in company history lead you to a championship opportunity, or a title shot if this was real world speaking? Shayna Baszler & Marina Shafir beat Lacey Lane & Kacy Catanzaro. Adam Cole pinned Keith Lee to retain the NXT title

7/12 in Largo, FL, drew a sellout of 450 fans even with it raining all day. Rik Bugez pinned Angel Garza. Garza is one of the best guys there and got over big on television but they beat most of the guys often at the house shows when they start. It really doesn’t matter long-run. Babatunde beat Mo Pharaoh, who is the former Mohamed Fahim. He’s a 28-year-old boxer from Cairo, Egypt and wore boxing trunks instead of tights and tried to do a boxer gimmick. Babatunde won with a side slam. Brendan Vink pinned Mansoor. Bronson Reed pinned Shane Thorne. Neither guy got much reaction coming out. The Street Profits kept the tag titles over Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake. Strong match. Ford won with a roll-up. Aliyah & Vanessa Borne beat Lacey Lane & Karen Q. Matt Riddle pinned Ridge Holland, the former Luke Menzies. Holland is doing an old-time tough guy pool hall type of gimmick. Riddle won with a cradle forward tombstone. Main event saw Velveteen Dream over Roderick Strong in a hot match with a Death Valley bomb

The final weekend show on 7/13 in Citrus Springs, FL, before 250 fans. Bugez pinned Vink. Lacey Lane & Kacy Catanzaro beat Taynara Conti & M.J. Jenkins. Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak beat Denzel Dejournette & Mohammed. Cezar Bononi beat Nick Comoroto. Comoroto should be getting a new name imminently. Keith Lee & Jordan Myles beat Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. Damien Priest pinned Isaiah Scott. Io Shirai pinned Karen Q. Main event had Velveteen Dream & The Street Profits beat all three members of the forgotten son (Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker)

Raw opened on 7/12 in Augusta, ME before 1,500 fans. It also ran 7/13 in Springfield, MA before 4,000 fans

The only Smackdown brand house show of the week was 7/13 in Petersburg, VA, just outside of Richmond, which drew 3,000 fans, but that was with two-for-one tickets the last week. 7/15 in Poughkeepsie, NY drew 2,000

Augusta, ME, opened with Hawkins & Ryder over the Revival via DQ in a tag title match. They did the same thing they did last week where it wound up with the Viking Raiders hitting the ring and the Usos making the save. That ended with Hawkins & Ryder & Usos over Revival & Viking Raiders. No Way Jose pinned Rawley. Rawley demanded another opponent. This led to O’Neil coming out and of course he pinned Rawley as well. The led to Rawley yet again demanding another opponent. Strowman came out and powerslammed Rawley in seconds. Naomi & Brooke beat Tamina & Logan. This was the mach where Tamina got hit with a knee and got the concussion. Ricochet pinned Cesaro to keep the U.S. title with a

shooting star press. Alexander pinned Roode with a lumber check. Evans pinned Natalya with the women’s right. Main event saw Rollins over Corbin in a street fight to keep the Universal title with the curb stomp. Evans interfered to try and help Corbin win the title

Springfield, MA was mostly the same show. The only changes were that with Tamina out and Lynch added to the tour, they had a women’s four way where Natalya won over Naomi, Brooke and Logan, and Lynch retained the title over Evans. Everything else was the same. The eight-man tag was said to be really good. The crowd cheered Roode over Alexander. They didn’t react at all to Alexander. Brooke got a better reaction than one would expect given her lack of television time. In the Rawley scenario, the crowd was more into No Way Jose than you’d think given his television portrayal. But doing the three matches with Rawley, even though that scenario of a prelim heel losing over and over for comedy is a pat part of the live show, didn’t really work when stretched to three bouts. Jose won with a roll-up. Rawley refused to admit defeat. O’Neil came out and beat him immediately with Clash of the Titus. Rawley again refused to admit defeat. The scenario had lost the crowd by this point but when Strowman came out, they popped, and Strowman powerslammed him in seconds. The crowd was into Rollins vs. Corbin and they had a good match. Same match they’ve been doing with Evans interfering but with Lynch on this show, she came out for the save and that got a hue reaction and Rollins won with the curb stomp

Petersburg opened with Bryan & Rowan retaining the tag titles over Heavy Machinery. Bryan was heavily booed and Machinery got a god reaction. Bryan rolled up Otis to win. After the match, Machinery laid out Bryan & Rowan and Otis gave Bryan the caterpillar. Kayla Braxton announced that Shane had banned Owens from the building, which of course, means he was doing a run-in. Moon pinned Morgan. All action and better than it sounded on paper with Moon winning with the eclipse. Rose & Deville attacked Moon after the match and Asuka & Sane made the save, leading to a tag match. Sane pinned Rose in that match with the insane elbow. Elias & Zayn insulted the crowd and were about to perform as a duet when E & Woods came out. This led to a tag match. Ziggler interfered for the DQ and Kingston made the save hitting Trouble in Paradise. This enabled the crowd to see Kingston while he also could rest up his back although they also advertised Kingston vs. Ziggler as the main event throughout the last week without ever making a change. New Day was the most popular act on the show. Ziggler was left in the ring and Owens came out and gave both Ziggler and Zayn stunners. I don’t recall Owens and Zayn having a split but I guess Owens turning ace again constitutes that. Bayley pinned Cross to retain the title. Bayley got a good reaction. It was first advertised as Bayley vs. Flair, and then Bayley vs. Bliss, but obviously Bliss was ill. Andrade & Vega came out for an interview. Maverick showed up. Is his real honeymoon over? Crews and Murphy chased after him but ended up fighting each other so he almost escaped. R-Truth and Carmella then came out. R-Truth had Maverick pinned but Andrade attacked and took out truth and Maverick was able to run to the back. Black then came out and he pinned Andrade. Both got big reactions. Short match got good action. Vega interfered several times attacking Black. Almost nobody knew they were married. Black won with black mass. With Kingston not wrestling, the main event became Balor winning a three-way over Ali and Nakamura when he pinned Nakamura after the coup de grace

Poughkeepsie was a skeleton show like no other. Bryan, Orton, Ziggler, Reigns, McIntyre, Big E and Balor were all advertised until the last week and then pulled to appear on Raw. The flip side is that something that would have been kind of a big deal when titles meant something, as WWE champion vs. IC champion, headlined the show. The show was still good, as most house shows are. It opened with Black pinning Andrade with black mass. Gable & Crews & Matt Hardy beat AOP & Dallas. Hardy, who got the biggest reaction on the show, pinned Dallas after a twist of fate. Even though he’s not doing the broken gimmick, he was doing all the “delete” stuff since there are less restrictions on stuff like that on a life show. AOP then got mad about losing and said they wouldn’t leave the ring. Heavy Machinery came out and beat them with the trash compactor. That match was said to have not gotten over. AOP is yet another example of how an injury can destroy you as they were getting a big push, and now they’re not even figured into TV. A four-way for the women’s title saw Bayley win over Moon, Rose and Morgan when Bayley pinned Rose with a schoolboy. Bayley got the biggest reaction but that was to be expected. Elias came out and ran down Poughkeepsie. Woods came out to shut him up. Well, first Elias and Woods sang “Knocking on Haven’s Door” together before Elias attacked Woods, leading to a match. Woods won a ropewalk elbow drop. Elias was complaining more after the match. Owens then walked to the ring and laid Elias out with two stunners. The first didn’t hit well so he did a second one. Ali pinned Murphy with a tornado DDT. Nothing special reactions. Asuka, with Sane in her corner, beat Kay, with Royce in her corner. Asuka got the pin after a kick. Main event saw Kingston retain the title pinning Nakamura with the Trouble in Paradise after a missed Kinshasa in a solid match.