June 1, 2015 Wrestling Observer

Newsletter: ROH to Destination

America, Bischoff sues TNA, UFC
Hall of Fame, and more
Wednesday, 27 May 2015 19:58

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 June 1, 2015
UFC 187 POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up 180 (100.0%)
Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
In the middle 0 (00.0%)
BEST MATCH POLL
Andrei Arlovski vs. Travis Browne 171
WORST MATCH POLL
John Dodson vs. Zach Makovsky 94
Colby Covington vs. Mike Pyle 15
Joseph Benavidez vs. John Moraga 9
NXT UNSTOPPABLE POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up 101 (71.1%)
Thumbs down 11 (07.7%)
In the middle 30 (21.1%)
BEST MATCH POLL
Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch 134
WORST MATCH POLL
Baron Corbin vs. Rhyno 64
Charlotte & Bayley vs. Brooke & Emma 24
Blake & Murphy vs. Cass & Amore 20
Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 5/26.
The situation with Destination America and pro wrestling took a unique turn on 5/27 with the
announcement that Ring of Honor would be starting on the station on 6/3, airing at 8 p.m. and
11 p.m.

The Wednesday time slot would be on the same night as TNA. TNA will continue the planned
airing from 9-11 p.m. While not confirmed, it is believed that TNA will retain a Friday night
replay, moving to Midnight to 2 a.m.
The ROH deal has been in negotiations well before the Discovery Network sent out its memo on
or around 5/11 that announced that they would be canceling TNA programming at the end of
September, although the deal itself was just signed this week. However, the announcement date
of 5/27 was scheduled for a few weeks, as the deal had been agreed to in principle but both sides
had kept it secretive.
TNA had scheduled a conference call with talent on 5/27 to discuss the story in last week's
Observer. Originally, when the story broke, TNA had said it would discuss it at the next television
tapings, which were more than a month away.
Later, they sent a message to talent stating: "It has come to our attention that several internet
news sources have falsely attributed statements to TNA, its executives and broadcasting partner.
These false statements constitute defamation and if necessary we will seek all legal remedies
available to us."
TNA was not aware of the negotiations with ROH by Destination America, nor of the contract
signing until Destination America announced it on its Twitter account just hours before their
talent meeting. Other sources indicated Destination America had also had talks with Jeff Jarrett in
recent weeks, who seems like the odd man out.
The ROH deal with Destination America is short-term, expiring on 12/2, so for now, this is
something of a experiment, The ROH show that airs in syndication in Sinclair Broadcasting
stations and a few other syndicated stations around the country on weekend time slots, which
will also air on Sunday nights on NESN as part of a new deal, would then air the following
Wednesday night on Destination America.
The NESN deal closed at the time same, to far less publicity. The ROH syndicated that airs over
the weekend will air at 8 p.m. Eastern on the regular feed of NESN (New England Sports
Network), as opposed to the non-New England feed that ROH had just started airing on a few
weeks ago. That deal goes into effect on 6/7.
As a sports network that carries local live sports programming, including the Boston Red Sox, the
show won't air in that slot when there is a conflict. I'm not sure in those weeks if they'll give it a
new slot or just not air it.
NESN is a major sports station in the Boston market, which ROH previously didn't have television
in. That NESN feed is on DirecTV and Dish Network, although it's on a premium sports tier in
both. NESN is available in four million homes in the New England area and five million more
currently have the sports tiers between DirecTv and Dish that also carry the station.
The upside of ROH is that it would cost Destination America less money than TNA, but they would
be able to, in theory, maintain the ratings that wrestling delivers. Or they could decide that the
synergy for the two products will boost numbers enough to not cancel TNA as planned. As noted
last week, there are a ton of moving pieces and this story is very much in progress.
Dixie Carter tried to claim the stories reported were false, and that they expected to be on
Destination America in 2016, but then deflected questions about whether or not they
contractually could be canceled at the end of September.
The wrestlers at the meeting were not happy because they felt overall Carter was being evasive,
and also it was hard to buy the idea that she was presenting that adding ROH to Destination
America was to their benefit. The keys to the talent question and answer period is that talent
complained that they wanted better lines of communications.

TNA does have a multi-year deal with the Destination America, but the station has an out clause
at the end of the current television season.
She also stated that all announced dates are still on the schedule and there are no changes in
plans.
Two weeks ago, the Discovery Network sent out a memo stating: "Destination America is not
renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large
enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to
air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015.
When the up-front rate card is released, the Friday night anthology title will now be called
'American Tales,' which will be a combination of Paranormal and Americana programming. I hope
this is good news given all of the advertisers that included TNA on their DNA list."
The DNA list is for when advertisers buy time on the station as a whole instead of just a specific
show, the DNA, or Do Not Advertise list, is something sponsors list for shows they specifically
don't want their ads on.
We had contacted Carter as soon as we received the information that the show was being
canceled for a comment or if she knew anything different. A week later, Destination America
announced, with no warning and after a month of television had been taped with references to
Friday's, that the show would be moved to Wednesdays. We had also contacted Carter at that
point asking if the move to Wednesdays meant a change at the Discovery Network. At the time,
the people who had received the original memo had not heard of any changes in plans for TNA.
So Carter was well aware for more than one week of the issue and that a story was likely to be
written and did not comment. She did not make an attempt to clarify it, or give her slant on it.
But then company officials Bob Ryder and Billy Corgan played attack the messenger. At no point
did the company actually address anything specific in last week's issue, but seemed trying to
confuse the issue and make it like this horrible guy was spreading lies about the company.
Ryder wrote: "For almost 13 years some people have predicted we were about to go out of
business. It's no more true today than it was then."
Of course, nowhere in the story did I write TNA was going out of business. I even made it clear
the story was still ongoing, only that the Discovery Network was planning on canceling TNA
programming.
Corgan, a rock star as the key man in the "Smashing Pumpkins" band and a long time wrestling
fan, wrote, "It wouldn't be so bad if the whole truth was being reported and the person reporting
wasn't being worked himself by a sloppy angle."
In other words, he was claiming there was an angle going on, which can only be presumed that
TNA creative is doing a storyline where they are about to lose television, and channel the spirit of
Brian Pillman. The only way this could be an angle would be to tell the Discovery Network to
release a memo, tell their key management officials, and alert their advertising department, for
an angle. Well, if that's the case, they should be proud that they managed to get the angle out.
The response was identical to last year, when Vince Russo accidentally sent a memo that was
meant for Mike Tenay, with bullet points on how to announce the show, and pushed the wrong
button on his computer and it went to wrestling reporter Mike Johnson of PW Insider. Johnson
then revealed that it was proof that Russo was working for TNA, which TNA had attempted to
keep a secret because Spike TV, its broadcast partner, had made it clear they didn't want to have
anything to do with Russo. It was right after that came out that Spike informed Carter they were
not renewing at the end of their contract, but also made it clear they would keep that information
quiet to allow her to have better leverage to make a new deal, and also because it doesn't serve
the station well to announce so far in advance that they have a lame duck show.

Corgan claimed to have read the story, saying, "For your info, I did read your highly irresponsible
piece. And as much as I love Vinny Ru, this is a different situation." The Vinny Ru comment had
to do with me saying to Corgan his excuse was identical to the one Russo used when Johnson
broke his story, and that Johnson was a dummy who had been easily worked by an angle.
Corgan clearly didn't read the Observer last week, most notably the part about himself, because
when it was then brought up, he clammed up.
While Carter avoided mentioning my name, Corgan went off on me in specific at the conference
call.
Similarly, Discovery was not planning on announcing TNA's not being renewed publicly, although
the station, a week after the story broke, had still not commented on the future or publicly given
TNA a vote of confidence.
ROH's syndication deal with Sinclair Network is mainly in mid-sized markets, and this gives them
television exposure in both some of their key live event markets like New York, Chicago and
Philadelphia, but also in major markets like Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. ROH had
been in talks with Spike TV about doing specials on the station but Spike, which had confirmed
the talks, had told us that nothing was imminent when it came to a doing a pro wrestling deal.
With its syndicated package, Destination America and NESN, ROH will clearly be the No. 2
wrestling company in the U.S. as far as exposure goes, unless Lucha Underground clears
Univision.
Joe Koff confirmed to us that the first four ROH television shows on Destination America will be
from the 5/16 taping in Toronto, featuring New Japan talent. The 6/3 show will have Kushida vs.
Will Ferrara, Silas Young vs. Takaaki Watanabe, Moose vs. Colby Corino and Mark & Jay Briscoe
vs. Donovan Dijak & J Diesel. It's actually from a marquee standpoint, a rather weak lineup for a
debut show.
However, the second show features Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Kyle O'Reilly in a
handicap match for the tag titles, Jushin Liger vs. Dalton Castle and IWGP tag champs Matt Taven
& Michael Bennett vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows. The third hour, which will serve as the Go
Home show for ROH's 6/19 PPV from New York, features the contract signing for the Jay Briscoe
vs. Jay Lethal double title match, as well as a great Hiroshi Tanahashi & Liger vs. ACH & Matt
Sydal bout. The 6/24 show, which will be the lead-in to TNA's go home almost live show, will be
the best of the taping, with Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and The Young Bucks & A.J.
Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Baretta.
There are many different ways this story can go. If ROH proves to do equal numbers as TNA,
while costing far less, that would affect a future decision. But TNA does have bigger names
mainstream and better production values, plus its big edge is their show airs first on Destination
America while ROH will have aired both in syndication and on NESN before it hits the station. In
addition, ROH will have the disadvantage, at least through 8/5, of going head-to-head with Lucha
Underground on El Rey. While that show does small numbers, the two groups are competing for
an overlapping audience.
Logically, the ROH numbers should not be as good as the TNA numbers. Will the difference be
large enough to where this makes TNA look good and saves them? It is also very possible that
the combination of both will help the numbers for both. But, as noted in the memo, there still is
the advertising issue.
ROH is planning on doing PPV shows on Friday nights from this point forward, so the go-home
show that airs over the weekend, and again on Wednesday, would build do the PPV. If the show
was on Sunday night, then the Wednesday show on Destination America would be hyping a show

that had already taken place.

Another big question, not answered at press time, revolves around Samoa Joe and the WWE.
Those at WWE had of late said that they were not interested in any TNA talent when their
contract was up (Samoa Joe was talked with and has a deal so it's a rule of sorts, but not an
unbreakable one) because they didn't want talent already exposed nationally on cable. WWE has
always considered that ROH talent did not fall into that category. Many wrestlers of late have
opted to go to ROH instead of TNA, even at better money offers. There are a number of different
reasons why, but a major one for younger talent was the feeling that going to TNA means it's
very difficult to go to WWE, the ultimate goal of almost everyone. ROH, given the success of Seth
Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, C.M. Punk and to a lesser extent Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, was
considered a route to WWE, as well as to New Japan.
Samoa Joe agreed to work for ROH for televised events and future dates when it did not have
national cable clearance. The entire dynamic has now changed. And because this change was so
sudden, at press time, nobody seemed to have any definitive answers.

***************************************************************
Even though the reality is Daniel Cormier has won a lot of big ones in his career, international
wrestling tournaments, six straight national freestyle championships, as well as events like the
Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix tournament and the Real Pro Wrestling world title, the
narrative of his career was being the guy who on the big stage always fell short when he faced
the all-time greats.
In college wrestling, Cormier went 0-6 against Cael Sanderson, arguably the greatest college
wrestler in American history, settling for a best finish of second place in the NCAA tournament. In
the Olympics, Cormier placed fourth in 2004 and in 2007, he placed third in the world
championships. In 2008, as the American team captain, his kidneys shut down trying to cut too
much weight to get to 211 pounds, and he was hospitalized during the competition, which was
the end of his wrestling career.
In MMA, he went 15-0, but lost on 1/3 to Jon Jones, generally considered the best fighter of this
era.
Cormier finally won the big one, the UFC light heavyweight title, but it was very much like
someone winning a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics in wrestling when the Russians boycotted.
The gold medal was real. But usually the gold medal signifies being the best in the world. That
year, it signified being the best of those who were allowed to show up.
Cormier beat No. 1 contender Anthony "Rumble" Johnson at 2:39 of the third round. Cormier
dominated the fight with his wrestling after nearly being finished with a punch that knocked him
down hard in the early seconds of the fight.
It's not surprising that his biggest career win led to people calling him a paper champion. Jones,
the man who deserves the title as the best in the world, was stripped of it after a series of out of
the ring incidents, climaxing with a felony leaving the scene of an accident charge. Jones is out of
UFC for the time being, a decision by management that has been lauded far more than criticized.
As happens in real sports all the time, the championship winner is not always the proven or
accepted best man, even though that is was the title is supposed to signify. Cormier said he was
happy, feeling the championship win ended his 15 years of being unable to win the real big one.
And after the win, instead of giving a thankful acceptance speech, a one sentence message that
will be replayed constantly if there is a next match: "Jon Jones, get your shit together because

I'm waiting for you." He then left the cage, leaving center stage to Johnson. Johnson, in humbly
admitting defeat to a better man, made himself a bigger star in losing. Johnson said that Cormier
talked a lot leading to the fight, but he backed it up, and he's a beast. He said that if he can give
people a lesson, it's never give up. There was an irony of saying this a minute after giving up.
Cormier did the more heartfelt speech, talking about how, just six years ago, he moved to San
Jose to start his career as a fighter. He, his girlfriend and his baby boy were living in a 700square foot apartment and on welfare. He didn't have enough money to buy gas. At one point,
his family, who had very little money themselves, pooled their resources and sent him $575
which allowed him to at least live until a sponsorship check arrived.
And then he flipped the switch, doing a pro wrestling-like angle with Ryan Bader, his probable
first title contender. Bader, mysteriously at the press conference, got into a shouting match with
Cormier, and charged the podium before security stopped him while Cormier said that fighting
Bader was easy money and that when he asked for a fight, he wanted the easiest guy in the
division, and he chose Bader. Bader was very lucky to get the decision over Phil Davis, who has
since left for a better money offer from Bellator. With Jones out, and Rashad Evans and Alexander
Gustafsson both injured, Bader feels like the next opponent because there's nobody else there.
Cormier will always have a shadow over this title reign, much like the days of Jimmy Ellis and Joe
Frazier as boxing world champions when Muhammad Ali was stripped of the title. If he keeps the
title, and at 36, age is not his ally, and Jones does return, that would be a big money fight. Until
then, I'm not sure there are big money fights in the division.
UFC 187 on 5/23 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was the company's deepest show of the year.
The top six fights all had significant title implications. As far as the top five fight main card, it
may have been UFC's best PPV show since UFC 139 in late 2011 (Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua
I and Cung Le vs. Wanderlei Silva).
When the dust cleared, you had new potential title matches at light heavyweight, middleweight,
lightweight, heavyweight and flyweight. And from a business perspective, the right guy won for
UFC in every instance.
Chris Weidman retained the middleweight title beating Vitor Belfort in one of three main card
fights where the winner ended up being knocked down and in trouble early, but coming back to
win.
This fight was more than a year in the making, as steroid controversies and injuries to both men
had kept Belfort out of competition since late 2013. When he came back, there was more
controversy. Belfort physically looked like a completely different fighter than the one who
destroyed Dan Henderson, Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping that year. He looked like a guy who
trained very hard who was 40 and off the juice. He was fit, but far smaller and not nearly as
toned. Weidman destroyed him once the fight hit the ground. Still, this wasn't without
controversy. Both men were both blood and urine tested for steroids. According to Weidman, the
day before the weigh-ins, he was told by Brett Okamoto of ESPN, that the blood test of serum
testosterone level showed his two tests were both at 370, which is a little below normal. Belfort
had one test at 500 and another at 1,200. Keep in mind this was a guy who supposedly needed
TRT, and used it for years, to combat dangerously low testosterone. In 2014, when supplying
tests in Nevada after TRT was banned, his levels dropped to the 200 range (normal ranges from
300 to maybe 1,150 with it being different for each person). However, because epitestosterone
levels are usually similar to testosterone levels in a normal adult male, Belfort's ratios were
totally normal. There is going to be a variance to a degree in repeated tests. Even if we accept
that the 200 range test was artificially low just coming off TRT, a 500, completely normal, would
be a surprise, and a 1,200 makes no sense. Still, he did not look enhanced. Weidman went off on
him at weigh-ins and outright called him a cheat.

The win seems to set up Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold. After Rockhold impressively beat Lyoto
Machida on 4/18, the post-match interaction with Weidman and Rockhold was strong to build
anticipation. Both talked about having the match in Madison Square Garden. Weidman after the
fight said he wants to fight in MSG bad, and didn't care if it was Rockhold or Ronaldo Jacare
Souza. But (see UFC section), the MSG situation is very far from a sure thing and very well may
not happen this year.
Dana White this past week has indicated it could be either one. There are all kinds of issues that
come into play, including whether Globo would take a fight (Globo, which draws more viewers
than any UFC outlet including FOX in the U.S. and is UFC's biggest paying television contract
except FOX) on its network, which it only does for Brazil. In the North American market,
Rockhold would mean more. With two wins over Anderson Silva, one over Machida and now
Belfort, Weidman has become the Brazilian killer, so there is that story. But from an American
perspective, Rockhold seems obviously to be the more anticipated match, and the suggestion
that Souza could get the shot got a lot of negativity. From a sports perspective, either one is fine.
Souza has a longer win streak, but Rockhold's win over Machida is more impressive than any
Souza win. Rockhold also beat Souza when he was Strikeforce champion, but that was 2011.
Rockhold's only loss since 2007 was an enhanced Belfort.
The heavyweight division had a surprise. In what may win fight of the year, Andrei Arlovski came
back from being knocked down hard, to finish Travis Browne in a major upset. The win was
impressive enough that it puts Arlovski with Stipe Miocic as the two guys next in line for the
heavyweight title shot against the winner of the 6/13 Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum fight.
From a marketability and story telling standpoint, Arlovski, whose career seemed over after four
straight losses from 2009 to 2011, could very easily get the next shot. Miocic is the better allaround fighter, but because he doesn't have the one punch knockout power, and isn't as good of
a wrestler, he feels like someone similar to Velasquez but not as good in any aspect. Arlovski at
least has the knockout power and footwork. While he'd be a huge underdog against Velasquez,
he does have the power.
Donald Cerrone won his eighth fight in a row, beating John Makdessi, when Makdessi quit after
his jaw was broken. This puts Cerrone as the next challenger for lightweight champion Rafael dos
Anjos. Cerrone after the fight talked about having the fight in Denver. UFC hasn't announced a
show in December, but the way Cerrone said it, they apparently have a tentative date in what
used to be Cerrone's home town and that's where he wants his shot. Cerrone is also the most
charismatic fighter in the division. It was also Cerrone's 13th stoppage, the most in Zuffa history,
and his 21 wins under the Zuffa banner are fourth most in history.
The win also made Cerrone one of the most popular fighters among the fighters themselves.
Makdessi is one of the key officers in a brand called Fear the Fighter, which has allegedly stiffed a
ton of fighters in sponsorship money.
Both top flyweight contenders, Joseph Benavidez and John Dodson, also won. Dodson, coming off
knee surgery, won a boring decision over longtime training partner Zach Makovsky. Benavidez
looked far more impressive in beating John Moraga. But Benavidez didn't campaign for a shot at
the title, while Dodson did. The company's plan was to give Dodson the shot provided he beat
Makovsky, but it was so unimpressive that you could make a strong case for Benavidez. From a
marketing standpoint, both will mean the same, so that's not a factor. Champion Demetrious
Johnson beat Dodson once and Benavidez twice.
The double championship show drew 12,615 fans to the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a gate of
$5,189,167. The gate was the seventh largest in UFC history, and beat both the Jones vs.
Cormier gate in January and the Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz gate on 1/31. Most of the tickets
were sold with the idea it would be Jones vs. Johnson and not Cormier vs. Johnson on top. The

only bigger gates have been UFC 129 (GSP vs. Jake Shields), UFC 148 (Anderson Silva vs.
Sonnen II), UFC 168 (Anderson Silva vs. Weidman II; Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate); UFC 167
(GSP vs. Johny Hendricks), UFC 100 (Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir) and UFC 66 (Tito Ortiz vs.
Chuck Liddell). Ironically, it really should already be moved down one more notch, because the
7/11 show is claimed by Dana White to have a $7 million advance and would already be in the
No. 2 spot.
Globo in Brazil aired the two main events on tape delay and did 2.2 million homes from 1:15
a.m. to about 2 a.m. On 1/31, when they aired Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz, they did nearly 4
million homes for a show that started at 4 a.m. on tape delay. That tells you the difference in star
power today in Brazil between Silva and Belfort. The Belfort vs. Weidman fight did 2.8 million
homes and a 13.0 rating.
The prelims on FS 1 did 780,000 viewers, which were slightly below the usual average, and not
that far up from the 710,000 from the 4/25 prelims show of a PPV headlined by Demetrious
Johnson vs. Kyoji Horiguchi. The show peaked for the John Dodson vs. Zach Makovsky TV main
event with 969,000 viewers. The post-fight show on FS 1 did 118,000 viewers from 1-2:30 a.m.
Because of the holiday we have almost nothing on PPV numbers, past the point indications, both
from a few contacts and that info is also the same based on trending patterns, that it looks to be
disappointing, at least for me predicting 500,000 to 600,000 and it's coming nowhere close. Even
those in UFC privately felt that coming three weeks after Mayweather-Pacquiao would hurt it, and
early indications are way below the first three shows of this year, even with the two title fights.
While the Mayweather factor is huge, it also indicates that fans don't buy for card depth, and two
key title matches helps, but combination still means less than a big grudge match, two big draws
returning after long absences (Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz) or Ronda Rousey in her last fight
with no support (vs. Cat Zingano).
There was one last change as Nina Ansaroff, who couldn't get anymore weight off once she got
down to 120, then got sick hours before the show and was pulled out of her fight with Rose
Namajunas.
1. Justin Scoggins (10-2) beat Josh Sampo (11-5) via straight 30-27 scores in a flyweight fight.
The fight was pretty one-sided. Scoggins dominated the standup game in the first two rounds. He
knocked Sampo down momentarily in the second round. The third round was competitive.
Scoggins got $30,000 for the win and Sampo got $13,000 for the loss.
2. Islam Makhachev (12-0) beat Leo Kuntz (17-2-1) at 2:38 of the second round in a lightweight
fight. Makhachev, from Dagestan, came in with a lot of hype. He's a training partner of Khabib
Nurmagomedov. He lived up to it with a dominant win. He dominated the standup in the first
round with uppercuts and a head kick, as well as getting two judo takedowns. In the second
round, Makhachev got him down and took his back, and then got the choke. Makhachev got
$20,000 for the win and Kuntz got $10,000 for the loss.
3. Colby Covington (8-0) beat Mike Pyle (26-11-1) on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27 in a
welterweight fight. Covington dominated the fight with his wrestling. In the first round he got a
slam takedown and landed elbows and body punches from the top. In the second round, he got
another takedown and controlled Pyle on the ground with punches and elbows. Pyle was bleeding
from the left eye. Covington was controlling Pyle on the ground landing punches but nothing was
significant and the crowd was booing. Then Pyle started working for a Kimura, reversed to the
top and got Covington's back. Pyle was working for a choke and Covington was in real trouble,
but he escaped and ended up back on top. The crowd went nuts when Pyle nearly got the
submission in the third, but it was really dull aside from about one minute of that round.
Covington got $24,000 for the win and Pyle got $51,000 for the loss.

4. Rafael Natal (20-6-1) beat Uriah Hall (11-5) via split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and
29-28 in a middleweight fight. This was a big grudge as both are from the New York area and
don't like each other. The Brazilians loved Natal and the crowd was super hot because many had
seen their tempers fly at the weigh-ins the day before. Hall won the first round, landing a lot of
kicks, while Natal couldn't get the takedown. Natal got a takedown to start the second round.
Hall got up and slammed Natal, but Natal was up immediately. Hall took him down a second time.
Close round but I had it for Natal, making it even going into the third. To show how close the
third round was, Hall outlanded Natal 13-12. So it could have gone either way. I had Hall
winning. The crowd went nuts when Natal won because of the loud Brazilian contingent. Natal got
$70,000 for the win and Hall got $14,000 for the loss.
5. Dong Hyun Kim (20-3, 1 no contest) beat Josh Burkman (28-11, 1 no contest) at 2:13 of the
third round in a welterweight fight. Burkman started fast with throwing punches until Kim got him
in a clinch against the fence. Kim won the first round finally getting Burkman down and working
for a choke. In the second round, Burkman again came out fast with big punches, an elbow and
takedown. Kim reversed to the top and landed a lot of punches, and let him up and landed a
body kick. Burkman again came out first in the third round, and hurt Kim with a punch and
followed with a running knee. Crowd came alive for that. Kim took him down. Burkman tried a
guillotine but didn't have it. Kim escaped and was on top in side control. Kim then caught
Burkman in an arm triangle for the submission. Kim got $116,000 for the win and Burkman got
$45,000 for the loss.
6. John Dodson (18-6) beat Zach Makovsky (19-6) via straight 29-28 scores in a flyweight bout.
Fans hated this fight. The problem is these two have been training partners for six years, and
know everything about the other, so were each being overly cautious. This was also Dodson's first
fight back after knee surgery. First round sucked. Round was close for Dodson. Second round I
gave to Makovsky even closer. Each got a takedown. Makovsky landed a head kick and also went
for a heel hook. Pretty much nothing happened until the last 40 seconds. So it came down to the
third. Makovsky landed more, but nothing of significance landed and crowd was booing both guys
at different times during the round. When it was over, the crowd booed both a ton. This is not the
kind of win that should give someone a title fight, when nothing happened. Dodson got $40,000
for the win and Makovsky got $19,000 for the loss.
7. Joseph Benavidez (22-4) beat John Moraga (16-4) via straight 30-27 scores in a flyweight
bout. Moraga landed a head kick but Benavidez came back with punches that put him down. As
soon as Moraga got up, Benavidez took him back down. Moraga did an awesome overhead bellyto-belly and Benavidez followed with a high slam. First round was great action but the crowd
didn't really care about the two guys. The second round saw both swinging. Moraga landed a few
but Benavidez took him down and bloodied him up. During this round, Conor McGregor came to
ringside. The crowd went nuts, way more than when Ronda Rousey came out before the start of
the next fight. McGregor was super heel to the Brazilians. Benavidez ended the round in side
control. In the third round, both were swinging hard and Moraga got the better of it, but
Benavidez wouldn't back down. Benavidez got a takedown into side control and punched him
from the top for the rest of the round to win it. Benavidez got $106,000 for the win and Moraga
got $28,000 for the loss.
8. Andrei Arlovski (24-10, 1 no contest) beat Travis Browne (17-3-1) in 4:41. Big upset and a
fantastic fight. Arlovski hurt Browne with a right and was firing away with punches and hard
knees. Browne was in trouble right away. Arlovski missed with an overhand right that would have
been the death blow had it landed. Brown started coming back with hard punches but Arlovski
used a spinning punch and a right and Browne was in trouble again. Arlovski landed hard
punches, dropping Browne with a right and punching on the ground. Browne got up and Arlovski
was landing until Browne landed a punch from left field that dropped Arlovski hard. But Arlovski

got up with a knee and punches and Browne was in trouble again. Arlovski landed an uppercut
and more punches until it was stopped. Arlovski had suffered a badly strained calf the day before
the fight, and it was recommended that he not fight and he was having trouble walking on it the
day before. Arlovski got $134,000 for the win including a $50,000 best fight bonus. Browne got
$110,000 for the loss including his best fight bonus.
9. Donald Cerrone (28-6, 1 no contest) beat John Makdessi (13-4) at 4:44 of the second round in
a lightweight fight. Cerrone came in with a rib injury and also was advised not to fight. Cerrone
came out faster than usual with low kicks. He also landed two head kicks. Makdessi's left leg was
all rasberried up early into the fight. Cerrone was landing kicks and knees and crowd was
chanting really loud for him. In the second round, Cerrone landed punches and high kicks. He
followed with all kinds of punches. Makdessi came back but Cerrone hit an elbow and landed
another high kick that broke Makdessi's jaw and Makdessi actually called time out, which is not
allowed in a fight, so the ref stopped it. Cerrone got $152,000 for the win and Makdessi got
$30,000 for the loss.
10. Chris Weidman (13-0) beat Vitor Belfort (24-11) to retain the UFC middleweight title in 2:53.
Another super fight. Loud dueling chants. Weidman went for a takedown and got stuffed. Belfort
tripped and went down and Weidman rushed in to jump on him and Belfort landed a haymaker
that knocked Weidman down. Belfort was landing punches and elbows. Weidman was bleeding.
Belfort landed a head kick, but then Weidman took Belfort down. He started pounding on him
from the top with elbows and punches. Weidman got back position and landed more punches. He
got full mount and was pounding Belfort's head against the ground and landing hard elbows
before it was stopped. There was a super loud "USA" chant as Weidman was finishing him off.
The two hugged when it was over even though they had very heated words the day before.
Weidman got $550,000 for the win, including a performance bonus and also got a cut of the PPV
revenue. Belfort got $300,000 for the loss.
11. Daniel Cormier (16-1) beat Anthony Rumble Johnson (19-5) to win the vacant UFC light
heavyweight title in 2:39 of the third round. Johnson decked Cormier immediately, but Cormier
recovered and took Johnson down and just rode him. Johnson got up and Cormier suplexed him
down. Cormier then took him down a third time. Johnson got up and landed several shots and
Cormier had trouble getting the takedown. Cormier was swollen near the right eye and drove him
into the fence. Both were swinging when the round was over. In the second round, Johnson
landed knees and punches. He threw a high kick that allowed Cormier to get underneath him and
picked up Johnson and slammed him. He went for a Kimura but never really had it. He started
throwing punches and again went for a Kimura. He landed elbows and punches and again tried
for a Kimura. Cormier was really taking him apart late in the round. Johnson had a hard time
getting up after the round and going to his corner. He came out with punches and kicks. Johnson
then, suprisingly, took Cormier down and got his back. Cormier reversed and got Johnson's back
and choked him out. Cormier got $230,000 for the win including a performance bonus. Johnson
got $500,000 for the loss.

***************************************************************
With shoulder injuries to Sami Zayn and Hideo Itami forcing changes in the NXT Takeover
Unstoppable card, WWE brought in Samoa Joe, under that name, to debut at the end of the
special, on 5/20 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL.
Joel Seanoa, 36, was brought in on a very unique deal. It's a non-exclusive deal, very similar to
that of Rhyno, with very few restrictions. He may also not be the last talent brought in with this
kind of a deal, although I can't name anyone else who might get it, but it's not like a guy like

Rhyno in 2015 would have been anyone's mind, and it seems to have worked out. The NXT
audience will pop for an outsider, and a veteran can help teach the younger guys in the ring or
add to the television show. For Joe, he can be a main eventer in NXT, and I'm sure his per date
number is good. But they didn't make the big commitment financially for someone that for
whatever reason, they didn't offer a full-time deal with right now. Seanoa shot a staredown angle
with Kevin Owens, and then worked television that night, building for a match that is expected to
air on the 6/17 NXT broadcast. The staredown ended in a pull-apart, to keep the story going.
The deal included a Samoa Joe T-Shirt, which sold out of its initial stock immediately. He gets to
keep the name, since he's not appearing on WWE TV right now, and the contract is for limited
NXT dates, meaning he can continue to work independently. Seanoa had originally given word he
couldn't take any indie dates after April, a timetable that had continued to be pushed back, which
figured that his WWE debut was delayed. He was now taking dates through August. The new deal
allowed him to work just about anywhere he wants. Originally, he was looking at starting later in
the year with ROH, like September, when the nature of the unique deal allowed him to still work
ROH and he started looking at getting new dates going forward. But that's been moved up as
he's starting back at the 6/20 TV tapings in New York. We're told he's had talks and even recently
spent time with the people from New Japan. He also could get offered a full-time WWE deal.
Right now the word in wrestling is that he can't commit to anything full-time from another group
for the short-term window. WWE could sign him full-time at any point, which would end his
working for other groups, and right now, WWE has first priority on his dates. Even though one
person described it as the Rhyno deal, except for more money, this is a first unique WWE deal
because it's been years since they would take someone and push him (granted, at this point only
on their network, not their regular TV), using the person's old and established old ring name but
also allow him to work almost anywhere. It's a test case and if it works out well, others that are
good wrestlers that they may not right now be thinking main roster for, could be offered similar
deals for NXT because the NXT buzz depends far more on big personalities and great matches.
Right now it's cool, but it also really doesn't have much depth, as even the big special they did
only had two matches the slightest bit out of the ordinary.
While we have not been told the deal excludes TNA, in another deal that was similar, the person
talked with was told he could wrestle anywhere except for TNA. There was little chance right now
that Seanoa was going to return to TNA, anyway.
Joe came out to music somewhat similar to his TNA music, and confronted Kevin Owens, after
Owens had laid out Sami Zayn with a power bomb on the ring apron after a short and intense
brawl.
He did mic work after the show saying he heard that NXT had the best pro wrestler (using that
term) so he was there. They did their first match for airing on the 6/20 NXT show, which ended in
a no contest. The next NXT Takeover show is set for 8/12, and based on this show, it would be
expected that Owens defends on that show against either Joe or Finn Balor, who won the No. 1
contenders match over Tyler Breeze.
Zayn was scheduled for surgery for a torn rotator cuff in Birmingham by Dr. James Andrews on
5/26, and is expected out of action for several months. Itami also had his similar surgery with
the same team. Earlier in the show, they showed him on the ground by his car, holding his
shoulder. Owens was shown in the vicinity, trying to hint he was responsible for that injury as
well.
The show was similar, or perhaps even the weakest of the NXT specials to date, which still made
it a good show, but not the blow away great show some of the prior specials have been. The
undercard was solid, but nothing felt like more than just regular matches except for an excellent
women's title match with Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch and a good Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

short match. The match was what it needed to be given Zayn's injury and where it had to go
from there. They worked a shorter match with less in the way of moves.
The show drew the usual sellout of 400 fans. WWE oversold the building both this night and the
next night, so people who had purchased tickets ahead of time couldn't get in. The first night
there were reports we got that they sold about 700 tickets and the usual allotment of tickets for
students at Full Sale University were not available. The same thing happened the next night,
although far fewer were turned away. One person described is as not enough people handling
that aspect and there were miscommunications. But you can imagine people who came from long
drives and had tickets and could not get in. There were several dozen people who stayed, waiting
in the lobby, figuring if people left, they'd be allowed in to fill their seats.
After the show ended, fans were chanting "Thank you Steph," and then started chanting for Mick
Foley, who was also in the crowd.
1. The Vaudevillains, Aiden English & Simon Gotch beat Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder in 5:00.
This was a dark match. The Vaudevillains were the huge babyfaces.
2. Finn Balor pinned Tyler Breeze in a No. 1 contenders match in 11:02. Before the match
started, they showed a parking lot angle where Itami was on the ground, writhing in pain. The
idea is he was attacked getting out of his car, and then Owens walked past, so the idea is also
that we're supposed to believe Owens did it but we don't have proof. Breeze did a ring entrance
with a bunch of women all dressed up in a fur coat like he wears in his entrance taking selfies.
The women were all developmental women who haven't made TV yet, and CMLL's Sarah Stock
(Dark Angel/Sarita in TNA), who has been brought to the Performance Center a couple of times
has a guest coach teaching women some Mexican style. Balor did his big entrance which led to a
"That was awesome" chant. Match was solid, but felt more like a house show match than a big
show match. Breeze undid the padding on a turnbuckle and Balor hit the exposed metal, and
Breeze hit his beauty shot (spin kick) finisher, but Balor kicked out. Balor did a plancha off the
entrance stage, which looked to be a about six feet high. Balor won with a dropkick and the
double foot stomp (coup de gras). **3/4
3. Charlotte & Bayley beat Emma & Dana Brooke in 6:51. Emma has a new look. The idea is to
make her hotter, different hair and different costuming. There was a line about teaching Emma
not to commit misdemeanors which was funny. The finish saw Charlotte pin Emma after the
Natural Selection while at the same time, Bayley gave Brooke the Belly-to-Bayley. **
They showed several new wrestlers in the crowd. The crowd didn't react to any until they showed
Uhaa Nation. They never acknowledged him in commentary past the group of newcomers, since
he doesn't have a name, but the crowd chanted "Uhaa" at him.
4. Baron Corbin pinned Rhyno in 7:11. Rhyno was very aggressive and looked good here and
carried this to a better match than expected. The one glitch, when Corbin was supposed to take a
bump over the top and didn't get over, instead of repeating the move or the hesitation and
waiting, Rhyno just clotheslined him over the top. It was an instinctual reaction of thinking of it
like he was in a match, instead of thinking next spot or next move. Rhyno went for the gore but
got hit with a clothesline and the End of Days for the pin. **
5. Blake & Murphy retained the tag titles over Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady in 8:51. Blake came
out with his hair in pig tails, which is a different way of trying to get heat. The crowd now sees
the Enzo & Cass & Carmella ring entrance as a signature spot on every show. Murphy & Blake did
a double team power bomb into a back stabber on Amore, which was a cool move. Amore was
beaten down and nearly out when he made the hot tag. Cass cleaned house. Cass hit the
sidewalk slam on Blake. He then basically carried his lifeless tag partner to the top rope where he
was going to use the rocket launcher onto Blake. Alexa Bliss, who had been a face up to this

point in her career (although there was a TV vignette which teased her going with Blake &
Murphy), then attacked Carmella. This distracted Cass. Murphy superkicked Cass. Amore was the
leg guy and Bliss tripped him while he was on the top rope and he crotched himself and fell into
the ring and Blake pinned him. Blake, Murphy and Bliss celebrated together. Blake & Murphy
needed a woman for potential three on three matches. Even though Bliss has as traditional a
babyface look as you could have, it's developmental and everyone should try a multitude of roles
and learn to work both ways. **1/4
6. Sasha Banks retained the NXT women's title, beating Becky Lynch in 15:28. Great
performance by both women, physically, mannerisms and facial expressions. Byron Saxton was
acting like Banks had an ego problem because she thinks she's a better wrestler than the
Fabulous Moolah. She's like ten times better. Banks worked over the left shoulder. She used an
armbar on Lynch that the crowd wasn't buying. Lynch used the one-armed Gotch lift into a back
suplex. That spot always works and I can't recall seeing a woman do it. Lynch worked on Bank's
arm, including suplexing her on her arm and giving the arm a leg drop, as well as an armlock
with her feet and a Fujiwara armbar. Banks came back with a tope. The idea was for Lynch to
catch her in mid-air and then Lynch to slam her onto the ring steps. Lynch fell over in trying to
make the catch, but then picked up Banks and dropped her on the ring steps. Crowd gave both a
big reaction when it was over, singing Lynch's theme music. ****
7. Kevin Owens retained the NXT title with a no contest with Sami Zayn in 7:00. This was just a
fast brawl, since it wasn't so much a match, but a fight with clear destination of Zayn having to
be laid out in a short match and setting up Joe coming out. Owens came out wearing a Cena Tshirt. Zayn should have taped up his shoulder coming in since the whole storyline was him
coming in injured. Fans were chanting "John Cena sucks." Zayn backdropped Owens on the floor
and also hit a half nelson German suplex in the ring for a near fall. He did a rope walk into a DDT,
but Owens blocked the DDT and used a backbreaker, until missing the cannonball. Zayn gave him
the exploder into the turnbuckle as well as an exploder on the floor. Finally Owens power bombed
him on the apron. This is where it kind of got screwed up. Owens was beating on Zayn and the
refs started pulling him off. They should have had the original ref stop the match, ring the bell,
and Owens keep beating on him. This way, since the bell never sounded, Owens had him hurt
and everyone was stopping him from winning. Logically, this made no sense. Owens kept working
on him. William Regal, who plays the General Manager, came out, and he pulled Owens of by
ribbing the nose. Owens then head-butted Regal, who flew out of the ring. Owens hit Zayn's
shoudler with a chair until Samoa Joe's music played. The place went totally nuts for Joe. They
built the anticipation of Joe vs. Owens, and Joe got in Owens' face, and Owens backed down and
left. ***

****************************************************************
With wrestling being more and more about brand building and exclusive contracts, a show that
featured talent sent by several different promotions on the same stage is a rarity.
But AAA worked with groups like ROH, TNA, Pro Wrestling NOAH, All Japan as well as its Sister
promotion, Lucha Underground, as well as brought in outsider independents for its World Cup
show sponsors by Grupo Modelo, the parent company of Victoria Beer.
The one night tournament took place on 5/24 at Los Palacios de los Deportes in Mexico City,
drawing 14,000 fans in a 17,000 seat set up (thousands of seats were blocked off by the stage
lowering capacity) for a show won, not surprisingly, by what was billed as The Dream Team, Rey
Mysterio Jr. & Myzteziz & Alberto El Patron, beating Team USA of Ken Anderson & Matt Hardy &
Johnny Mundo in triple overtime.

The wrestling was hit and miss. There were all kinds of style clashes and flow clashes. While
there were ton of dives all night long, a lot of the time it felt like watching American style
wrestling playing before a Mexican audience. The flow of Lucha Libre and American style were
different, but it was clearly a Lucha audience and not a WWE audience, given the huge reaction
to the Mexican legends team in particular.
The show started with all the participants around the ring while the Mexican army played the
national anthem. AAA, like TNA, have a knack for shooting crowds well, as this crowd of 14,000
looked tons bigger than any non-WrestleMania crowd WWE has, even though that sized crowd
would not be unusual for a PPV or a major market Raw. It had the feel of the 30,000 crowd of the
UFC show in Stockholm earlier this year, which is probably why so many thought the crowd was
larger than it really was.
It was an eight-team one-night trios tournament, with all matches with 15:00 time limits. If a
match went the time limit, each team would pick a member and they would have a 5:00 singles
match. If there was no fall in the time, then two other members would have a singles match. If it
went through the triple overtime, which never happened, there were legends used as the judging
panel. They used the time limit frequently as part of the storytelling of the matches, but in the
end, never went to the judges.
To play up how important the World Cup was, there were no referee bumps, no heel refs
(although there was an unintentional ref screw up), no low blow finishes, no outside interference
and no dissension. On the AAA team, they had Psycho Clown and El Texano Jr., who have had a
huge feud for more than a year, work on the same team and didn't even tease problems. An
edited version of the show will air on 5/31 on Televisa Ch. 5 in Mexico, at 3 p.m. Central time,
which is the station UFC airs on and the station Lucha Underground is in talks with. It would be
the strongest station to air wrestling in Mexico.
Of the non-regulars, AAA officials like ACH, Drew Galloway, Brian Cage and Johnny Mundo the
best. Cage has been working on top here already and Mundo was about to start on major shows.
Interestingly, given the start of a TNA/AAA relationship of late, is that Jeff and Karen Jarrett were
at the show, and Jeff did a confrontation with Alberto El Patron. Matt Striker and Vampiro did the
English language announcing. All of the guys brought in were making it clear that they are in
charge of their own bookings and would like to work dates here. While nothing is official, the
impression I was given is ACH and Galloway were both under consideration.
A group of legends were introduced first, Dos Caras (the father of Alberto), Fantasma (whose son
was also in the tournament), Canek, Villano V, Villano IV, Cien Caras, Universo 2000 and Mascara
Ano 2000. Also introduced with them was television announcer Arturo Rivera, a fixture since the
inception of the AAA promotion. I'm not sure if a few of them were judges or all of them were
judges, as they were all sitting together, but it ended up a moot point. Of the group, Cien Caras,
65, got easily the biggest reaction. He also looked much younger than you would think, having
only aged slightly since his heyday, whereas his brothers were almost unrecognizable.
1. The Dream Team of Alberto El Patron & Rey Mysterio Jr. & Myzteziz beat Team NOAH of
Yoshihiro Takayama & Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori in 13:38. Takayama doesn't even work for
NOAH. Big reaction for all three members of the Dream Team as you'd expect. Takayama reprised
the famed Frye/Takayama spot from their legendary MMA fight, working with Alberto. The
announcers (I listened in Spanish since Hugo Savinovich is a great announcer and Matt Striker
isn't) put over Takayama as the Japanese Giant, and he was a few inches taller than Alberto.
Some cool stuff but it never got that heated. Ishimori did a 450 to Mysterio's back and Alberto
had to save. The finish saw Mysterio did a silla (Thesz press) off the apron on Kotoge, Del Rio
superkicked Takayama and Myzteziz made Ishimori submit to La Mistica. The crowd went nuts for
the finish. **3/4

2. Team ROH of Brian Cage & Moose & ACH drew Team AAA of El Texano Jr. & El Hijo del
Fantasma & Psycho Clown in 15:00. This was the match with the screwed up finish. The booked
idea was for Cage to pin Fantasma after a clothesline with one second left in the match. However,
the NOAH ref, Nishinaga, was assigned to this match which created a problem since he spoke
Japanese and the wrestlers spoke either English or Spanish. Something got lost in the translation
as Cage hit his mark perfectly and Nishinaga counted to two and then held up the count,
apparently thinking that wasn't the finish. Everyone stood there and the time ran out. Cage and
Fantasma continued wrestling and cage power bombed him and pinned him and Nishinaga
counted three, but it was at 15:16. Konnan, who booked the finishes of the show, came down
and basically explained that they couldn't very well count that pinfall since the scoreboard had a
clock counting down which also appeared on the broadcast and everyone knew the time limit had
expired, even though they kept going and counted the pin. So he ordered Cage to face Texano
and to beat him in a few minutes. Well, that got lost in the translation. This could have been the
best match on the show, even with the obvious style clash, but the screwed up finish probably
kept it from winning. Moose did a high dropkick on Texano to start the match. The Spanish
announcers multiple times during the card compared ACH to Mexican legend Dorrell Dixon, a
Jamaican bodybuilder who was a huge U.S. star in the early 60s feuding with Buddy Rogers
before making Mexico his home. They did a series of dives that included ACH doing his jump to
the middle rope and flipping over the top on everyone, followed by Fantasma doing his usual
great tope. Cage followed with a moonsault off the top rope to the floor. Moose did a crossbody
off the stage (looked about 5 feet off the ground) onto everyone on the floor. It was funny
hearing a German suplex called suplex Aleman. ***
3. Brian Cage pinned El Texano Jr. in :26. So much for the few minutes. Cage power bombed him
twice, once in the turnbuckles, and then clotheslined him for the pin so Team ROH advanced.
4. The Legend team of Blue Demon Jr. & Solar & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Team All Japan of Tiger Mask
(Koji Kanemoto) & Kenzo Suzuki & Masamune in 12:16. Suzuki is actually the only member of
the team from All Japan. Wagner Jr. was really over. Suzuki looked like a giant compared to the
other five. Solar, who is 59, looked really good for his age as far as his ability to move and
physically. But he and Masamune had problems working together. There was some cool mat
wrestling but the match wasn't smooth at all. Kenzo, Tiger mask and Masamune all did dives,
with Masamune's being a running corkscrew dive. Wagner then started dragon screwing all three
Japanese guys. Demon speared Masamune and beat him with something called and somewhat
resembling a scorpion deathlock. **1/4
5. Team TNA/Lucha Underground of Ken Anderson & Matt Hardy & Johnny Mundo drew Team Rest
of the Mundo (that's what they were called) of Drew Galloway & Angelico & Mesias in 15:00.
Galloway was really aggressive when he came in early, including doing a belly-to-belly superplex
starting from the tree of woe position on Hardy. With no Mexicans in the match, it was hard to
get heat. Even though Mesias is a heel in AAA, the crowd cheered him the most because he's the
guy they knew. Angelico did a dive over the post, but nothing crazy like he's been doing in Lucha
Underground. Mundo did I think was supposed to be a 450 splash off the top rope to the floor
with a bodyblock on Angelico, but more hit it like a shoudlerblock. Mesias did a tope. Galloway
then did a running flip dive on everyone. They went to near falls. The finish was messed up. The
clock was counting down the final ten seconds. The ref was standing there counting the seconds
ticking down while Galloway covered Hardy. They timed it perfect as Galloway covered him with
two seconds left but the ref ignored the wrestling and was standing there like a cheerleader
counting down the time. **
6. Johnny Mundo pinned Drew Galloway in 4:20 so Team TNA/Lucha Underground advanced.
Crowd was dead for this even though both wrestled well. Galloway did the white noise off the
middle rope for a near fall. Morrison won with a split legged moonsault to the knees. **1/4

7. The Dream Team beat Team ROH in 14:40. Very good match, probably the best on the show.
Moose did the Okada deal where he dropkicked Mysterio off the middle rope to the floor. Cage did
a Cesaro style power superplex on Mysterio. The crowd was really into Alberto vs. Cage
particularly when Alberto hit him with a tope. Alberto suplexed Cage twice on the entrance ramp
and then suplexed ACH on the ramp. He was then outside the ring and threw the Mexican flag on
Jarrett, who was doing commentary. Cage power bombed Mysterio into the post. Alberto gave
Moose a double foot stomp. Moose did a triple-team power bomb on Alberto and also speared
him for a near fall. Myzteziz did a tope through Mysterio's legs onto Cage & ACH on the floor.
Mysterio then hit both with an Asai moonsault. Alberto superkicked Moose and put the armbar on
with 28 seconds left, and Moose struggled but finally tapped out. ***
8. Team TNA/Lucha Underground beat Team Legend in 7:49. Not much to this as a semifinal.
Matt did a moonsault on Demon for a near fall. Demon did a tope and Wagner did a flip off the
apron. Solar vs. Mundo was not smooth. Mundo did a shining wizard on Solar and pinned him
with the moonlight drive. *3/4
9. They announced that Team ROH and Team Legend would wrestle for third place in a singles
match. This got confusing as they announced it would be ACH vs. Wagner. But then the match
started and it was Demon vs. ACH, which went to a 5:00 draw. With just 25 seconds left, Demon
grabbed a chinlock, which made no sense. ACH hit a 450 but time ran out. *3/4
10. Brian Cage pinned Dr. Wagner Jr. in 2:05 to give Team ROH third place. Nothing much to this.
Wagner got a near fall with La Magistral. Cage won clean with the F-5. Wagner then did a
stretcher job and claimed the next day he was seriously injured as a way to save face for losing.
Crowd booed a lot seeing Wagner get beat. It made sense from an AAA booking perspective since
Cage is challenging Alberto for their world title next. *
11. The Dream Team drew Team TNA/Lucha Underground in 15:00. It was an American style
match and the work style wasn't connecting with the crowd early, but they loved The Dream
Team, so it's not like the rooting interest wasn't there. They were into the near falls and cared
greatly about who won, with the crowd hot the last two minutes. The one thing is when guys like
Hardy and Anderson did their usual near falls, the crowd didn't know their moves so didn't react
like would happen in the U.S. So even though Mexican crowds are hotter, this match would have
gotten over more in the U.S. with moves like the side effect and twist of fate meaning more.
Time ran out before Mundo could hit the moonlight drive on Alberto after he'd taken a twist of
fate. ***
12. Myzteziz drew Ken Anderson over 5:00 in the first overtime match. They didn't work well
together. Anderson missed a swanton. Myzteziz did a splash off the top for a near fall. Crowd
popped for that. Anderson hit the mic check and Myzteziz kicked out at one right before the
finish. *1/4
13. Alberto Del Patron drew Matt Hardy in the second overtime match in 5:00. Still had a
problem with the crowd not knowing Hardy's moves, but this was a good match. Alberto kicked
out of the twist of fate. He used a superkick and put Hardy in the armbar with 15 seconds left.
This was built off the previous match where Alberto got Moose to tap out with an armbar in the
last minute. But Hardy held on until time ran out. **3/4
14. Rey Mysterio Jr. pinned Johnny Mundo in 4:47 to win the tournament for the Dream Team.
Good match, with them teasing heavily going the 5:00 and going to the judges for the first time.
The other members of the American team distracted Mysterio and Mundo got him from behind
and put the boots to him. Mysterio did a 619 and splash off the top right away for a near fall. The
crowd was going nuts for that. Lots of near falls, including Mundo hitting the moonlight drive.
Everyone expected it was going to the judges when Mundo was standing on the middle rope with
Mysterio in the electric chair, and Mysterio used a rana for the pin. Huge reaction to the finish as

the crowd very much cared about the Mexican team winning. ***
They then showed the trophies being engraved and then presented to the Dream Team. They had
a post-show awards ceremony.
Angelico won Best Move for his tope over the post.
The Dream Team vs. Team ROH won match of the night.
Mysterio, since he won the key match, was named Most Valuable Wrestler.
They then had a medal ceremony, giving Team ROH bronze medals, Team TNA/Lucha
Underground silver medals and The Dream Team getting the gold medal while they celebrated
waving the Mexican flag with "We are the champions" playing.
Overall I'd call it a good spectacle show. It had a great big show feel and was unique with so
many promotions participating. It felt like it was a big deal even though you didn't have the great
matches nor quite the spectacle of a WrestleMania or Wrestle Kingdom event.

****************************************************************
Eric Bischoff, Jason Hervey and Garett Bischoff filed a breach of contract lawsuit against TNA
claiming that the company owed the three of them $114,500.02 in unpaid salary.
Bischoff and Hervey sued on behalf of their entertainment company, Bischoff-Hervey Enterprises
(BHE). Their company was still under contract to TNA until the end of March and had not been
paid since the end of the year.
The lawsuit stated that TNA had the company under contract for $426,800 per year, which was
supposed to be paid monthly for their role as co-Executive Producers of the show. Bischoff and
Dixie Carter had a split a long time ago and he had not actually worked for the company at any
of the shows for a long time before the BHE contract expired. I believe Bischoff also had a talent
contract that expired some time back.
The lawsuit claimed that BHE was owed $101,500 for the first three months of the year.
Originally, the BHE contract also called for Garett Bischoff to be paid as part of the BHE deal.
Later, on October 24, 2012, Bischoff signed a separate wrestler contract with a base pay of
$26,000 per year, plus $500 per appearance. His contract expired on 3/31. The lawsuit claimed
he had not been paid his base pay since September. He is asking for his $13,000 base pay
between that period and the end of his contract.
According to the lawsuit, which was reported on by prowrestling.net, BHE was being paid
regularly through September. They did not get paid for October and on 11/4, sent TNA a letter
that the money was late and said they had 20 days to rectify the situation or they would take
legal action. This dragged out but on or around 1/1, TNA sent BHE a check for $101,500 which
would have covered October through December.
But that was the last check they sent.
Based on legal letters in the filing, it appeared that TNA's defense was that BHE had refused to
appear as requested and thus TNA felt they no longer had an obligation to pay him.
A legal letter from Bryan Lewis, the attorney for BHE, stated that "When the money was sent,
you did not make it clear whether ti was in connection with the settlement offer that was on the
or a reinstatement by TNA. TNA did not make a request that BHE perform services when the
money was sent."

Lewis stated in his letter that BHE was willing to perform under the terms of the agreement in the
event TNA is willing to reinstate the agreement.

***************************************************************
The UFC announced B.J. Penn, Bas Rutten, Jeff Blatnick and the second Matt Hughes vs. Frank
Trigg fight as the 2015 class of its revamped Hall of Fame.
The inductions will take place on 7/11 in Las Vegas, at the Fan Expo that takes place the
afternoon of the UFC 189 PPV show headlined by Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor for the
featherweight title and Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald for the welterweight title.
In an attempt to legitimize its Hall of Fame, starting this year, and through 2017, there will be at
least one person or persons inducted in four categories, contributor (Blatnick), fight (Hughes vs.
Trigg from April 16, 2005), Pioneer fighter (meaning career starting prior to 2001, this year being
Rutten) and Modern Fighter (career starting after 2001, must be at least 35 years old for
induction, this year being Penn).
Penn, Rutten, Hughes and Trigg will be there to accept the induction. Lori Blatnick, the wife of
Jeff, will be there for her husband, who died of heart failure after what was expected to be a
routine minor heart operation on October 24, 2012, at the age of 55.
Penn, 36, was the first American ever to win a gold medal in the World Jiu Jitsu championships.
He was signed to what was at the time the biggest money contract ever for a lightweight fighter,
even though he had never had an MMA fight, largely because so many fighters in the gym,
including Frank Shamrock, raved about how he would dominate the division.
After three wins, including an 11 second victory over Caol Uno, he was expected to beat the UFC
lightweight champion Jens Pulver, but lost a close five-round decision on January 11, 2002. After
Pulver left the UFC to fight in Japan, Penn faced Uno in a rematch on February 28, 2003, for the
vacant title, in a fight that went to a five-round draw. The UFC dropped the lightweight division
and Penn moved to welterweight, where he defeated Hughes on January 31, 2004, via choke in
4:39, in Las Vegas, to win the championship.
However, Penn then signed a more lucrative contract with K-1 in Japan, and vacated the title. At
the time, the heat was such with UFC that it was said he would never return to the organization.
During that period with K-1, Penn did a no weight limit fight with Lyoto Machida, where Machida
weighed 225 and Penn weighed 191, with Machida winning via decision. But at the time it was a
big part of Penn's legacy that he would face anyone, regardless of size. Later, when he returned
to the UFC, he would ask for a shot at the heavyweight title.
He returned on March 4, 2006, losing a split decision to Georges St-Pierre.
After Sean Sherk was stripped of the lightweight title for failing a steroid test, Penn beat Joe
Stevenson via choke on January 19, 2008, in Newcastle, U.K., to capture the vacant title, which
he then retained against Sherk.
Next came the biggest fight of his career on January 31, 2009, a rematch with St-Pierre, where
the lightweight champion was moving up to welterweight. It was also the first UFC Prime Time
build-up with three weeks of specials on Spike TV, leading to the fight doing 800,000 buys on
PPV. At the time, that number was unheard of in MMA for fighters of that size, and rarely for
fighters of any size. It was that build up that really made both St-Pierre and Penn into major
drawing cards for the next several years. But St-Pierre was too big and retained when Penn took
a terrible beating and it was stopped after the fourth round.

Penn lost the title in a close fight to heavy underdog Frankie Edgar on April 10, 2010, in Abu
Dhabi. At the time, Penn had an almost mythical aura about him. While St-Pierre clearly beat
him, the belief was that nobody of his size could touch him, and when Edgar, a smaller man, beat
him, it was almost impossible to accept. The fight was close, but I had Edgar winning, as did
most, yet in time people would call it a robbery. Still, Edgar clearly won the rematch on August
28, 2010 in Boston.
But after a knockout of Hughes in their third fight on November 20, 2010, in Auburn Hills, MI,
Penn drew with Jon Fitch and lost his last three fights to Nick Diaz, Rory MacDonald and Frankie
Edgar. He was clearly still viewed as a major superstar in the MacDonald loss in Seattle, the fight
that really turned MacDonald into a star. But it was clear he was too small to fight welterweights.
He talked of retirement, and didn't fight for 18 months. He asked to come back and face Edgar,
and agreed to drop to featherweight, Edgar's division, for their July 6, 2014 fight. Penn clearly
didn't look himself in the fight and Edgar cruised to a third round stoppage, finishing his career
with a somewhat disappointing 16-10-2 record.
But Penn was one of the major figures in the growth of the sport, as his second fight with StPierre was a landmark, the first time a welterweight fight did monster numbers and he is still, by
far, the biggest draw in the history of the lightweight division.
Also notable is that Penn's charisma was such that when it came to popularity, as well as PPV
buys, that Hawaii was, per capita, along with Las Vegas, the strongest market for UFC for years.
It was gigantic when he fought, but his pull was such, similar to St-Pierre, that when he was on
top, it elevated the popularity of the entire sport in his home region.
Rutten, 50, is an interesting choice because he only fought twice in the UFC, although in his
second fight, a decision that most thought he should have lost in, he did capture the heavyweight
title.
The Rutten choice as a pioneer sent a message that this is attempting to be as much an MMA Hall
of Fame as just a UFC Hall of Fame.
Rutten's career legacy was really developed in the Pancrase promotion in Japan, during the era
the promotion was built around pro wrestling stars like Minoru Suzuki, Masakatsu Funaki and Ken
Shamrock, fighting in real fights with a pro wrestling like rule set.
Rutten, who came in as a kickboxer (he was 14-2 in kickboxing with 13 first round knockouts and
one second round knockout) with limited ground training, after losing twice to Ken Shamrock,
immersed himself in the ground game, and won seven of his next eight fights via submission. He
went unbeaten over the last 22 fights of his career, until retiring as UFC heavyweight champion,
due to a series of injuries that wouldn't allow him to train at near full capacity, after the
Randleman fight on May 7, 1999. He also defeated Suzuki via submission on September 1, 1995,
to win the King of Pancrase heavyweight championship, then came back to beat interim
champion Frank Shamrock on May 16, 1996 to unify the title. He never lost the title, vacating it
when signing with UFC. It should be noted that even though he was fighting as a heavyweight,
with his frame, since he fought right at 200 pounds, he was the size of a big welterweight or
small middleweight today. Rutten did come back at the age of 41 for a fight with Ruben Villareal
on July 22, 2006, in Los Angeles.
Two notable statistics is that for his MMA career, his striking accuracy rate is the highest of any
fighter in major league MMA history, and in 33 pro fights, he never once attempted a takedown.
To modern fans, he's probably best known as a television commentator, the co-host of MMA Live
on AXS, and an actor who has appeared in eight movies, most notably a critically praised role in
"Here Comes the Boom," and played the voice of the wolf in the movie "Zookeeper."

His versatility and charisma also shined as a pro wrestler with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2002.
He got an IWGP heavyweight title match with Yuji Nagata and a junior heavyweight title match
with Koji Kanemoto, and had a Tokyo Dome match with Osamu Nishimura that got votes for
match of the year. He gave up pro wrestling rather quickly due to suffering injuries. His wife,
after he kept getting hurt in wrestling, noted that if he was going to fight, he should do so for
real, because at least he never got hurt in those fights.
Blatnick was best known for winning the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics in the 286 pound
weight division, just two years after his life was in jeopardy, suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma,
diagnosed shortly after he had won the USA Greco-Roman national championships in 1982. He
had his appendix and spleen removed due to the cancer, and underwent radiation therapy that
badly weakened him. However, he returned less than a year later to place third in the U.S.
championships, and then after making a full recovery, won the gold medal the next year.
Blatnick was the epitome of someone who never looked at himself as somebody special. He never
won an NCAA Division I title in college (he was Division II champion in 1978 and 1979 at
Springfield College, where he, Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the sport of basketball, and
John Cena remain the three most famous sports alumni of the school). He never took full credit
for winning gold, since the Russians boycotted the Olympics in 1984 and he would freely admit
that he didn't believe he was ever the best in the world, or of the country's all-time greats in
wrestling, always saying there were better wrestlers who never got the recognition like Danny
Hodge, Chris Taylor, John Smith, Bruce Baumgartner, Kenny Monday and David and Mark Schultz.
He just said that he won the tournament held at the 1984 Olympics and beat the people who
were there.
Instead of retiring, he stayed in wrestling to attempt to truly be the best, but the cancer returned
and he had to sit out the 1985 and 1986 seasons. When he returned, he was no longer the same,
and even if he was, Alexandre Karelin was on the scene in 1988 and nobody was beating him at
that time.
Blatnick became a sports announcer and motivational speaker, and in 1994, was hired by UFC as
a wrestling expert announcer. He was learning the submission game from scratch, just like
everyone else. He became a huge fan of the UFC. He spoke to people in the television and cable
industry, as well as legislators and commissions around the country, saying that UFC was a
legitimate sport, usually to deaf ears.
In 1998, the UFC made him commissioner. He, Joe Silva and John McCarthy put together the
UFC's original rule book. He also, on May 15, 1998, before a show in Mobile, AL, told the fighters
at a meeting, and later told the media, to refer to the sport as mixed martial arts, instead of No
Holds Barred. MMA as a terminology was first used for both worked and legitimate judo vs.
karate matches after World War II in Japan featuring future pro wrestling star Masahiko Kimura,
and was most famously used in the 1970s for a series of worked pro wrestling matches against
outsiders by Antonio Inoki (as well as Inoki's shoot match in 1976 against Muhammad Ali).
Blatnick likely heard the term in Japan, where he did the English language commentary for the
UWFI pro wrestling promotion, but he is the person who gave the current sport its name.
It is largely believed that one of the things that saved MMA was in 2000, when New Jersey
adopted most of the rule book Blatnick helped write, adding a few things (banning the 12-to-6
elbows and knees to a grounded opponent, ironically still the two most criticized rules), and
sanctioned and regulated the shows. This opened the door for Nevada regulation and a return to
PPV the next year. Blatnick was a key force in getting New Jersey to regulate. He also had worked
for more than a decade with legislators in Albany attempting to get the sport legalized in New
York, but passed away before one of his key goals took place, the first live event in Madison
Square Garden.

The current owners got rid of Blatnick in 2001, having their own ideas of the direction, although
those close to the situation say it really wasn't a matter of disagreements, and more just they
wanted to bring in their own people and make an announcing change. But he remained close to
the sport until his death, and was a regular judge. But until his death, he was also a volunteer
high school wrestling coach, and made it clear that he would take no paid assignments that
conflicted with the local meets.
For years, Dana White said that the second Hughes vs. Trigg fight was his favorite UFC fight of
all-time.
The fight took place on April 16, 2005, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Hughes
was the UFC welterweight champion, and the most dominant champion of his era. Trigg was the
champion of the rival WFA, and had just beaten Dennis Hallman, the same man who twice
submitted Hughes in the first round.
The fight only went 3:54, but footage of it is played at nearly every UFC live event as part of a
video montage. Trigg gave Hughes a low blow, unseen by the referee, and had him locked in a
choke. In a scene almost out of a movie, an iconic seen in UFC history, Hughes broke the hold,
picked Trigg up, ran across the ring with him and planted him with what was essentially an
Oklahoma Stampede, and then choked him out. The fight placed highly in nearly every fight of
the decade poll as well as in UFC polls on the greatest fight in history.

***************************************************************
The 4/26 Extreme Rules PPV show did 21,000 buys in North America and 35,000 internationally
for a first estimate of 56,000 worldwide.
The show featured Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton in a cage match, Roman Reigns vs. Big Show in a
last man standing match an John Cena vs. Rusev in a chain match. It would be the second lowest
U.S. total to date, beating only TLC, which did 17,000 buys, although the PPV numbers are going
to be dropping, pretty much limited to people with parties who don't trust the stream, people in
areas with bad Internet connections and people still adverse to using a streaming service.

****************************************************************
Raw on 5/25 did 3.59 million viewers, identical to the 2014 Memorial Day show. It also tied the
second lowest audience for the show this year, as well as the second lowest non-July 4th show
nor show during football season in the last 17 years.
Still, given Raw's numbers at their lowest levels since 1997, and that the Warriors vs. Rockets
game against the final two hours did 8.28 million viewers, they probably could breathe a sigh of
relief that the number wasn't lower. There was also a Chicago Blackhawks vs. Anaheim Ducks
NHL Stanley Cup playoff game against the final two hours that did 2.06 million viewers.
The seasonal record low was 3.57 million viewers set on the 5/4 show. The May 26, 2014 show
and the February 2, 2015, show both also did 3.59 million viewers.
This was the last week Raw went against the NBA playoffs, since the finals for the past several
years haven't had games on Mondays. So ratings should take an upturn starting next week.
The three hours saw the 8 p.m. hour do 3.79 million viewers, the 9 p.m. hour did 3.59 million
viewers and the 10 p.m. hour did 3.42 million viewers.
Impact on 5/22, airing the 2014 Slammiversary show and starting one hour earlier, without any

real alerting the audience to this, saw the ratings plummet from usual levels. The 8-11 p.m.
airing of the show did 232,000 viewers. The show had never dropped below 300,000 previously.
The repeat airing at 11 p.m. did 85,000 viewers, also a record low. The combined rafting was a
44 percent drop from the two show average of 570,000 viewers.
Smackdown on 5/21 did a 1.81 rating and 2.59 million viewers, which is the usual level even
going against a big NBA game (Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets) that did 6.87 million
viewers. There were also NHL Stanley Cup playoffs (Anaheim Ducks vs. Houston Rockets) that
did 1.84 million against it.
Ultimate Fighter on 5/20 did 340,000 viewers on Wednesday and another 172,000 viewers over
the next three days via DVR viewership.

****************************************************************
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RESULTS
5/15 State College, PA (WWE - 3,000): Tag titles: Big E & Xavier Woods b Tyson Kidd &
Cesaro, Fandango b Adam Rose, Zack Ryder & Titus O'Neil & Darren Young b The Ascension & Bo
Dallas, Dean Ambrose b Luke Harper, Damien Sandow b Heath Slater, Bella Twins b Naomi &
Tamina Snuka, Cage match for U.S. title: John Cena b Rusev
5/16 Atlantic City (WWE - 5,000): Dean Ambrose b Luke Harper, Titus O'Neil & Darren Young
b The Ascension, Fandango b Adam Rose, Damien Sandow & Zack Ryder b Heath Slater & Bo
Dallas, Cage match for U.S. title: John Cena b Rusev, Bella Twins b Naomi & Tamina Snuka, Tag
titles: Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, WWE title: Seth Rollins b Randy
Orton-DQ
5/16 Newark, DE (WWE - 3,500): Neville b Bad News Barrett, Sin Cara & Kalisto b Los
Matadores, R-Truth b Stardust, Ryback b Bray Wyatt, Emma b Alicia Fox, Sheamus b Dolph
Ziggler, Street fight: Roman Reigns b Kane
5/16 Toronto (ROH TV tapings - 1,500 sellout): Rip Impact & Romantic Touch & Pepper
Parks b Ashley Sixx & Davey Vega & Kenny Lush, Kushida b Will Ferrara, Silas Young b Takaaki
Watanabe, Moose b Colby Corino, Mark & Jay Briscoe b J Diesel & Donovan Dijak, Handicap
match for tag title: Kyle O'Reilly b Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian-DQ, Jushin Liger b
Dalton Castle, Brutal Bob Evans NC Cheeseburger, Michael Bennett & Matt Taven DDQ Karl
Anderson & Doc Gallows, Raymond Rowe & Hanson b B.J. Whitmer & Adam Page, Cedric
Alexander b Moose, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito b ACH & Matt Sydal, Shinsuke Nakamura b
Roderick Strong, Michael Elgin b Gedo, A.J. Styles & Young Bucks b Kazuchika Okada & Trent
Baretta & Rocky Romero
5/18 Richmond, VA (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 6,300): Alicia Fox b Summer Rae,
Damien Sandow & Curtis Axel b Heath Slater & Adam Rose, Sheamus b Ryback, King Barrett b
Neville, Bray Wyatt b Dean Ambrose, Tag titles: Tyson Kidd & Cesaro b Big E & Kofi Kingston-DQ,
Dolph Ziggler b Stardust, Luke Harper & Erick Rowan b Fandango & Zack Ryder, Divas title: Nikki
Bella b Naomi-DQ, John Cena & Roman Reigns b Rusev & Seth Rollins
5/19 Norfolk, VA (WWE Smackdown/Main Event TV tapings): Erick Rowan & Luke Harper
b Fandango & Zack Ryder, Bo Dallas b Jack Swagger, Alicia Fox b Summer Rae, New Day b Titus
O'Neil & Darren Young, Sin Cara & Kalisto won four-way over Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, Los Matadores
and The Ascension, Dolph Ziggler b King Barrett, R-Truth b Stardust, Axel Mania & Macho
Mandow b Heath Slater & Adam Rose, Dean Ambrose b Bray Wyatt, WWE title: Roman Reigns b

Seth Rollins-DQ
5/21 Orlando (NXT TV tapings - 400 sellout): Braun Stowman b Dash Wilder, Emma b
Bayley, Blake & Murphy b Elias Sampson & Mike Rallis, Finn Balor b Tye Dillinger, NXT title: Kevin
Owens b Solomon Crowe, Tyler Breeze b Adam Rose, Alexa Bliss b Carmella, Aiden English &
Simon Gotch b Jason Jordan & Marcus Louis, Finn Balor b Rhyno, Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley b
Elias Sampson & Mike Rallis, Emma b Blue Pants, Tyler Breeze b Bull Dempsey, Becky Lynch b
Jessie, Baron Corbin b Angelo Dawkins, Samoa Joe b Scott Dawson, Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore
& Carmella b Murphy & Bake & Alexa Bliss, Aiden English & Simon Gotch b Makaze& Jason
Jordan, Charlotte b Cassie, Non-title: Kevin Owens NC Samoa Joe
5/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 911): Sushi b Yuma Aoyagi, Zeus & The Bodyguard b
Yutaka Yoshie & Ryuji Hijikata, Suwama & Joe Doering & Hikaru Sato b Kenso & Takeshi Minamino
& Naoya Nomura, Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masa Fuchi b Takao Omori & Masao
Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Kento Miyahara b Atsushi Aoki, World jr. title: Kotaro Suzuki b Keisuke
Ishii, Triple Crown: Akebono b Go Shiozaki to win title
5/21 Tokyo (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 340 sellout): Mohammed Yone & Katsuhiko Nakajima &
Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. b Jon Webb & Jack Gamble & Captain NOAH & Shiro Tomoyose,
Kana b Sawako Shimono,. Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Kotoge d Daisuke Harada & Genba Hirayanagi
20:00, Maybach Taniguchi & Kenou & Hajime Ohara b Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Quiet
Storm, Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi b Super Crazy & Mitsuhiro Kitamiya, Yuko Miyamoto
& Isami Kodoka b Naomichi Marufuji & Hitoshi Kumano
5/22 Manchester, NH (WWE - 5,000): Neville b King Barrett, Luke Harper b Zack Ryder, Titus
O'Neil & Darren Young b Heath Slater & Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel & Macho Mandow b Heath Slater &
Bo Dallas, Dean Ambrose b Kane, Divas title: Nikki Bella b Tamina Snuka, Tag titles: Big E &
Xavier Woods b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, Cage match for U.S. title: John Cena b Rusev
5/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,580): Jushin Liger b Yohei Komatsu, Tiger Mask b
Nick Jackson, Alex Shelley b David Finlay III, Barbaro Cavernario b Chase Owens, Hiroshi
Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Togi Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma b Shinsuke
Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi, Bobby Fish b Rocky
Romero, Kyle O'Reilly b Barreta, Kushida b Mascara Dorada, Gedo b Ryusuke Taguchi
5/22 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 3,000): Demus 3:16 & Pequeno Violencia b
Shockercito & Ultimo Dragoncito, Pegasso & Stigma & Triton b Disturbio & Artillero & Super
Comando, Amapola & Dallys & Seductora b Goya Kong & Lluvia & Silueta, Dragon Rojo Jr. &
Polvora & Rey Escorpion b Gran Guerrero & Mephisto & Niebla Roja, Negro Casas b Dragon Lee,
Euforia & Thunder & Ultimo Guerrero b Marco Corleone & Maximo & Volador Jr.
5/22 Reseda, CA (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla - 400 sellout): Alex Reynolds & John Silver b Dan
Barry & Bill Carr, Ricochet & Rich Swann b Biff Busick & Drew Gulak, Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett
b Matt Sydal & Mike Bailey, Tag titles: Ethan Page & Josh Alexander b Joey Ryan & Candice
LaRae, Tag titles: Alex Reynolds & John Silver b Ethan Page & Josh Alexander, Andrew Everett &
Trevor Lee b Ricochet & Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano b TJ Perkins, Three-way for PWG title:
Roderick Strong won over Chris Hero and Brian Cage, Tag tournament finals for tag titles: Trevor
Lee & Andrew Everett b Alex Reynolds & John Silver
5/23 Worcester (WWE - 6,000): Neville b King Barrett, Erick Rowan b Zack Ryder, Titus O'Neil
& Darren Young b Bo Dallas & Heath Slater, Macho Mandow & Curtis Axel b Bo Dallas & Heath
Slater, Dean Ambrose b Kane, Divas title: Nikki Bella b Tamina Snuka, Tag titles: Kofi Kingston &
Xavier Woods b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, Cage match for U.S. title: John Cena b Rusev
5/23 Utica, NY (WWE - 3,500): Dolph Ziggler b Sheamus, Jimmy Uso b Brad Maddox, R-Truth
b Stardust, Sin Cara & Kalisto b Los Matadores, Cage match: Roman Reigns b Big Show,

Charlotte & Emma b Alicia Fox & Layla, Ryback b Bray Wyatt, WWE title: Randy Orton b Seth
Rollins-DQ
5/23 Kuki (New Japan - 810): Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly b Mascara Dorada & Jay White,
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma b Sho Tanaka & David Finlay III & Captain New
Japan, Gedo b Yohei Komatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi b Barbaro Cavernario, Kazuchika Okada &
Barreta b Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall, Nick Jackson b Kushida, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe
& Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata b Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & YoshiHashi
5/23 Starke, FL (WWE NXT - 225 sellout): Mike Rallis b Chad Gable, Devin Taylor & Bayley b
Cassie & Jessie, Angelo Dawkins b Tucker Knight, Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady & Carmella b
Blake & Murphy & Alexa Bliss, Baron Corbin b Jason Jordan, Aiden English & Simon Gotch b Scott
Dawson & Cash Wilder-DQ, Becky Lynch b Lina, Finn Balor & Solomon Crowe b Tyler Breeze & Tye
Dillinger
5/23 Osaka (Dragon Gate - 1,000): BxB Hulk & Dragon Kid b T-Hawk & U-T, Cima b
Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Cima b Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Big R Shimizu b Jimmy
Kagetora, Masato Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi b Yamato & Cyber Kong & Punch
Tominaga
5/23 Shimada (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 450): Zack Sabre Jr. b Jack Gamble, Quiet Storm b
Jon Webb, Mohammed Yone & Katsuhiko Nakajima b Super Crazy & Captain NOAH, Akitoshi Saito
& Yoshinari Ogawa b Kenou & Hajime Ohara, Takashi Sugiura b Mitsuhiro Kitamiya, Naomichi
Marufuji & Daisuke Harada b Takashi Iizuka & Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & Desperado & Taka
Michinoku b Maybach Taniguchi & Genba Hirayanagi & Hitoshi Kumano
5/23 Tokyo (Wrestle 1): Jay Freddie & Yoshiihiro Horaguchi b Seiki Yoshioka & Hiroki Murase,
2/3 falls: Ryota Hama DCOR Punisher Big Brute, Akira & Manabu Soya & Kumagoro b Masakatsu
Funaki & Jiro Kuroshio & Shotaro Ashino, Masayuki Kono & Kazma Sakamoto & Koji Doi & El Hijo
del Pantera b Kai & Hiroshi Yamato & Yasufumi Nakanoue & Andy Woo, Cruiserweight title: Minoru
Tanaka b Tajiri, Tag titles: Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo b Nozawa & Mazada
5/24 White Plains, NY (WWE - 3,700): Neville b King Barrett, Luke Harper b Zack Ryder,
Titus O'Neil & Darren Young b Heath Slater & Bo Dallas, Macho Mandow & Axel-Mania b Heath
Slater, Dean Ambrose b Kane, Divas title: Nikki Bella b Tamina Snuka, Tag titles: Big E & Kofi
Kingston b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, Cage match: John Cena b Rusev
5/24 Binghamton, NY (WWE - 3,700): Sheamus b Dolph Ziggler, Jimmy Uso b Brad Maddox,
R-Truth b Stardust, Sin Cara & Kalisto b Los Matadores, Ryback b Bray Wyatt, Cage match:
Roman Reigns b Big Show, Charlotte & Emma b Layla & Alicia Fox, WWE title: Randy Orton b
Seth Rollins-DQ
5/24 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 2,000): Astral & Electrico b Mercurio & Pequeno
Olimpico, Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus b Hombre Bala Jr. & Soberano & Super Halcon Jr., Blue
Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther b Felino & Puma King & Tiger, Dragon Lee & Mistico &
Valiente b Dragon Rojo Jr. & Kamaitachi & Polvora, El Terrible & Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero
b La Mascara & Maximo & Tetsuya Naito, Negro Casas b Volador Jr.
5/24 Kobe (Dragon Gate - 1,000 sellout): Shachihoko Boy b Lindaman, Jimmy Susumu &
Jimmy Kanda & Jimmy Kagetora b Dragon Kid & Kzy & Big R Shimizu, Genki Horaguchi & Naoki
Tanizaki b Yosuke Santa Maria & U-T, Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi b Eita & Kotoka, Masato
Yoshino b Masaaki Mochizuki, Cima & Don Fujii & Gamma & Ryo Saito b Yamato & Naruki Doi &
Mondai Ryu & Punch Tominaga, T-Hawk b BxB Hulk
5/25 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 9,500): Heath

Slater b Adam rose, Luke Harper & Erick Rowan b Curtis Axel & Macho Mandow, Dean Ambrose &
Roman Reigns b Seth Rollins & Kane, Rusev b R-Truth, Ryback b King Barrett, Neville b Stardust,
Sheamus b Dolph Ziggler, U.S. title: John Cena b Zack Ryder, Tamina Snuka b Paige, Big E &
Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro & Los Matadores & The Ascension & Titus
O'Neil & Darren Young & Sin Cara & Kalisto-DQ, Randy Orton b Bray Wyatt
5/25 Tsubane (New Japan - 1,280 sellout): Gedo & Barbaro Cavernario b Tomoaki Honma &
Sho Tanaka, Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida b Yohei Komatsu & Jay White, Barreta b Chase Owens,
Mascara Dorada b David Finlay III, Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Jado b Yujiro Takahashi &
Nick Jackson & Cody Hall, Tiger Mask b Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly b Jushin Liger, Shinsuke
Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Togi
Makabe & Captain New Japan
5/26 Wilkes-Barre, PA (WWE Smackdown/Main Event TV tapings): Kevin Owens b RTruth, Titus O'Neil & Darren Young b The Ascension, Zack Ryder b Heath Slater, Non-title: Nikki
Bella b Summer Rae, Neville b Adam Rose, Charlotte b Alicia Fox, Lumberjack match: Sin Cara &
Kalisto b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, R-Truth b King Barrett, Ryback b Rusev-DQ, Paige b Naomi,
Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins & Kane-DQ
5/26 Yamagata (New Japan - 1,120 sellout): Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish b Yohei Komatsu &
Jay White, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask b Mascara Dorada & Sho Tanaka, Barbaro Cavernario b
Gedo, Kushida b David Finlay III, Kazuchika Okada & Jado b Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall, Rocky
Romero b Nick Jackson, Ryusuke Taguchi b Barreta, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Togi
Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi
5/27 Aomori (New Japan - 1,530): Gedo & Barbaro Cavernario b David Finlay & Jay White,
Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida b Tomoaki Honma & Sho Tanaka, Kyle O'Reilly b Yohei Komatsu,
Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Barreta b Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall & Nick Jackson,
Mascara Dorada b Tiger Mask, Chase Owens b Jushin Liger, Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii
& Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Togi Makabe & Captain New
Japan
Special thanks to: Bryan Alvarez, Daniel Arnephy, Steve Ashe, Dan Babic, Bill Behrens, Daniel
Beling, Martin Bentley, Robert Bihari, Leonard Brand, Tony Bouin, Patrick Brandmeyer, James
Brown, Kurt Brown, Jan Buxton, Jae Church, Bob Colling, Chris Cooper, Chris Cruise, Joseph
Duncan, Sebastian Essner, Alfredo Esparza, Tim Evans, Matt Farmer, Tim Forge, Brian Fritz, Jose
Gonzalez, Jarvis Googoo, Denis Gorman, Stefan Gorges, Andrew Goss, Bronco Groen, Gary
Graham, Tom Griffiths, Bronco Groen, Grover Greer, Chris GST, Mark Gurczynski, Al Haft, Josh
Hayes, Steve Helwagen, Brian Hoops, Chris Hughes, John Juett, Paul Kacprzak, Dave Katz, Patric
Laprade, Roy Lucier, Stephen Lyon, Gareth Maybury, Drew McConnell, Rishi Malhotra, Elliot
Marquis, Wayne Mason, Andrew McMahon, Leonardo Mendez Toledo, Dave Musgrave, Mori Ono,
Jeff Parker, Bob Pivoroff, Eric Poon, Dave Pordy, Joe Puccio, Adam Shinder, Jon Southerland,
James Stanios, Jacob Tallman, Les Thatcher, James Tighe, Chris Tivnan, Steve Wameling, Tom
Wersderfer, Aaron Whitehead, Rob Williams, Richard Wierzbowksi, Jerry Wilson, Steve Yohe, Erik
Yonker, Kris Zellner
CMLL
They announced the participants in the Busca de un Idolo tournament for this year. Like last year,
all the matches will be broadcast live on the Internet, but the quality of talent is nothing like last
year. After the 5/26 Battle Royal to eliminate the bottom eight, which are Akuma, Raziel, Joker,
Cancerbero, Pegasso, Sagrado, Stigma and Gallo, we were left with: Delta - A high flyer from
Monterrey who has already been a regular near the top of the cards and started here in 2010
when this is supposed to be for newcomers; Blue Panther Jr. - Brother of one of the stars from
last year and son of Blue Panther. He's not nearly as good as his brother; Flyer - The younger

brother of Volador Jr., and thus nephew of L.A. Park. Very skinny and green, but he looked
tremendous in the elimination Battle Royal; Guerrero Maya Jr. - Good worker who has been
around here for years; Esfinge - Son of Guadalajara wrestler Magnum. A favorite because Ultimo
Guerrero, who has a lot of power, likes him; Bobby Zavala - Talented guy who won Gran
Alternativa in 2013, meaning he should have gotten a push to near the top two years ago, but
didn't; Canelo Casas - A third generation wrestler . A ten year pro who is awful in the ring, which
is amazing since he's from one of the most talented wrestling families in history.
The actual tournament starts on the 6/5 Arena Mexico show, meaning it'll be up and running on
6/12, when several of the American MMA reporters and UFC fans will be at the show. Last year,
when a lot of the MMA people went, there was mainstream coverage of Ariel Helwani at Arena
Mexico.
The 5/22 show at Arena Mexico drew 3,000 with Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia & Thunder beating
Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. & Maximo clean when Euforia and Guerrero made Volador and
Maximo submit in the third fall. Negro Casas retained his Leyenda de Plata championship by
beating this year's tournament winner, Dragon Lee. This is the third year in a row he's retained,
tying the record set by the original Mistico. Apparently the match was fantastic, particularly
Casas. The 5/29 show has Rush & La Sombra & Tetsuya Naito vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia &
Thunder, so Rush is being brought back now. The semi has Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora & Rey
Escorpion vs. Negro Casas & Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja.
Even with a loaded lineup, the 5/24 Arena Mexico show only drew 2,000 fans because of the big
crowd for the AAA World Cup show not far away. CMLL tried to compete, with Negro Casas using
Volador Jr.'s own back stabber on him to win a singles main event. This sets up Volador Jr.
defending the NWA historic welterweight title against Casas on 5/31.
Tetsuya Naito returned, as a face, teaming with Maximo & La Mascara in losing to Ultimo
Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible when Guerrero pinned Naito after a low blow. They also
had the Panther family against the Casas Family with Blue Panther and his two sons, Blue Panther
Jr. & The Panther, beating Felino and his two sons, Puma & Tiger.
Mr. Niebla, who is out of CMLL, was doing an indie show on 5/16 in Merida and the local
newspaper article on the show said he was unprofessional to the point the promoter opted not to
pay him and then used the money to pay the other guys in the match for them working with him
in that condition.
Titan was out for a week after hurting his back on a moonsault dive.
Dark Angel, who was in the U.S ., at the Performance Center, returns here this weekend.
India Sioux, who is the real-life wife of Maximo, is talking about returning. She had retired in
2009 and has had three kids in the last six years.
Villano III announced a retirement tour. He said he can't wrestle any longer due to his age, knee
problems and eyesight issues. But he's also retired almost as many times as Terry Funk.
A main event of Rush vs. Ultimo Guerrero drew 3,500 in Puebla on 5/18 with Rush winning via
DQ.
AAA
There are talks going on with UFC fighter Erik "Goyito" Perez to appear at Verano de Escandalo,
the next big show, on 6/14 at Arena Monterrey.
WRESTLE-1
They had two title matches on the 5/23 show in Tokyo. It was notable they were doing title

matches in the 350-seat Shinjuku Face building as Minoru Tanaka kept the cruiserweight title
over Tajiri and Shuji Kondo & Kaz Hayashi kept the tag titles over Nosawa & Mazada. Tanaka &
Tajiri are rematching in the same building for both Tanaka's cruiserweight belt and EWP IC title
on 5/30.
DRAGON GATE
T-Hawk faces Masato Yoshino in the finals of this year's King of Gate tournament, which takes
place on 5/30 in Sapporo. T-Hawk has been described to me as being Dragon Gate's Roman
Reigns, in the sense the promotion knows he's their best young guy and want him to be on top
but the fans don't see him at that level. Sapporo maybe the only market he'd get cheered over
Yoshino in this situation, and it's not even a lock he will there. The finals were set up with the
semifinals on 5/24 in Kobe, where Yoshino won the B block beating Masaaki Mochizuki in 12:30
with the Sol Naciente submission, and T-Hawk pinned Open the Dream Gate champion BxB Hulk
in 21:24 after the night ride to win the A block. Hawk noted that last year in the same building,
he lost in the semifinals. They pushed the idea that of the six biggest stars, T-Hawk, who is
probably their best young wrestler and this tournament shows the story is his push, that he beat
three of them with Yamato, Naruki Doi and Hulk, and Yoshino would be the fourth. Win or lose, THawk should get a title match out of this. The tournament winner is expected to get a shot at
Hulk in June in Fukuoka. It's very possible Yoshino wins and gets a shot, and then T-Hawk gets
his shot later.
Jimmy Kagetora is working with injuries to his ACL, meniscus and thigh. He's working some
shows but not full-time with it.
They also run 6/3 at Korakuen Hall with a main event of Yamato & Doi vs. T-Hawk & Eita and
Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi vs. Hulk & Kzy & Big R Shimizu.
ALL JAPAN
Akebono captured the Triple Crown, pinning Go Shiozaki in 21:29 with the Yokozuna Impact on
the 5/21 show at Korakuen Hall, before 911 fans. The show also featured Kotaro Suzuki retaining
the jr. title pinning Keisuke Ishii of the DDT promotion, and a Jumbo Tsuruta Memorial six-man
tag with Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masa Fuchi beating Takao Omori along with
former 90s All Japan wrestlers Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi.
Lee Che Gyong, a former All Japan wrestler who left to do MMA, returns on the 6/4 show at
Korakuen Hall, but will now go by the name Jake Lee. Dory Funk Jr. was also announced for that
show.
PRO WRESTLING NOAH
Takashi Sugiura & Masato Tanaka will be defending their NWA IC tag team titles they hold with
the Zero-One promotion on 6/7 in Shinkiba in Tokyo, against Kohei Sato & Daisuke Sekimoto.
After that, Sugiura & Tanaka will be challenging NWA & GHC tag champs Davey Boy Smith Jr. &
Lance Archer for the GHC belts.
NEW JAPAN
Current Best of the Super Junior standings as of 5/28: A block: 1. Kyle O'Reilly 3-0; 2. Ryusuke
Taguchi, Gedo and Cavernario Barbaro 2-1; 5. Jushin Liger, Barreta 1-2 and Chase Owens 1-2; 8.
Yohei Komatsu 0-3, B block: 1. Tiger Mask, Kushida and Mascara Dorada 3-1; 4. Rocky Romero
and Bobby Fish 2-1; 6. Nick Jackson 2-2; 7. Alex Shelley 1-6 (due to injury forfeits); 8. David
Finlay III 0-3.
Kushida is the favorite to take the tournament and face Kenny Omega for the title on 7/5 in
Osaka.

The winners of the two blocks will be determined on the 6/5 show at Korakuen Hall (airing live on
New Japan World at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time) and the championship match with the block winners
will be 6/7 at the Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo (airing live at 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m. Pacific time).
The company's sellout streak ended on a surprising night, as they only drew 1,580 fans to the
5/22 show at Korakuen Hall for opening night of the Super Juniors tournament. That pretty much
tells you when in your home base building for opening night, the people aren't packing it, that
the tournament has lost a lot of its luster. It just felt this year like an uninteresting tournament
because of the lack of a hot newcomer. It also hurts when you pull guys like Prince Devitt and
Kota Ibushi out of the mix, champion Kenny Omega isn't in, and even defending champion
Ricochet wasn't back. Then the carefully planned out booking went to hell right away when Alex
Shelley suffered ligament damage and a fractured foot when he hit a superkick on the debuting
David Finlay III, who took his bump and landed on the leg. Shelley had to forfeit the rest of his
matches, and has flown home. That means, because of how intricate everything is, they've had
to re-book everything. Shelley is the only wrestler hurt bad enough to miss a match, but there
are a lot of the guys already banged up only a few days into the tour. Liger pinned Komatsu in
8:36 with a brainbuster in what was a great match while it lasted, perhaps the best on the show.
Tiger Mask pinned Nick Jackson in 8:03 with a Tiger suplex after a missed 450. Cody Hall held
Tiger for Nick to superkick him, but Tiger Mask moved and Hall got hit. Shelley pinned Finlay III
with the Automatic midnight in 5:32 in the match Shelley got hurt in. Cavernario beat Owens in
7:15 with the Cavernario submission, which is a seated surfboard like stretch. The two had a
styles clash. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Togi Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki
Honma beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi
in 14:19 when Shibata hit Yoshi-Hashi with the penalty kick and Goto pinned Yoshi-Hashi after
the Shoten Kai. Very good match with the guys mostly working against specific opponents for the
7/5 PPV show. Tanahashi worked with Yano, Goto with Nakamura, Makabe with Ishii, Shibata with
Sakuraba and Yoshi-Hashi with Honma. Fish made Romero submit with the kneelock submission
in a pretty good match. O'Reilly beat Baretta in 13:04 with the armbar. Also very good. Kushida
beat Dorada in 8:53 with the Kimura. The action was great, but like with Dorada's matches most
of the time here, they feel too short. Main event saw Gedo pin Taguchi in 14:00 with the Gedo
clutch after a low blow. Another good match.
After the second show didn't sell out, the next two events were sellouts, with Yamagata selling
out in advance, although still in smaller buildings.
Jado, who has been working and booking NOAH as Captain NOAH, worked on the 5/25 show here
in a tag match.
The tournament matches on the second night, on 5/23 in Kuki, before 810 fans, saw Gedo pin
Komatsu in 10:01 using the Gedo clutch; Taguchi pinned Barbaro in 8:43 after the sliding hip
attack; Romero got a forfeit win over Shelley; and Nick Jackson pinned Kushida in 9:50.
5/25 in Tsubane before a sellout of 1,280 fans saw Barreta pin Owens in 10:19 after the
Dudebuster Dorada pinned Finlay in 7:46 after the Dorada screwdriver twisting pin, Tiger Mask
pinned Fish in 9:22, and O'Reilly beat Liger in 8:52 with a flying armbar submission.
5/26 in Yamagata before a sellout of 1,120 saw Cavernario pin Gedo in 10:53, Kushida beat
Finlay with the Kimura in 9:40, Romero pinned Jackson with the tombstone piledriver in 13:05
and Taguchi pinned Baretta with the flying hip attack at 10:58.
5/27 in Aomori before 1,530 fans, saw O'Reilly pin Komatsu after a brainbuster in 10:14, Dorada
pinned Tiger Mask after the Dorada screwdriver in 10:05, and Owens pinned Liger in 8:07 after a
package piledriver. Owens beating Liger makes sense since Liger originally beat him for the NWA
jr. title.

The only live show this week on New Japan World is 5/30 at Korakuen Hall (5:30 a.m. Eastern;
2:30 a.m. Pacific) with Finlay & Honma vs. Tanaka & Komatsu, Jay White & Tiger Mask vs. Owens
& Cavernario, Okada & Romero & Baretta vs. Takahashi & Hall & Nick Jackson, Tanahashi & Goto
& Makabe & Shibata & Captain New Japan vs. Nakamura & Ishii & Yano & Sakuraba & YoshiHashi, Liger vs. Gedo, Taguchi vs. O'Reilly and Kushida vs. Fish.
Other tournament matches, airing the next day on New Japan World, are 5/29 in Tochigi with
Komatsu vs. Owens, Finlay vs. Jackson, Baretta vs. Cavernario and Tiger Mask vs. Romero; 5/31
in Shizuoka with Gedo vs. Owens, Liger vs. Baretta, and Tiger Mask vs. Kushida; 6/2 in Ibaraki
with Finlay vs. Romero, Taguchi vs. Komatsu, Cavernario vs. O'Reilly and Dorada vs. Fish; and
6/3 in Nagoya with Gedo vs. Baretta, Liger vs. Taguchi and Kushida vs. Romero.
They announced shows on 6/20 and 6/21 in Singapore at the Expo Hall as part of an Expo there
where Bushiroad, the parent company of New Japan, will be an exhibitor. The event looks to be a
free show as part of the Expo. Announced as appearing are Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi
Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi, Sho Tanaka,
Komatsu, Gedo, Liger and Captain New Japan.
OTHER JAPAN NOTES
Hall of Famer Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, 57, underwent heart surgery on 5/22 in
Tokyo. He had been hospitalized on 5/9 after complaining of chest pains after a match, and was
diagnosed with damage to the blood vessels near the heart. He was sent home from the hospital,
but his condition worsened and was brought back. There is no word regarding his condition after
surgery other than he may need a second surgery. After being under observation for a few days
after surgery, he was released from the hospital on 5/25. His promotion, Real Japan Pro
Wrestling, which was built around Sayama having dream matches against the top stars of the last
30 years, was scheduled to have its ten year anniversary show on 6/11 at Korakuen Hall.
The hardcore style Big Japan Pro Wrestling has announced its top two matches for one of its
biggest undertakings in history, a 7/20 show at Sumo Hall. The main event pits Daisuke
Sekimoto, the group's biggest star, defending his World Strongest belt against longtime tag team
partner Yuji Okabayashi, plus Abdullah Kobayashi defends his Death match championship against
Ryuji Ito.
Terry Funk's return to team with Genichiro Tenryu at his final show in Osaka on 5/30 was
canceled due to Funk still being in rough shape after a long battle with viral pneumonia, that he
contracted about a month ago. By the luck of timing, Dory Funk Jr. was coming to Japan for his
role as figurehead of the PWF and to do a match in Tokyo, so he'll replace his brother, teaming
with Tenryu & Nosawa against Suwama & Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato.
While not in Japan, Ultimo Dragon did his tenth annual DragonMania show, on 5/23 at Arena
Mexico, which is a show he does every year with a few big stars taped for Japanese television.
The shows are always promoted well and they drew a big crowd, although I didn't get the
number. Dragon put up his mask against the hair of Tiger Ali in the main event, and you probably
don't have to guess what happened there. Ali got his head shaved. Ref Babe Richard was
legitimately injured during the match. The other two top matches saw Ultimo Guerrero & Rey
Bucanero & Gran Guerrero beat Atlantis & Marco Corleone & La Mascara, and a tag team of Triple
Crown champion Akebono & CMLL heavyweight champion Maximo winning a handicap match over
Arkangel de la Muerte & Nitro & El Hijo del Signo.
HERE AND THERE
Although there are rumors to the contrary, Scott Hall was pulled from Global Force Wrestling as
soon as the first TMZ story broke last week and that was the reason, not anything else. As best
we can tell, there is no television deal in place. It appears they are looking at the idea of using

the Jim Ross/Chael Sonnen duo as the announcers, and keep in mind Ross has no deal and I'm
hearing Sonnen, while at their press conference and doing videos and all, hasn't actually signed
his deal either. The idea is to use their names to help get a television deal and get a better price
and use that television money to pay them. In the end, it's the same deal as it's been from the
start, everything as far as success or failure depends on getting a television deal. GFW has added
a show on 7/9 at the minor league ballpark in Appleton, WI.
Richie Magnett, an independent wrestler from Portland, OR, who worked both the Pacific
Northwest and also early in his career, the Hawaii territory when it was run by Lia Maivia, passed
away on 5/2. We don't have much in the way of details. Magnett had wrestled regularly for more
than 30 years. He worked as part of a trio in Oregon with Col. DeBeers and Buddy Wayne.
Cassandro is doing a Go Fund Me to attempt to raise $10,000 to pay for medical costs for a
number of surgeries that will keep him out of action for some time. He has ACL and PCL injuries
in his knees as well as a torn meniscus, and nerve damage in both of his hands. He had raised
$2,905 in 19 days.
Brian Knighton (Axl Rotten), 44, is doing a similar Gofundme attempting to raise $12,000 for two
spinal surgeries on his cervical vertebrae that he hopes will get him out of the wheelchair he's
now confined to. His back gave out in October and since then has been hospitalized at the
Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD. Without two successful surgeries, he may
end up wheelchair bound for life. He's now exhausted all of his medical coverage and obviously
can't work. He also has to make his home wheelchair accessible. Knighton at press time had in
20 days raised $860.
PWG ran on 5/22 in Reseda, CA, in front of 400 fans in the show that sold out in minutes based
on phone orders after tickets were put on sale. This was the DDT4 tag team tournament show,
said to be awesome. Chris Sabin, who was scheduled to team with Matt Sydal, pulled out a few
days before the show due to a back injury. He was replaced by Speedball Mike Bailey. Bailey was
to face Johnny Gargano in a singles match, but they brought in TJ Perkins (Manik) for that spot.
The first round of the tournament saw The Beaver Boys, Alex Reynolds & John Silver, beat Team
Tremendous (Dan Barry & Big Bill Carr); Ricochet & Rich Swann beat Biff Busick & Drew Gulak;
Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett beat Sydal & Bailey and The Monster Mafia of Josh Alexander &
Ethan Page won the PWG tag tiles over Joey Ryan & Candice La Rae, due to interference by
Roderick Strong after a ref bump. Next, The Beaver Boys beat Monster Mafia to take the tag titles
an advance in one semifinals, while Everett & Lee beat Ricochet & Swann in the other. In the
finals, Everett & Lee beat Reynolds & Silver to win the tournament, and the tag team titles. The
PWG title match saw Strong retain in a three-way over Chris Hero and Brian Cage. I was told
every match had clear cut faces and heels, not all the over the top super matches that PWG is
known for, but great storytelling throughout the show. Every match was good, with the best
being the two tag tournament semifinals.
Trish Stratus is in a movie called "Gridlocked" with Danny Glover. Stratus has changed her
training, incorporating more muscle building as she felt she was getting too skinny, her arms
were too stringy and was losing her butt doing straight yoga. She's developed a new yoga which
is a combination of strength training moves with a yoga flow according to an interview she did
with Newsday. She also said that at one point she considered trying MMA after pro wrestling, but
it was before Ronda Rousey and thus there was no money in it. She said this came from a TV
show she was doing several years back where she did ten days of Muay Thai training in Thailand
and then took a fight. "I had a fight with one of their prizefighters there. It was a pretty intense
fight. I remember thinking, `I could pick this up and pursue this.' Of course, it kicked in
afterwards, `Where do I do this? It wasn't really like it is now, where MMA competition for
women is more accessible. I was thinking about it. Yeah, I think I would have been pretty good
at it. I've been good at most physical things I've taken on, like any sport, and I know I have

fighter in me."
One of the biggest indie shows of the summer will be a Northeast Wrestling show on 8/2 at
LeLacheur Park in Lowell, MA. Announced as appearing so far are Rey Mysterio Jr., Alberto El
Patron, Mick Foley, Jerry Lawler, Matt Taven, Young Bucks, Samoa Joe, Mickie James, Michael
Bennett, Maria Kanellis, Brian Anthony, Hanson and Donovan Dijak.
There have been all kinds of rumors for the past several weeks regarding Tammy Sytch, 42,
working for Vivid Entertainment, a porn company run by Steve Hirsch, a longtime pro wrestling
fan. While reported in many places, she claimed it wasn't true, writing, "To clear the air, I am not
doing a porn. I have been approached by Vivid Entertainment, but nothing has been negotiated
or put on paper." A few days later, she said she's been looking at the supposed six-figure offer by
Hirsch and said she was 60 percent going to do it. She said one of the issues to be worked out is
Hirsch wanted her to have sex in a wrestling ring while she would rather do it in a hotel room.
She said her boyfriend, who is 27, doesn't have a problem with her doing it.
Eric Caidin, the owner of the Hollywood Book and Posters Company in Van Nuys, CA, who owned
and sold a ton of wrestling memorabilia and was a well-known regular in the Southern California
wrestling scene, passed away suddenly on 5/18 from an aneurysm, at the age of 62. I'm
guessing Caidin would have been one of the longest lasting Observer subscribers, probably
around 30 years consecutively. His death got some mainstream publicity including articles in a
number of area publications including the Los Angeles Times and in Los Angeles Magazine, and
his love for pro wrestling was mentioned in all the stories. He sold all kinds of 70s and 80s
wrestling memorabilia at conventions, including at the Cauliflower Alley Club, where he was a
regular. He regularly attended live shows dating back to the 60s, with Jeff Walton, Glenn Bray
and Johnny Legend, and later in the 80s with longtime readers like Dan Farren, Pat Hoed, Riki
Ataki, Kurt Brown, Stephan DeLeon and Billy Anderson. Kurt Brown noted to us that when he
wrote an article for the old "Wrestling World" magazine, that he went to Caidin's store to see if he
had any photos and posters for Lucha Libre oriented movies. He noted that Caidin then handed
him a plethora of those items, free of charge, and didn't even want a thank you in the article. He
supplied a ton of material for Dan Madigan's book "Mondo Lucha-A-Go-Go." He started promoting
shows at the Jewish Community Center in Van Nuys in the 70s and also promoted Incredibly
Strange Wrestling shows in Hollywood. He was good friends with people like Andy Kaufman, Rob
Zombie, Quentin Tarantino, J.J. Abrams, John Landis, Joe Dante and Johnny Ramone, and many
of them used to browse the racks and stacks at his store. He worked with another former
Southern California wrestling personality, Johnny Legend, to found the Grindhouse Film Festival
that would take place at the New Beverly theater. His memorial is scheduled for that theater on
6/2. He also sold Lucha Libre masks at his store. He appeared in a number of documentaries as
he was an expert on movies, in particular obscure and cult movies, as well as bad Sci-Fi movies.
He was in Palm Springs at the time of his death attending a film noir convention. Caidin ran his
store, in various locations, from 1977 until closing at the end of last year. The son of a famous
entertainment lawyer, he opened up his store at the age of 25 with help from his father, and it
was described as more of a clubhouse than a business for people into B movies, wrestling and
rock and roll. He was getting ready to reopen with a new location in Burbank at the time of his
death.
LUCHA UNDERGROUND
Not that this means anything 100 percent, but Univision did its Upfronts and Lucha Underground
was not mentioned. The ratings on El Rey have shown significant growth in recent months, but
it's still going from the 30,000 viewer range in the early weeks to the 60,000 to 100,000 range.
For what this is worth, after this season ends with the two hour show on 8/5, the plan is for the
new season to air from October 28, 2015 to July 27, 2016, which would probably require going

back into production in August (the original plan) or September. El Rey does have a web page up
taking ads for a second season of the show, so that looks to be confirmation of it. Those within
the promotion said they expected the formal announcement imminently.
The Mexican television deal with Televisa Ch. 5 is very close, although it's TV talks and close
doesn't mean anything without pen to paper. At one point the idea was that the Mexican TV deal
and the second season announcement would come at the same time if things worked out timing
wise.
Alberto El Patron talked on the MMA Report about the idea Bill Goldberg was offered a fight with
him, which Goldberg said he turned down because he wouldn't have time to prepare and he also
didn't want his first fight against another pro wrestler. "I keep hearing this from a lot of people,
but I've never heard anything from Glory. They contacted me. They approached me. But we
never talked about money or names or anything like that. Maybe they approached him and
offered him some money and the possibility of fighting me, but that's something only Bill
Goldberg knows. I never got back from anybody from Glory. If he needs to fight, good for him. If
they give me the right amount of money that I want, then maybe, we'll see. But I don't think
that's gonna be the case, because again, I do so well in pro wrestling that I don't think they're
gonna give me the money that I'm asking for." When he was asked if UFC had made an offer to
him, he said, "Yeah, I said everybody. Everybody has approached me in different ways. But
again, the offers were just, we were so apart. Those organizations and I were so apart in the
money that I was pretending to make and they were pretending to pay me that it was not going
to be possible. But yes, everybody tried to find me."
So this is the Angela Fong story deal. It's basically an idea taken from the Mortal Kombat series
as the Dario Cueto character is based on Shang Tsung and the masked guy who is Fong's mentor
is the protector of good Raiden. The working name for the masked guy is Dragon Azteca,
although they could change since they haven't given him a name yet. The idea is he's the guy
who was on the very first show that found Prince Puma as a kid in Boyle Heights without a mask
and gave him the mask and made him Prince Puma. He's also the one who kidnapped Fong,
Black Lotus, early in the season, as she was headed into the room to find Cueto's monster
brother. He's going to be the top babyface character protecting over the people Cueto abuses.
The idea is to start marketing the company around seven characters, which are Puma, King
Cuerno, Mil Muertes, Dario's monster brother (not sure who will end up with that character),
Dragon Azteca and two more, likely Mysterio and Alberto.
Notes from the 5/20 TV show. It opened with Prince Puma pinning Marty the Moth Martinez in
3:42. The comedy here is that Martinez is a white guy who looks like Donny Osmond, who goes
by a Mexican name and wears a T-shirt claiming he's a descendant from an Aztec tribe. Martinez
pretended to be a face, suckered Puma with a clothesline as he was in the ring playing fan boy,
but Puma won quickly with a 630 senton. Hernandez was in the stands. Konnan grabbed the mic
and said he thought Hernandez was one of his boys, but he's a sorry son of a bitch who makes
lambs look dangerous. He challenged Hernandez to come to the ring and face Puma, but
Hernandez backed off.
Vampiro interviewed Johnny Mundo. He said he attacked Alberto because he wants to prove he's
the best in the world. He said Alberto was overconfident, overpaid and overrated. He said Alberto
is done here, and maybe he can find some guy in catering to slap around. He said that Alberto is
a naturally gifted second generation (actually third) wrestler, but Mundo said he was going to
prove he's the biggest star in Lucha Underground, "but you already knew that." Some well
written cute lines. Mundo has been really good as a heel.
El Texano Jr. beat Delavar Daivari via DQ in 3:54. This match was disappointing. The two don't
work well together. The ending saw Big Ryck attack Texano for the DQ and clotheslined him. Ryck

was running around with a ton of new money last week, so the idea is he's Daivari's muscle.
Katrina was rubbing her fingers all over Dario Cueto backstage. She told him that Mil Muertes
would be back next week and he's more powerful than ever. He announced Muertes vs. Fenix
next week. She wanted it to be a Death match. Then, she disappeared into thin air. If they knew
they were going in that direction the least they could have done was named her Sabrina.
Black Lotus (Angela Fong) was on the road heading to the Temple to fulfill her destiny. She wants
to kill the monster brother of Dario Cueto who is kept hidden somewhere in that building. You
see, he killed both of her parents and she's been training with a masked martial arts master.
They need to unmask that guy as Machida's father. Anyway, the masked guy met with Chavo
Guerrero Jr. Either the Guerreros owe a bunch of money in Mexico, or the masked guys friends
were going to put a hit on Chavo. Chavo told the masked guy that if you don't what her to die,
you're going to need my help. Wait, the guy who lost 100 matches to Hornswoggle is going to
protect this girl from the monster living caged up in a wrestling arena? I know these people are
unaware of this, but these are the exact angles that sliced up the RollerJam ratings in its last
year. The masked guy said all the Guerreros are liars and cheaters. Chavo told the masked guy
that he has influence in Mexico, so if you can make it stop, I'll protect her. So the masked guy
said that he will clear Chavo's debt if Chavo agrees to protect her with his life.
They announced Puma vs. Hernandez for the title on next week's show.
The main event saw Angelico & Son of Havoc & Ivelisse retain the trios titles over Bale & Mr.
Cisco & Cortez Castro of The Crew, in 13:57. As Ivelisse came down on crutches to defend her
titles, Matt Striker compared her to Willis Reed. In the seventh game of the NBA finals in 1970,
Reed, with a torn quad, came down to play in Madison Square Garden for the Knicks in what was
later voted as the greatest moment in the history of the arena. Bale attacked Ivelisse on crutches
and fans booed that. The Crew removed the covering of what was the window in Cueto's office
that was broken when Mundo threw Del Rio into it. They started hitting Angelico with the boards.
Later when Angelico was on top of the ladder, they tipped over the ladder and Angelico went
flying through the open window into Cueto's office. All kinds of craziness climaxing with Angelico
on the roof of Cueto's office, that's probably 15 to 20 feet high, and he ran and instead of doing a
crossbody like last time, he did a missile dropkick into the ring which was insane. Ivelisse,
hobbling with her bad leg, slowly climbed to the top. Bale tried to also climb up, but she bit his
fingers and pulled down the belts to win and retain.
ROH
The company announced the first set of company action figures, put out by Figures Toy Company.
The line will feature figures of Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, Adam Cole and Kevin Steen. The Young
Bucks also have a deal with the Figures Toy Company for similar action figures but they signed
their own separate deal.
On the return of Samoa Joe, he was booked for 6/20 in New York, in a non-title tag team match
with Joe & A.J. Styles vs. tag champs Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in a non-title
match. They figured they needed a hook to insure a full house for the TV tapings the day after a
PPV in the same building. Joe is not scheduled as a regular, but will work shows from time-totime as a special attraction. It's not official but the next date they are thinking, if it can be
worked out, would be the 8/22 show at MCU Field in Brooklyn since that's the largest building
(7,500 seat outdoor minor league baseball stadium) they run and they need to make it a major
event. Right now there is no storyline for Joe, as the idea is he'll be more like Styles coming in as
a guest star on big shows, although that could change.
The 6/19 PPV is called "Best In The World," and the tag line for the Jay Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal
main event, where both the ROH title and the TV title are at stake, is called "Battle of the Belts."

That name has some significance because in the 80s, Championship Wrestling from Florida ran a
few live syndicated TV specials, which were a big deal at the time because full live major arena
events very rarely aired on television, particularly live, in that era. Joe Koff, who heads ROH, was
the guy who produced the "Battle of the Belts" series in the 80s. The Young Bucks & A.J. Styles
vs. Adam Cole & Matt Taven & Michael Bennett is also on the PPV show.
The company will They are back in action with the first shows after the New Japan events on
5/29 in Amarillo and 5/30 in Oklahoma City.
TNA
As expected, TNA has had to change its TV tapings date to accommodate the Wednesday move.
But it's not without some serious problems. They are now taping on 6/24, a Wednesday, for the
go-home show for Slammiversary. However, all the television through 8/5 will be taped from 6/25
to 6/27. Slammiversary itself goes live on PPV on 6/28, which means six weeks of postSlammiversary TV will be taped before Slammiversary. This creates tons of problems. None of the
champions or title challengers at Slammiversary will be able to come out before the public with
belts, meaning they'll have to shoot backstage angles on why the champions aren't wearing their
belts. Either that or they will be tipping their hand on results, which used to be commonplace in
wrestling with pre-taped shows, but news travels so much faster now. Perhaps they'll still do
that. It also means that any results or angles that take place on the PPV won't be discussed in
any interview segments for six weeks, at least in front of the people, or they'll give away stuff
ahead of time. This is most notable because all the shows are being taped in Orlando and the PPV
is also in Orlando, so it's not like they're going to a different city and with a different fan base.
Because the show is taped at a theme park, a lot of tourists attend. At each show, Jeremy Borash
asks how many people are here for the first time, and the usual feeling is about 25 to 33 percent
of the people raise their hands. So they are the regulars and the rest of the crowd is made up of
tourists at the park. Any interviews in front of the people can't talk about anything that would
happen at the show. In theory, if they do title matches on TV, they'll give away outcomes, and
people can't wear championship belts or that will give away outcomes. It's been done before in
wrestling, but that was at a different time and not in the same city where the latter PPV was
held.
At the last set of tapings, they were filming for a pilot episode of a Dixie Carter reality show,
filming where she gave a speech to the talent and introduced Billy Corgan. During her speech to
the talent, she talked about how you shouldn't believe the ratings you read because they don't
include the DVR viewership numbers. There is a feeling that even if worst comes to worst as far
as not getting a new U.S. TV deal goes, that there is incentive to keep TNA alive as long as the
Carter reality show deal is still on the table, because the hook is a woman that runs a company in
the male dominated pro wrestling industry. There are also a number of international television
contracts in place for Impact so, and this is if they can't get U.S. television in the fall, do they
keep producing new content to fulfill their worldwide deals? Nobody really has an answer, but if it
is affirmative, that would also necessitate even more financial cutbacks.
Christy Hemme, 34, who had been working as both a ring announcer, and in creative, particularly
with the women, gave notice and is leaving the creative end and looks to be leaving the company
altogether for another job opportunity. We had heard she was leaving but it's also been reported
by PWInsider that she may leave full-time but still come to TV and continue as a ring announcer.
She had been with the company since 2006, when she was surprisingly let go by WWE, after she
had won the first Diva Search competition.
Historically, the Carters have been in talks with at least three different groups about selling over
the past decade. Two were in 2005, before getting on Spike, the Morphoplex guy (this was
reported at the time), but he ended up disappearing and that's when you stopped seeing the ads

when the Carters decided against selling. There was also a group called the Nelson Corporation.
Jeff Jarrett would have been involved with both groups, and Jim Duggan was also going to be
involved with that bid. The other was the Toby Keith attempt which fell through, where Jeff would
have been the guy to run the company. The story on that one, which was in 2013, is that they
were not far apart of money, but had not reached a money agreement, but Bob Carter insisted on
Dixie being guaranteed a public role in the new company, and that's where the deal fell apart.
Keith was then seriously talking about starting a promotion with Jarrett, but that fell through,
leaving Jarrett having to find other financing, which is why he left in late 2013 to start a new
company and it's just getting off the ground now.
Austin Aries' contract expires after the next set of TV tapings. If he doesn't sign a new deal, he'd
probably finish up on the PPV with the final Wolves vs. Dirty Heels match. He's an awesome
wrestler but it's hard to see his options. WWE was never interested in him in the past, although I
could see them using him in NXT now since he'd fit in well. But the mentality is to not sign former
TNA guys, so they'd have to change that. He could probably go to ROH, but they're pretty full
and on a tight budget, and Lucha Underground can't do anything right now until they get the
funding and TV deals to make a second season viable. He can do all the indies he wants now
even if he signs a new TNA deal.
Samoa Joe was on Live Audio Wrestling talking about his decision to leave: "I think the decision
was made in the final few weeks. I've often been called by people loyal to a fault, and I didn't feel
the mission was accomplished in TNA yet. I'd done my best throughout my career to help try and
build the company and bring it into prominence. It's had its ups and downs and pitfalls here and
there, and I don't feel that job was finished yet. Toward the end there, there were some apparent
things and incidents and kinda showed me that maybe it was time for me to move and maybe it
was better for me, both personally and professionally, to explore other options and explore other
things. I've gotta admit, I'm not unhappy with my decision. I'm unhappy that I didn't get the
opportunity to kind of finish out what I wanted to start in TNA. But at the same time, so many
great things have popped up since that I'm very, very satisfied with the decision that I made."
Things don't look good for TV on Eurosport. They got a tryout because Discovery owns a big
stake in Eurosport. It was a six-week tryout and now there is nothing on the schedule. The
numbers were much lower than WWE when it was on the station.
A correction from last week. We reported that DMAX, TNA's TV partner in Germany, had canceled
the replay show on Saturday night. Actually the Saturday night time slot was the first time the
episode would air. The replay on Thursday time slot is staying. The Saturday slot came right after
Raw with the idea the Raw audience was the best audience lead-in for Impact. But things didn't
work out well. The first week Impact was on they followed Raw and did 230,000 viewers, which
beat Raw. But last week they were down to 70,000 viewers. The Thursday show had been airing
Impact 13 days after it aired in the U.S.
UFC
Dana White said that UFC 189 on 7/11 has already become the largest gate, more than $7
million, that the company has ever done outside of the April 30, 2011, Toronto Rogers Center
show in 2010 with Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields. He also said they are spending more
money marketing the show than any show in history. He said about 25% of the tickets (about
3,500) were sold in either Ireland or the U.K. and that 17% (about 2,300) were sold in Brazil. He
expected it to do big numbers worldwide and 1 million to 1.2 million buys on PPV. Considering
UFC has only hit 1.1 million once in history, that's asking a lot. It always comes down to the last
week on this, and McGregor is all business in his mind so you don't have to worry about him
getting mad about doing media and shutting down at the end. White joked they were spending
so much money that they would only break even on 1 million buys, which turned into some

headlines that made some people really mad because it was so obviously said in jest. The biggest
number this year so far has been about 800,000 for Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, and that was
an awfully big fight in that final week, with great footage. They are going to be buying TV
commercial time all over the place, including at big sports events like the NBA playoffs.
White said that if and when Jon Jones does return, after settling his legal issues, he would get a
title fight against whoever the light heavyweight champion is on his first fight back.
This is an update on New York and the potential 12/5 PPV date in Madison Square Garden. The
New York legislative session ends in about a month and it's down to the wire. The bill has passed
the Senate with flying colors, as it does every year. The UFC believes they have between 95 and
100 votes in the Assembly and would only need 76 to get it passed. The roadblock is getting the
bill voted upon. To get the bill a vote, they need to have 76 votes from the Democrats alone out
of 101 Democrats in the Assembly. Right now they believe they have 71 confirmed and four or
five close, but getting to 76 is not a sure thing because there is the union opposition and
women's groups opposition, and those both cut into the Democratic votes. The UFC sent Ronda
Rousey to Albany, thinking she could get some of the women in the Assembly to vote for it, but
there were still enough holdouts that it's down to the wire with time running out. Dana White had
said that if it's not in New York, he was leaning toward Calgary, which he's said he owes a big
show to since they had such a terrible first show in 2012.
Sara McMann was on the MMA Hour saying she was talking to a lawyer about taking action
against the UFC based on gender discrimination because of the Reebok deal. Because women are
new to the promotion, she said that 86 percent of the women on the current roster have had five
fights or less, meaning their Reebok deal sponsorship would be for $2,500. "I think the UFC and
Reebok would never want to be perceived as somebody who was treating an entire gender
poorly." McMann said she would talk to a lawyer with experience in Title IX cases. UFC would not
respond to McMann's complaint. Overall, both men and women, it's believed 61 percent of the
roster overall has had five or less fights in UFC (or Strikeforce or WEC in fights that count after
Zuffa purchased both brands). McMann noted that she will take a huge hit in sponsorship pay,
and said it wouldn't bother her if she was an exception, but she felt that this deal negatively
affects most of the women on the roster. "I don't think that it was purposely, because if you look
at it on paper, it looks fair. I don't think that (UFC) is out to screw the women. If they were, they
wouldn't have even added them in to begin with."
This week's show is an FS 1 card from the Goiania Arena in Goania, Brazil. It starts at 7 p.m.
Eastern with Fight Pass fights with Tom Breese vs. Luis Dutra and Juliana Lima vs. Ericka
Almeida. The rest of the show is on FS 1 from 8 p.m. until about 1 a.m. with Mirsad Bektic vs.
Lucas Martins, Nicolas Dalby vs. Elizeu Zaleski, Jussier Formiga vs. Wilson Reis (this is a battle of
two rated flyweights and Formiga, rated no. 4, with a win could be one win or so away from a
title shot), Damon Jackson vs. Rony Jason, Wendell Oliveira vs. Darren Till, Norman Parke vs.
Francisco Trinaldo, Francimar Barroso vs. Ryan Jimmo, K.J. Noons vs. Alex Oliveira, Nik Lentz vs.
Charles Oliveira and Thiago Alves vs. Carlos Condit. Condit hasn't fought since March of 2014
when he suffered a torn ACL and torn meniscus, that required surgery, during a fight with Tyron
Woodley.
After a contract impasse caused UFC 186 to not air on The Dish Network, a deal was put together
the day before UFC 187. In theory, this brings up the 15% of the country's PPV homes that had
The Dish Network. No terms were announced, but in these issues, it's always an issue of a few
percentage points of the gross that each side wants and doesn't want to give up.
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Glover Teixeira was announced as the main event for an 8/8 show on FS 1
from Nashville. Saint Preux was looking to face Rampage Jackson on that show, but Jackson
turned down the fight.

For Fight Week, there is talk that the Invicta show, currently scheduled for 7/10, the Friday night
before UFC, will move to 7/9. I spoke to one of the fighters over the weekend who said they had
been told that due to other sports on Friday night that it could be moved to Thursday, a move
that had been rumored since it had been hinted that our Friday night Observer banquet wouldn't
go head-to-head with Invicta after all.
A pair of lawsuits filed by Juanito Ibarra, the former manager of Rampage Jackson, against both
Jackson and Tito Ortiz, was settled out of court this past week about one month before it was
scheduled to go to trial. In settling, both men apologized by Ibarra for labeling him a crooked
manager who bilked Jackson out of money. Rampage said, "Juanito Ibarra and I have resolved
the lawsuits that have been pending for a number of years. While we have had our differences in
the past, it is now all behind us. Some things were said in the past, which I now retract and I am
deeply sorry that they were said." Ortiz made a statement that in 2008, he gave an interview
where he called Ibarra a thief who mismanaged, stole and took advantage of Jackson. "I made
these remarks based on what Rampage had told me. After several years in court and review of all
the available records, I realize that Mr. Jackson and I were wrong. Juanito didn't steal from or
take advantage of Rampage and he didn't mismanage Rampage's money. It was all accounted
for. I regret the effect my words had on Juanito's life. Juanito is a trainer and manager of superior
skills and the fact is, he helped to make Rampage a champion. Anyone would be blessed to be
taught by Juanito. So there is no confusing, and so the public and the MMA, boxing and sports
community know, I retract all of the negative statements, inferences and accusations that I
directed at Juanito and I sincerely apologize to Juanito and is family."
Hector Lombard, 37, who is currently under a one year suspension for failing a steroid test on
1/3, said that he is looking at going back to the Olympics, representing Australia, in judo in 2016.
Lombard claimed he had the flu and a Canadian weightlifter, Julie Northrup, gave him a pill,
which he claimed he thought was an over-the-counter supplement, but was actually the steroid
DMT. Lombard, who is currently fighting at welterweight, has also called out Josh Barnett for a
match for Barnett's Metamoris heavyweight title in an interview with Submission Radio in
Australia. There would be close to a 60 pound weight difference if such a fight took place. While
the heat had somewhat dissipated, Barnett and Lombard trained at the same gym and there
were stories about their sparring getting way out of hand. The version that had gone around for
years is that Barnett didn't like that Lombard was hurting people so Barnett taught him a lesson.
Lombard claimed different, saying that they once went at it for 50 to 55 minutes and he was
beating up Barnett, who was bleeding all over the mat and he left the gym. He said another time,
after he had sparred with five or six people and was tired, Barnett rotated in, took him down and
was beating the hell out of him, but said even then he escaped and was pounding on him and
Barnett left the gym again. Lombard said that Barnett hasn't said bad things about him and he'd
like to squash the beef, but also said he wanted to tell what happened and wanted to do a
grappling match with Barnett.
Ronda Rousey appeared at a Wall Street Journal caf brunch on 5/20 at the Beverly Wilshire
Hotel in Beverly Hills promoting her book. She noted that the first time she met Dana White to
talk about signing with UFC was two blocks away at Mr. Chau's Chinese food. She said her ability
to handle all the media was from her experience working as a bartender and speaking to multiple
people nightly on almost the same topic. She said her mother hating her going into MMA fueled
her to be "the best in the world." When asked about fighting a guy, she said the only guy she'd
ever fight would be Miesha Tate's boyfriend. Most of the people there were Wall Street Journal
readers who didn't know her and didn't understand that remark. She was asked about UFC
signing C.M. Punk and said it was the best move UFC has done on a business aspect. When asked
about doing "Entourage," she said she really respects Kevin Connley, who broke his leg during
the filming of the movie, but still showed up every day and even did a dance scene injured. She

also said after doing the movie, she's got the acting bug.
The reason Brendan Schaub was all over ESPN this past week doing coverage of UFC 187 is
because usual analyst Chael Sonnen, as an ESPN employee, he gets maternity leave. His wife is
actually due on 6/4 but he asked for this show off just in case she's early as this is their first
child.
Chad Mendes signed a new eight-fight deal.
Eddie Wineland, who had announced his retirement after a broken jaw, and fear of head damage
from his years of fighting, has decided to come back and will face Bryan Caraway on the 7/25
show in Chicago. In a trivia note, with both Caraway and Miesha Tate on the same show, it's the
first time to my knowledge that a boyfriend and girlfriend have fought on the same UFC event.
Add Holly Holm vs. Marion Reneau (which is a very interesting match as the 37-year-old Reneau
has looked great here of late) and Kevin Casey vs. Ildemar Alcantara to the 7/15 show in San
Diego.
Several new fights were announced for the company's debut in Glasgow, Scotland on 7/18. The
main event will be Michael Bisping vs. Thales Leites for the middleweight title. It's a big fight for
both. Leites is on an eight fight winning streak and ranked as the No. 9 contender at
middleweight. Also added was Ross Pearson of England against Evan Dunham as the No. 2 fight,
Paddy Holohan of Ireland vs. Vaughan Lee of England (moving down to flyweight) plus Joanne
Calderwood, who is from Scotland, and was a natural for the debut show, faces Australia's Bec
Rawlings.
Patrick Cummins vs. Rafael Feijao Cavalcante has been added to the 8/1 show in Rio de Janeiro.
Neil Seery vs. Louis Smolka and Yosdenis Cedeno vs. Cody Phister have been added to the 7/11
show in Las Vegas.
Caio Magalhaes vs. Josh Samman, Trevor Smith vs. Dan Miller and Russell Doane vs. Jerrod
Sanders was added to the 7/12 show in Las Vegas, which is the Sunday TUF finals show after the
PPV.
Matt Van Buren vs. Jonathan Wilson has been added to the 8/8 show in Nashville.
Hacran Dias vs. Chas Skelly has been added to the 6/27 show in Hollywood, FL.
OTHER MMA
The World Series of Fighting announced what looks to be its biggest show to date on 8/1 on NBC
Sports Network. The show will go head-to-head with a UFC show in Brazil headlined by Ronda
Rousey vs. Bethe Correia. The four main card fights will feature three five-round title matches
from the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, with Rousimar Palhares defending his welterweight title against
Jake Shields, Marlon Moraes defending his bantamweight title against Sheymon Moraes (no
relation) and Magomed Bibulatov vs. Donavon Frelow in a fight to determine the company's first
flyweight champion. They also have a Mike Pyle vs. kickboxing champion Tyrone Spong bout.
WWE
The first U.S. network-only major four hour special, the Elimination Chamber will be on 5/31, the
day the two month free period for new subscribers is scheduled to end. The matches are Rollins
vs. Ambrose for the WWE title, Cena vs. Owens which is not for either the U.S. or NXT title, the
IC title Elimination Chamber match with Barrett, Sheamus, Ziggler, Rusev, Sheamus and R-Truth,
the tag title Elimination Chamber match with The New Day defending against Kidd & Cesaro,
Lucha Dragons, Prime Time Players, The Ascension and Los Matadores, Nikki Bella vs. Paige vs.
Naomi for the Divas title and Neville vs. Dallas. For the pre-show, they are advertising The Miz

returning to interview Bryan. The very nature of Chamber matches is they have to go long, and
given there's also a Cena match and world title match, six matches may be enough.
The situation with Rusev is unknown at press time. At the 5/26 tapings in Wilkes-Barre, Rusev
injured what appeared to be his ankle in a match with Ryback. He worked to the finish, but EMTs
came out after the match and he had to be helped to the back. His lower leg was put in a cast
and he was in a wheelchair leaving the building and also at the airport. That would seem to make
him questionable for shows over the short-term including Sunday. Officially, at press time, WWE
officials stated that they didn't know just yet what the situation was. Two others have said that
Rusev was trying to downplay the injury late Tuesday night, saying he was okay. Another person
in the company said that it looked like Rusev wouldn't be able to go on Sunday and that Wyatt
may replace him, but that was not official word.
The latest on Ronda Rousey and WWE came from a question and answer at her Wall Street
Journal caf appearance. She was asked about WrestleMania. She said that she saw Dana White's
comments about never again. She said she wants to do something again because she started
something and she thinks the audience needs a resolution of the angle. She said that if she does
do something, it has to be for a period of time, not just one show, so they could build up her
match. She'd rather perform as a wrestler than as a celebrity doing a celebrity wrestling
appearance. She said she was filming a movie next year during Mania so it's highly unlikely she
can do the show. But she does think she can make Dana change his mind about doing WWE. She
said she had an idea of keeping her name alive by having an idea that would involve Shayna
Baszler and Jessamyn Duke for WWE or NXT. The idea is both would probably like to do pro
wrestling with WWE once their UFC careers are over.
Creative, or at least some, like the two weeks between big shows because it forces focus on
every week. They can set up angles and then write a go-home show and then move on, instead
of trying to get four weeks of television out of pushing the same matches, which often
overexposes the matchups before the match on the big show even takes place.
After the success of the recent matches, and crowd reactions, there is at least serious talk of
doing an NXT special with the women going on last. Of course it depends on the personas
involved, but as a general rule, I think the idea will be a hit the first time because it'll give the
show a hook. And it's not like headlining with women can't be done somewhat regularly because
UFC has already proven that it can. If that happens, it would be the first time the WWE has ever
promoted a major show with women in the main event. In a sense, the July 23, 1984 Fabulous
Moolah vs. Wendi Richter match was the most promoted match on a Madison Square Garden
show on a national basis. But in New York, when it came to ticket selling, while Moolah vs.
Richter was promoted as No. 2, the main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Greg Valentine, and they
added a Battle Royal, which in 1984 was the great drawing gimmick match.
There is at least talk there will be a first episode of Tough Enough built around 30 people trying
to make it into the house, shot at the Performance Center.
Total Divas appears to be moving to Tuesday as E! Sent out a press release noting its summer
season premiere on 7/7 at 9 p.m. That would mean that WWE would have a Tuesday night
doubleheader of Tough Enough at 8 p.m. on USA (which debuts 6/23) followed by Total Divas. For
this season, Cameron, Rosa Mendes and Summer Rae are gone. Trinity is back, except now she's
going to be going by her wrestling name of Naomi. Also in the cast are The Bella Twins, Natalya,
Fox, Paige and Eva Marie.
Dwayne Johnson's latest movie, "San Andreas," opens on 5/29 and he's been everywhere
promoting it. "Furious 7" was No. 10 at the box office over Memorial Day weekend doing $2.80
million domestically. It's at $1,499,687,000 worldwide at press time, still just shy of the No. 3
spot of all-time, which is may top by next week.

The WWE stock price at press time was $13.79 per share, with the company market value at
$1.04 billion, so it's remaining pretty steady of late.
Hafthor "Thor" Bjornsson, the giant in "Game of Thrones," is someone they are interested in. He
was training this past week at the Performance Center so he was giving it a try. One person who
was watching his training closely told me that he just didn't seem like he had his heart into it. He
was shown sitting next to Stephanie McMahon at the NXT special. He's 6-foot-9 and 400 pounds,
and only 26 years old. He grew up as a basketball player, who played center in Iceland's pro
league. He blew out his knee and moved on to competing in strongman competitions in Iceland
and started winning contests after only a few years of training. He placed sixth in the 2011
World's Strongest Man competition, and then placed third in both 2012 and 2013, and second in
2014. He started on "Game of Thrones" in 2013. He's done a 770 pound squad, and a 510 pound
bench press.
Hogan this past week in a media appearance while in England at the Birmingham Expo that he
and Sylvester Stallone were talking about him for a heel role in the movie Expendables 4. The
movie is currently in pre-production. It's Hogan, so you know how that goes.
Former WWE creative team member Kevin Eck wrote a story about the Daniel Bryan/A.J. Lee
romance storyline. He had a different idea for it than what was used, but was the person who
came up with the idea, thinking both were being underutilized at the time. The positive thing is
he totally understood why A.J. Lee had more upside and ability to get over than other women on
the roster because she'd connect more with the younger guy fans because of the attainability
factor. When he pitched it, Bryan had won Money in the Bank. That came down to three people
on the day of the show (Bryan details that in his book) and Vince picked Bryan, and then, like the
year Sandow won, Vince immediately changed his mind and they sent Bryan on a losing streak
and he wasn't going to get the title. If you look at Sandow's trajectory after he lost the cash-in,
or that of Mr. Kennedy, it didn't look good. Bryan also vocally said he didn't like the idea of doing
a romance angle with A.J. Lee, saying he did one a year earlier with Gail Kim, and that did
nothing for him. Eck's idea involved John Morrison coaching the shy Bryan to ask out Kim, but
that was nixed because Morrison had decided to leave at the end of his contract. Bryan's title win
was because Mark Henry was injured and was going to have to lose it. It was on the day of the
show, a show Bryan wasn't even booked to be at. It was a fluke that hours before the show, they
found out he was in that part of the country doing an autograph session and found him, told him
to come to the arena, and he got the World title, although he was scheduled to be a joke as
champion, but he did so well in the role that it elevated him anyway. Bryan won as a babyface
but Vince wanted him to win a fluke as a face, then have the world title go to his head and be a
heel. Eck suggested to make him a heel, they could put A.J. with him and he'd start mistreating
her and made it clear he only cared about himself and was using her, but she didn't see it. Eck
said his idea was to make A.J. into Elizabeth in the Randy Savage story, but others didn't like that
so they made her crazy on her own.
Add Tommaso Ciampa to the list of wrestlers who will be at the next tryout camp next week.
This isn't to say anything will transpire, but WWE has greatly changed its thoughts on A.J. Styles.
Styles considers New Japan home right now and is under contract. But WWE is, with wanting
three touring brands next year, is looking to load up on as much quality talent as it can for 2016.
Styles fits into the NXT philosophy in wanting athletic wrestling catering to a specific fan base,
and as a separate brand with a part-time deal, the idea of someone 38 or so in developmental is
a completely different dynamic than a year ago. The other advantage, and this is significant, is
NXT works a lighter style for the most part. The idea that guys who are feeling the effects from
years working the blow away matches on the indie scene or in Japan will be able to, at least in
theory, use the names they've developed in the hardcore community but be able to work like Finn
Balor does, which is good matches, getting over by rep, goodwill and solid work, without beating

their bodies up as badly. With Styles it may be a financial thing in the sense he's probably making
three to four times what anyone in NXT is pulling in, and he has more time home with his family
than he'd have with a full-time WWE or NXT deal. So unless it's something like come in for a
quick program between Japan tours, the idea of going full-time here makes no sense for either
side unless it's a main roster spot with a good push.
A few more notes from the Performance Center. We're told it's way understaffed in Orlando and
that everyone who does work there works endless hours with so many things to do. The thing is
that they are trying to work within a budget and the NXT brand and developmental is an inherent
money loser, but it's necessary for the future. The company used to spend far less on
developmental, but the idea was to have this world class facility with the idea it'll attract better
athletes. But we're also told that the idea everyone walks around on eggshells, which you hear
about constantly on the main roster, holds true as much for the people working at the
Performance Center.
Sasha Banks didn't wrestle at all, or appear before the people, on the next four weeks of NXT
television, nor did she work the weekend house show after her match with Becky Lynch. We're
told she suffered either an arm or shoulder injury. Not sure whether this was in the match with
Lynch or she came into that match hurt or how serious it was because on the day of the show,
she was scripted for a match on the fourth show, but she left for the hospital when her fianc,
Sarath Ton, who worked as enhancement talent Kid Makaze in a tag team match, was rushed
there after being knocked out during the third hour of taping. Ton is the guy who was just hired
to replace Sandra Grey as the new steamstress and is on the road full-time with the main roster,
but was in Orlando for the tapings. Ton legitimately was knocked out cold. There didn't appear to
be a specific spot or incident where he took a bad bump, but suddenly he was out. Two different
people compared it to the Perro Aguayo Jr., deal. The referee immediately stopped the match. Dr.
Chris Amann came to the ring. He was down for about ten minutes, and it was kind of scary for
the first seven of those minutes. Paramedics came out and they finally were able to get him to sit
up, and he did leave the ring on his own and was rushed to the hospital.
They are looking at doing a program between Stardust and Stephen Amell, who plays "Arrow" on
the CW TV tour "Arrow." Amell was planted at ringside for a tease before Stardust's match with
Neville on Raw on 5/25. Stardust did an interview, not on television, inviting him to come to TV
again next week.
The doing worked injuries on the big shows, and then selling them by taping them up, like with
Ryback and Neville, is the new policy. These things change as Vince was formerly negative on
doing this thinking people didn't care, but Vince changes what he thinks a lot.
Show has been ready to return to television as he was originally going to miss one PPV cycle to
sell the beating from his last man standing match with Reigns, but he and Orton have been kept
off television because neither is scheduled for a match on the 5/31 show, and both are expected
to return in the quick two week Money in the Bank build period. Reigns isn't scheduled either but
he's being groomed for the top spot in the company so they want to keep pushing him.
For the Australia tour, which are shows 8/6 to 8/8 in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, the local
advertising has Rollins vs. Orton for the WWE title, Cena vs. Sheamus for the U.S. title, Ambrose
vs. Barrett and not advertised but probables (which will all change) of Ryback vs. Harper, Bellas &
Emma (who is still a babyface on the main roster, plus should be a face in Australia) vs. Snuka &
Naomi & Fox, Dallas vs. Neville, R-Truth vs. Fandango, Axel vs. Stardust and Balor vs. Owens.
Hogan as General Manager is really being pushed more than any of the matches or stars.
When Paul Levesque last week was talking about NXT playing in festivals, at least one that he
meant was the annual Aftershock Festival, which takes place on 10/24 and 10/25 at Gibson's
Ranch in Elverta, CA, a small town about 15 miles North of Sacramento. There will be rock bands

playing including Marilyn Manson, The Stone Temple Pilots, Slipknot and there will be an NXT
presence. Last year the festival had about 19,000 people each day for shows with three stages.
Notes from the WWE's farewell show at the Nassau Coliseum, the 5/25 Raw taping. The
building is being closed shortly and this was WWE's last show at an arena it started running in
about 41 years ago with a Bruno Sammartino title defense against Stan Stasiak. The crowd was
9,500 in a building set up for 12,500.
It opened with Superstars where Slater pinned Rose in a short match. Things don't look good for
Rose at all, and it's clear he's trying to get a gimmick change. Harper & Rowan beat Axel & Macho
Mandow when Harper pinned Axel after the discus clothesline. After this match, Vince McMahon
came out and mentioned it being the last WWE event in the building and thanked everyone for
coming. Vince said that he wanted to thank everyone who ever performed in the building and
every fan whoever attended a show in the building and promised a good show. They had a
commemorative T-shirt, like they did for the final event at the Izod Center, which noted some key
events in the building like WrestleMania II, The 2002 SummerSlam (where Brock Lesnar beat The
Rock to win the WWF title for the first time and Shawn Michaels returned from four years out)
and some other PPVs. No, they didn't list the Crockett Bunkhouse Stampede, which was a key
event, although not necessarily in a good way.
The show opened with the usual Memorial Day video and a ten bell salute, which was all well
done. They have a new Raw opening video and they put Cena in the middle of the video and the
guy in the closing scene is Reigns, which tells you that as far as long-term plans and who they
see as the company's top star, they haven't changed course.
The Authority group came out to open. Rollins started talking and said that Ambrose didn't earn a
title shot and doesn't deserve a title shot. He said that based off his actions from last week, HHH
could take his title shot away. Rollins said that Ambrose could be fired right now, and said HHH
considered it but Rollins said he asked HHH not to do it. Rollins said that The Authority picked
him ahead of Ambrose to be the top star in the company and the decision was a no-brainer. HHH
also said it was an easy decision. HHH said that if Ambrose wanted a shot at Rollins, he needed
to sign a contract before the show ended, so that was the show long storyline. They framed
Ambrose who got arrested and thus wasn't going to be able to sign, but it came out they framed
him, Ambrose got back in the final segment and signed. Ambrose came out here and said that if
he wins the title, he'll be the new face of WWE and he'll have Noble & Mercury go barefoot like
respectable hobbits. He said that Kane could ditch the cheap suit and instead have a leash put on
like the obedient lap dog that he is. He tried to get the fans to chant "Justin Bieber," which they
did. They kept bringing Bieber up. It's well known they tried to get him for a match in the past.
They wanted Ambrose to come to the ring so they could all jump him, but Reigns came out to
join the fight. It was like they were trying to put Reigns in a position where they'd have to cheer
him. Stephanie announced Reigns & Ambrose vs. Kane & Rollins and it would be next.
Reigns & Ambrose beat Kane & Rollins in 12:54 when Ambrose pinned Rollins with a backslide.
That was the ending they needed after having Ambrose lose on Raw to Wyatt and then get laid
out, he had to get a big win this week and also be the guy left standing at the end of the show.
They mentioned it was Reigns' birthday (he turned 30).
Renee Young was backstage with Ambrose. Ambrose said he'd sign the contract by the end of the
night. Noble & Mercury came out and said they had the contract for him to sign, but Mercury
then said he'd forgotten it. They ended up in a brawl. In the brawl, a camera man (played by
ROH wrestler Will Ferrara) knocked into Ambrose, who turned around and Ambrose decked him.
They did a video feature on Owens, and made him look like a star.
Rusev beat R-Truth in :59 with the Accolade. Given that R-Truth was the weakest guy in the

Chamber match to begin with, squashing him this bad made no sense at all. They should have
had Rusev squash someone not in the IC title match and someone he wasn't already facing on
the PPV. They announced Rusev has moved to Bulgaria, so he's no longer Russian. Rusev then
did his best mic work of his career. Like Lana, he's slowly dropping much of his Russian accent.
He begged for her to come out and told her that she owed him that much. She came out and
actually didn't get that big of a pop at first, unlike in most cities where she's over like crazy. He
opened the ropes for her, but she refused to go in the side he opened and she got into the ring
on a different side. Rusev told her that she cost him his title at WrestleMania and misheard him
when he never said "I Quit." He said that she has now kissed the disgusting Ziggler twice. It
should be noted that in the storyline, they are making it clear they are not doing a Ziggler/Lana
relationship. Lana is just kissing Ziggler to make Rusev mad and Ziggler is allowing himself to be
kissed. I think there's fear that relationship won't help either one of them, but they need the
jealousy deal, plus it does make sense for a Rusev vs. Ziggler program. He said that all women
do things to get him to pay more attention. He asked her to grab his hand and get back together
for the motherland, and help make America fall down to its knees. She took his hand and they
hugged. The crowd booed. Then he asked her to say the three magic words. The words were "I
was wrong." She wasn't happy with that at all. He said all she has to do is admit everything was
all her fault and we can go back to normal. She said that she wasn't wrong, that he did say "I
Quit." He said she was a liar. He then said he tried to be nice but she needed to know her place
as a woman and he owned her. She called him a liar and a quitter and a coward who can't take
responsibility for his own actions. She said he doesn't own her and she belongs to nobody. She
called him a caveman brutish thick-headed moron. Ziggler then came out and they kissed in front
of Rusev again.
Backstage, the camera man who was punched was there with HHH and two officers. He wasn't
sure he wanted to press charges and said he thought he was pushed. But HHH talked him into
doing so and the officers handcuffed Ambrose, read him his rights, charged him with simple
assault and took him away in a paddy wagon. The Authority was making fun of Ambrose as he
was being taken out, and Rollins was celebrating.
Ryback pinned Barrett in 3:51 with shell shock. I wasn't surprised by the ending, but how short it
was. Ryback had his ribs taped up and sold most of the way, stemming from the idea he was hurt
against Wyatt at Payback.
Backstage, the guys from Entourage (minus Jeremy Piven) were with HHH & Stephanie. They
brought up that if Ambrose doesn't make it back before the end of the show and sign, then
Rollins won't defend the title at Chamber and will have the night off. The Entourage guys made
fun of Piven, saying he was getting ready for SummerFest. A few years ago, Piven was a guest
host for a show before SummerSlam, and called it SummerFest. They were pushing the movie
and actually called it the "WrestleMania of movies." Then Turtle talked about how in the movie he
got his butt kicked by Ronda Rousey, and how in real life, so did Stephanie, and asked her what it
was like. Stephanie got real mad. Very clear by doing this they are still of the mentality they are
going to get Rousey vs. Stephanie at Mania, although Rousey this week said she had a movie
schedule conflict that wouldn't allow it, but also has said many times she's wanting to do it.
They played Tough Enough videos. Instead of clips where it's clear they are making fun of most
guys who think they have the look to be in WWE, they aired clips of some very impressive
athletes, either bodybuilders, gymnasts, fighters, and other hard trainers.
Stephen Amell had a staredown with Stardust. The announcers put it over and put over Amell as
looking tough enough to take their own guy.
Neville pinned Stardust in 3:16 with the Red Arrow. Dallas came out. They noted it was his
birthday as well. He turned 25. Neville had his knee taped up and sold it after doing the red

arrow. Dallas told Neville to pick himself up and Bo-lieve. That would make more sense if he
didn't just win. Dallas dropkicked Neville in the bad knee to set up their upcoming match.
Backstage, the Entourage guys were backstage with Summer Rae, Fox, Layla and Emma. Turtle,
who is the one from Long Island, who said he grew up going to matches at the Nassau Coliseum,
was talking with Ryder, telling him to go for it, which would play out later in the show.
Sheamus pinned Ziggler in 10:20. Sheamus powerslammed him on the floor. Lana came out.
Ziggler superkicked Sheamus and then Rusev came out. Rusev distracted Ziggler, who turned
around into a Brogue kick for the pin. Sheamus then walked off and basically handed Ziggler off
to Rusev. Rusev kicked him around and put him in the Accolade right in front of Lana. Rusev had
him in the Accolade and was yelling at Lana, "Kiss him now."
Cena came out. He did an interview which was designed at getting people to chant "Fight Owens
Fight," to get Owens over right away in the PPV match. But this was a lame promo because the
set up was so corny where Cena said how the WWE Universe can be summed up in five words,
"Let's Go Cena. Cena sucks." The idea was to get dueling chants, and he did get them. But very
quickly they turned into "We Want Ryder" chants, so I guess people figured out the deal earlier
meant Ryder would challenge. He talked about the people who chant "Let's Go Cena," are like a
fraternity, a bond, a family that allows them to survive in negative atmospheres. He said the
people who chant "Cena sucks" think Owens is the guy who will change what they think needs to
be changed around here. He all but told the people who chant "Cena sucks" to instead chant
"Fight Owens Fight," obviously not in those words. I'm just not a fan of promos where instead of
the guy selling himself or the personal issue, or even the ramifications of the match, the promo is
all about trying to get fans who have already paid for tickets to chant for the opponent. But as
every week has shown, Cena is in the passing the torch role and is being amazingly professional
about it. The Entourage Guys came out at this point and as everyone expected, introduced Ryder
as his opponent.
Cena pinned Ryder in 4:06 with the Attitude Adjustment to retain the U.S. title. Ryder got a nice
reaction, but nothing close to the reactions he used to get in the same building. Ryder got several
near falls, including a schoolboy with distraction from the Entourage crew. He also used an
unprettier or killswitch (not given a name, but that is the sign of the obvious, that Christian's
career is quietly over), the Broski boot and the Rough Ryder for near falls. Ryder missed a 450
and got hit with the Attitude Adjustment. The fans booed Cena winning quite a bit. Cena raised
Ryder's hand and the Entourage guys, Cena and Ryder all posed together after the match. Then,
after everyone left, Owens came out and power bombed Cena and left him laying. He then once
again stepped on the U.S. title belt.
Stephanie & HHH were backstage putting over Owens. They told Renee Young once again that
they will abide by their word, and if Ambrose signs by the end of the night, he'll get his title shot.
They said that they didn't get Ambrose arrested, he got himself arrested for assaulting a
company employee.
Snuka pinned Paige in 3:34. This wasn't a good match. The two just didn't work well together.
Paige did a flip plancha off the apron. Naomi punched Paige. This was supposed to be behind the
refs back, but the ref hadn't turned his back. This was made worse by Nikki Bella saying that the
ref saw it. Refs are supposed to call it as a shoot and do a DQ, but since that wasn't the planned
finish, he let it go. Snuka used a Samoan drop and got the pin. That finish made no sense at all
given that Paige is getting a title shot six days later. I suppose if Paige wins the title you can
argue it makes sense, but even with interference, she came across as almost getting squashed
and looking nothing like a contender. Things like this don't actually matter in the sense nobody
buys the network for logic in the Divas title match, but it still boggles my mind you pretty much
squash two people on the go-home show (R-Truth being the other) going for titles. Barrett losing

to Ryback wasn't as bad, although he and Ziggler both lost, but they were at least competitive
matches.
The New Day came out. Woods said they were being persecuted for being positive. Big E then
talked about being in this decrepit arena that is about to be torn down and how the hockey team
left that would forever be known as losers. Kane came out, as a complete babyface here, which
was weird, saying that all three members of the New Day would have to face Cesaro & Kidd, Los
Matadores, The Ascension, The Prime Time Players and the Lucha Dragons in a 3 vs. 10 handicap
match. Yeah, a heel authority figure totally stacking the odds against the heel champions.
The match barely happened. They went 1:51 when all ten guys just attacked the New Day for the
DQ. This turned into a big brawl with all the teams for themselves. The Ascension was killing
everyone until O'Neil laid them out. Everyone was thrown out of the ring except the Lucha
Dragons. They both did corkscrew planchas at the same time onto everyone. It ended up with
The New Day somehow escaping while everyone else was fighting with each other on the floor.
But then Kidd & Cesaro got in the ring and laid out Big E and Kingston and did the giant swing
and dropkick on Woods.
They showed more footage of Ambrose punching the cameraman. The new footage showed that
Rollins had shoved the cameraman into Ambrose so Rollins had precipitated all this. They talked
about how this changes the case and that Ambrose shouldn't have been arrested.
The main event segment saw The Authority out. Stephanie did this great smarmy fake babyface
promo about WWE being a great working environment, how the cameraman is a father of new
triplets and such. Reigns then came out and attacked everyone until Kane finally choke slammed
him. There were light "We Want Ambrose" chants. One would have figured it was obvious
Ambrose was coming out. They showed him driving a police car back, wearing a uniform and
carrying a baton. It was funny because it was a NYPD car even though they were in Uniondale,
not that any of that really matters. Ambrose was laying people out until Rollins attacked him from
behind. Reigns speared Noble and Mercury and hit a Superman punch on Kane. Ambrose did the
Dirty Deeds on Kane. The show was about to end and The Authority ran off. But they left the
contract behind. Reigns brought him the contract and Ambrose signed it to end the show.
They had been advertising a Cena & Orton & Reigns vs. Rollins & Show & Rusev main event. But
after Raw ended, Orton pinned Wyatt in a good dark match with the RKO, making that the last
match ever at the Coliseum.
Notes from the 5/26 tapings in Wilkes-Barre. It opened with a dark match with Owens
pinning R-Truth with a pop up power bomb.
Main Event opened with O'Neil & Young beating The Ascension when O'Neil pinned Viktor with
Clash of the Titus. Ryder pinned Slater with the Rough Ryder. Nikki Bella pinned Summer Rae in a
non-title match with the rack attack. Neville pinned Rose with the Red Arrow. Rose did a promo
before the match saying there's no more Exotic Express and it's no longer party time all the time.
In another dark match, Charlotte beat Fox with the bridging figure four.
Smackdown opened with Ambrose doing a promo. He talked about Raw the night before and
thanked Reigns for helping him out. He once again brought up Justin Bieber in reference to
Rollins. He said how he had to race back to the arena to get there in time to sign the contract.
The Lucha Dragons beat Kidd & Cesaro in a lumberjack match with all the other teams in the
Chamber at ringside. The New Day interfered, leading to Kalisto pinning Kidd with the Salida del
Sol. Hot crowd and a good match.
R-Truth pinned Barrett in a quick match. Only in WWE do you look at a guy like Barrett losing
constantly and think he must be the favorite to win the IC title. After the match, Sheamus came

out and gave Brogue kicks to Barrett and R-Truth.

Ryback beat Rusev via DQ for throwing Ryback's head into the post. Wow, we're using 1972 AWA
rules. Rusev was selling his right ankle most of the match. The doctors carried Rusev to the back
during the break while the cameras seemed to be off. Fans were chanting "We Want Lana."
Paige pinned Naomi with Rampage. So both title challengers lose on TV the week before the title
match.
Cole interviewed Owens in the ring. Owens said that while he's been in WWE for two weeks, he's
been wrestling for 15 years all over the world. He said that Cena has never beaten him and Cena
needs to prove something to him. They showed footage of him taking out Zayn and he said that
if he would do that to someone he cares a lot about, what would he do to Cena?
Main event saw Reigns & Ambrose beat Kane & Rollins via DQ for Noble & Mercury's interference
in the Groundhog Day main event. Reigns got the biggest reaction on the show. Reigns had
Rollins pinned after a Superman punch when they did the interference. To me, you don't have
Reigns have Rollins beat when Ambrose is getting the title shot three days later. Reigns should do
that when it's setting up his title match. The New Day hit the ring and attacked Ambrose. This
was a set up to have enough catchers out there for Reigns to do another running dive over the
top. Ambrose & Reigns cleaned house on the New Day, but this allowed Kane to choke slam
Reigns and then Rollins used a Pedigree on Ambrose to end the show.
After taping ended, Wyatt, who hadn't appeared on the card at all, attacked both Reigns and
Ambrose when they were still selling. Reigns and Ambrose made a comeback and Reigns speared
Wyatt and Ambrose laid out Wyatt with Dirty Deeds.
Notes from the 5/21 NXT TV tapings. I was told that some of the stuff was taped out of order
so the listing based on shows may be off slightly. They oversold the building again, turned people
away, after adding more chairs so they had more people in the building than ever before. Was
told that generally, the heat was disappointing, nothing like the night before, and it was nothing
that special as a taping.
In a dark match, Braun Stowman who is the giant that was in the Rose buds and was a world's
strongest man guy, pinned Dash Wilder.
The first show, theoretically on 5/27, opened with Zayn's music, but Owens came out. Zayn
never appeared on the show and nothing was said about him. Owens said it was the last time
you'd ever hear that music because this time Zayn isn't coming back. He said he wanted to do an
open challenge (this airs before Chamber and the Cena match) but wasn't insecure and likes it
when people earn their title match. Fans started chanting "John Cena sucks" at him. Owens tried
to heel his way out of the face reaction by saying, "It's weird because I've never heard you say
Sami Zayn sucks and he does too." He noted that he did what he said he was going to do. Zayn
showed up at Takeover and he took him out. He said he let the crowd live the great moment
when Samoa Joe showed up because he could have dropped Joe in an instant. Regal came out
and said the only reason Owens is even in NXT right now is that Regal admitted that he attacked
Owens first. Solomon Crowe came out and said Owens is scared and called him a piece of crap.
Owens then offered him a title shot and Regal agreed to it. Owens insulted the crowd, but they
stayed behind him.
Emma beat Bayley with the Emma lock. Dana Brooke was at ringside. After the match, the two of
them double-teamed Bayley until Charlotte ran in. They beat down Charlotte as well with Brooke
mostly doing the laying out of Charlotte. It's clear they are going to feud over who is the best
athlete. Emma had a new song and she's a full heel.
Blake & Murphy beat Elias Sampson & Mike Rallis. Alexa Bliss was in Blake & Murphy's corner.

Blake pinned Sampson after a frog splash and then Bliss used her sparkle splash on Sampson.
Finn Balor pinned Tye Dillinger with the double foot stomp off the top.
Owens beat Crowe with the power bomb. Fans loved Owens and were chanting "Get the
stretcher." Crowe didn't get much offense in. Samoa Joe did a run-in and Owens bailed out.
What appeared to be the second show, for 6/3, saw Tyler Breeze pin Rose with the beauty shot.
Fans were chanting "We Want Kruger." Rose played a cross between Adam Rose and Leo Kruger
so it looks like he's going to transition back. Rose also looked far more impressive than in a long
time. I was told that people weren't sure if this was taped, because the two worked a much
stiffer style than anyone else at the taping and had a very good match.
Eva Marie came out for an interview. She talked about how great the women of NXT are and said
she was wanting to be a part of it. These fans didn't want that, chanting "You can't wrestle" and
just harassing her as she tried to do a babyface promo. It threw her off.
Bliss beat Carmella with a schoolgirl holding the ropes.
The Vaudevillains beat Jason Jordan & Marcus Louis when Aiden English did a swinging
neckbreaker to Louis. They are doing a gimmick where Jordan is looking to find a new tag team
partner and one fails after another.
Balor pinned Rhyno after Rhyno missed a gore into the corner and Balor won with a schoolboy.
Rhyno gave Balor a great looking gore on the stage after the match.
For what appeared to be the third show, on 6/10, Ryder & Mojo Rawley beat Sampson & Rallis.
Ryder & Rawley went into the crowd where a bunch of plants were all wearing "Stay Hyped"
Rawley T-shirts and they celebrated by staying hyped.
Emma beat Blue Pants with the Emma lock. Blue Pants (Leva Bates) was super over as this
culture figure. People started singing Happy Birthday, knowing it was her birthday (she turned
32). After the match, the ring announcer then had everyone sing Happy Birthday to her, which
I'm guessing will not air on television. Fans were chanting "Leva," loud, so don't think that's
making the TV show. She's really just enhancement talent but the live crowd in Orlando loves her
and even on the road in cities that she doesn't work in, there are "Blue Pants" chants.
Breeze beat Bull Dempsey with the beauty shot. Kind of weird as Dempsey was chasing Breeze
and Dempsey had to work being blown up, so fans chanted "Do your cardio" at him. The thing is,
Dempsey was positioned as the face, and that's hardly a face characteristic in wrestling, playing
up being gassed.
Becky Lynch beat Jessie (Jessie McKay) with the Fujiwara armbar. Lynch was treated like she was
a big star.
Baron Corbin beat Angelo Dawkins with the End of Days.
Samoa Joe beat Scott Dawson with a bronco buster. Owens was on commentary. Joe sold more
than you'd think. As Owens was leaving, Joe challenged him to a match. Owens said that Joe was
a rookie in NXT and he was the veteran, and that it wouldn't be fair for Joe to get a title match
after only one match. Regal came out and ordered Owens vs. Joe in a non-title match next week.
The final show taped was for 6/17, opening with Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore & Carmella beat
Murphy & Blake & Alexa Bliss.
The Vaudevillains beat Jason Jordan & Kid Mikaze. This was the match where Mikaze (Sarath Ton)
got hurt in.
Charlotte beat Cassie (K.C. Cassidy) with the bridging figure eight.

Final main event saw Owens going to a no contest with Joe. They were brawling outside the ring
and knocked down the ref. So the match ended. Later, Owens called Joe a bitch and Joe went
after him again. A bunch of wrestlers came out to pull them apart. They'd break free several
more times. Crowd was big into all of this. Owens knocked out a bunch of the guys at the end. I
was told the match was great.
The only NXT house of the weekend was 5/23 in Starke, FL, where they sold out the 225-seat
building. The crowd liked the show but the negative is that Owens, Zayn, Itami and Charlotte
were all advertised. While Itami and Zayn were both injured, I don't know what the deal with
Owens was, while Charlotte was working on the main roster. But we did get a complaint that with
the star power advertised, so many of the key ones weren't there. For Charlotte, it's far better for
her at this stage to work WWE shows than NXT shows for the experience in front of larger crowds
that aren't going to pop easy for her because of the NXT women having an easier time because
of the presentation. But with all of them out, it probably would have been good to bend over
backwards and at least have Owens. But it's also 225 people who know it's developmental. Devin
Taylor, the announcer, wrestled doing what was described to me as a "Sex and the City" gimmick
with a big handbag. K.C. Cassidy worked as Cassie, and Jessie McKay as Jessie as a new heel tag
team. There is a newcomer named Preston Cunningham III, who seems to be doing an Ethan
Carter III gimmick. He plays a spoiled rich kid and Braun Stowman, a giant world's strongest
man type, laid him out. Baron Corbin and Jason Jordan had a surprisingly good 9:00 match.
Corbin, even though a face on TV, worked as the heel here. Again, in developmental, I don't think
that Tv to house show continuity has to always be there because part of the thing is to test these
guys out as both faces and heels, both for the experience and also to determine what they are
best at before moving up. Obviously they see something in Corbin. Lina, who is Lina Fanane, was
described as someone who is going to be compared to Awesome Kong. She worked with Becky
Lynch. She is a huge Samoan woman in black leather, described as looking like a badass Earthe
Kitt. She has a real ease in the ring and seems to be a natural, but obviously her wrestling is at
the beginner stage as she's just started working matches on shows in the last few weeks. But she
can play the Goliath vs. David, as she did with Lynch. The match went 6:00 and Lynch won with
the legdrop. That wasn't supposed to be the finish, but Lina didn't kick out in time and refs are
instructed to call it as a shoot in developmental. Main event as a fun comedy match with Balor &
Crowe beating Breeze & Dillinger. They were saving their bodies as no real high spots and lots of
comedy. Balor pinned Dillinger with the double foot stomp.
The Cena tour opened on 5/22 in Manchester, NH, before 5,000 fans. 5/23 in Worcester drew
6,000. The 5/24 show in White Plains drew a near sellout of 3,700 fans.
The Orton tour opened on 5/23 in Utica before 3,500 fans. 5/24 in Binghamton drew 3,700.
The Manchester show opened with Neville pinning Barrett with the Red Arrow. Harper pinned
Ryder with the full nelson slam. After the match, Harper & Rowan gave Ryder the 3-D. Prime
Time Players beat Slater & Dallas. Match was mostly comedy and fairly short. After the match,
Slater and Dallas got into an argument. Slater then challenged anyone in the back to come out
for a match. Axel-Mania and Macho Mandow came out. It was barely a match as Dallas walked
out and they bounced Slater around and Axel-Mania pinned him after a leg drop in about a
minute or two. Ambrose pinned Kane with Dirty Deeds. Nikki Bella retained the Divas title pinning
Snuka with a roll-up. The New Day, on this night being Big E & Woods, beat Cesaro & Kidd due to
interference from Kingston. After the match, Cesaro & Kidd cleaned house. Main event saw Cena
beat Rusev in a cage match to retain the U.S. title. Lana came out as a babyface, but slammed
the cage door on Cena's head. Rusev went to climb out, but Cena recovered, went over the top
and slammed the cage door on Rusev's head and escaped.
In Worcester, it was mostly the same show. The only difference is they had Rowan pin Ryder with
a full nelson slam instead of Harper wrestling, but Harper & Rowan did the 3-D on Ryder after the

match. Sandow had family at ringside, as is usually the case when he performs in Worcester. The
New Day team was Kingston & Woods on this show. Big E tried to get heat by saying Tom Brady
was a cheater. Kidd & Cesaro then came out and said that at least Brady had balls to deflate.
Kingston's mother was in the front row and they played up to her and told people not to boo
Kingston in front of his mother. Big E interfered, leading to Kingston pinning Cesaro. Best match
of the show, and they had the most heat, even more than the main event, but timing of the finish
was off. Same Cena over Rusev main event, but this time ending when Lana came out and
slammed the cage door in Rusev's face after two ref bumps, and Cena pinned him with the
Attitude Adjustment.
In White Plains, it was mostly the same show. Harper worked with Ryder this time winning with
his discus clothesline. Kingston & E worked as the New Day, winning when Woods interfered, and
once again they had the best match on the show. Same finish in Cena vs. Rusev as the night
before, with Lana slamming the cage door on Rusev and the Attitude Adjustment for the pin.
The Orton crew opened in Utica. Ziggler pinned Sheamus in a good opening match. Crowd was
hot for the opener. Jimmy Uso pinned Maddox. Maddox asked people if they knew who he was.
Most didn't. Maddox claimed he was one of the greatest General Managers in the history of Raw.
Mostly comedy. Stardust came out and cut a promo telling people to order the network, go on
Twitter and the web site. He said if they were on Twitter, they'd have known the big
announcement of Survivor Series coming to Utica. Then he laughed at people saying he was
lying. Out came R-Truth, who pinned Stardust in an entertaining match. Lucha Dragons beat Los
Matadores. The crowd wasn't much into the match. They teased the idea of Torito leaving Los
Matadores for the Lucha Dragons. Lots of people went to the concession stand during this match.
Los Matadores ordered Torito to go to the back for easy heel heat. Reigns beat Show in a cage
match. An older woman ended up being speared by someone in security who thought she was
getting too close to Reigns. Reigns beat Show in a cage match. Reigns got a mixed reaction at
first, but was cheered louder as the match went on. Charlotte & Emma beat Fox & Layla with
Charlotte over Layla with the bridging figure four. Match was okay. Charlotte and Emma were on
opposite sides days earlier on the NXT special where Emma is a full-fledged heel and Charlotte is
the top face. Emma worked as the face here, since she never turned heel on WWE television.
Ryback pinned Wyatt. Main event saw Orton beat Rollins via DQ due to interference from Mercury
and Noble. Great main event. Crowd was flat for the finish because of the outside interference
DQ. These two do long matches in the top spot, going 20 to 30 minutes. Rollins went on the mic
and said he was the greatest champion the people in Utica had ever seen, saying he was better
than Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan or Randy Orton. I think one of those names doesn't belong.
Orton was the star of the show to the live crowd.
Binghamton was the same show except they had Sheamus pin Ziggler, which is weird in the
opener because of the rule of thumb of faces over in that spot.