Daily Update: Hana Kimura, Newsweek, Dark Side of the Ring
DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Two matches announced for WWE 205 Live
Triple threat Women’s title match set for NXT TakeOver: In Your House
Ric Flair signs new contract with WWE
AEW Dynamite ratings up for final Double or Nothing build, NXT down
Cody media call audio: AEW Double or Nothing, future in Jacksonville
Latest Audio:
WOL: AEW and NXT, Double or Nothing, tons more! 5/22
Wrestling Weekly: Working out with the Four Horsemen 5/22
B&V: Bryan and Vinny review AEW and NXT head-to-head! 5/21
WON NEWSLETTER: May 25, 2020 Observer Newsletter: Death of Shad Gaspard
A look at the life and career of Shad Gaspard, plus tons of news.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
We will have a new Observer Radio today with an interview with Ross Hart of the Hart family, talking about Owen Hart and the glory days of Stampede Wrestling. We will be doing a weekend poll for Double or Nothing II which takes place at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on PPV and B/R Live in the U.S. and FITE outside the U.S. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
There was a major scare earlier today involving Hana Kimura, one of the top stars of Stardom. She evidently had a severe bout with depression. She is part of the cast of a reality show in Japan that is also popular on Netflix. She lost her temper at one of the male roommates on the show for not taking her ring outfit out of the wash before starting his own wash and her ring costume got ruined and she lost her temper and slapped him. It resulted in her become a big villain to people viewing the show and led to her depression where she posted photos of her cutting her arms and there was an implied suicide threat.
In the incident filmed in early January, one of the housemates named Kai had washed his clothes, and unbeknownst to him, Hana’s wrestling gear was in the washer. He washed it again with his stuff and threw it in the dryer. Then it shrunk and she couldn’t wear it anymore. She was angry and said it was the costume she wore in the Tokyo Dome, and it had many memories, and that her ring gear was her life. Without it she can’t work. This was all on the show.
She confronted the guy and slapped him upside the head to knock his hat off, because he didn’t seem apologetic. Since that episode, Terrace House fans worldwide were sending her nasty messages and telling her to die, etc. “If your costume is your life, why did you leave it in the washing machine” and stuff like that, telling her to leave the show and die.
Newsweek has a story on COVID-19 affecting pro wrestling including interviews with David Starr and Deonna Purrazzo. Purrazzo said: “We were given the option and were told had we said no, it wouldn’t be held against us. I don’t believe that. I feel like a lot of people do feel pressured. It’s a very presumptuous thing to ask people to do right now—to choose to work or not. Especially in the political company that we work in, people don’t believe they’re not going to lose their job or their spot [on the show] if they say no. It’s a really hard choice to ask people to make. It’s just a scary thought because you don’t know who’s been exposed to what. And then we’re touching each other, we’re sweating on each other. I don’t think, no matter what precautions can be taken, that it’s necessarily the safest option.”
Evan Husney, one of the producers and co-creator of Dark Side of the Ring, mentioned on Pat Laprade’s Les Anti-Pod de la Lutte show that they did contact Bret Hart for the episode on Owen Hart. Bret never got back to them. Husney noted that there were no restrictions imposed on who they could contact for the show and they could have asked other members of the Hart family but decided to concentrate on Martha and Owen’s children.
The John Cena hosted Nickelodeon reboot of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” was nominated for a daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show.
WWE
Smackdown tonight has A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus in IC title tournament matches, plus Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley in a non-title match and Otis & Mandy Rose vs. Dolph Ziggler & Sonya Deville. They will be doing a 205 Live show, not live, as this was all taped on 5/12 with Isaiah Scott vs, Tyler Breeze.
Corey Graves will be doing a second podcast, called “Bare With Us” about relationships with girlfriend Leah Van Dale (Carmella) which will debut on 6/11.
WrestleMania 34 from Santa Clara, CA in 2015 will be replayed on 6/2 on FS1.
Total Bellas did 533,000 viewers last night, but did a 0.25 in 18-49, a number almost as high as AEW and was No. 8 on cable in the demo.
A story on Otis. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
UFC
There are a number of new UFC fights that have been announced over the past 24 hours:
Cortney Casey vs. Gillian Robertson is set for 6/20
Tecia Torres vs. Brianna Van Buren is set for 6/20
Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo for the vacant flyweight title is set for 7/18
Jennifer Maia vs. Viviane Araujo is set for 6/27
Chase Hooper vs. Alex Caceres is set for 6/6
Paige VanZant vs, Amanda Ribas is set for 7/11
An article on the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the return of boxing and MMA to Nevada.
AEW
Besides Smackdown, there will be an AEW Countdown to Double or Nothing special tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT.
Odds for tomorrow’s AEW show from www.BetOnline.ag
Jon Moxley -250 vs. Brodie Lee +170
Nyla Rose -200 vs. Hikaru Shida +150
Lance Archer -150 vs. Cody +110
Inner Circle -180 vs. Elite +140
MJF -150 vs. Jungle Boy +110
Shawn Spears -400 vs. Dustin Rhodes +250
Ladder match: Darby Allin +175 vs. Mystery Guy +275 vs.Rey Fenix +400 vs. Orange Cassidy +700 vs. Colt Cabana +900 vs. Frankie Kazarian +1000 vs. Kip Sabian +1000 vs. Scorpio Sky +1000 vs. Luchasaurus +1200
An interview with Matt Hardy.
MISCELLANEOUS
The premiere of the reality show Labor of Love last night on FOX did 890,000 viewers. Matt Striker is one of the contestants on a show where a woman is attempting to pick a man to impregnate her. Seriously. It only did a 0.2 in 18-49 and was by far the least watched prime time network show. Those are disastrous numbers.
Zachary Wentz of the Rascalz and Kimber Lee were married as both put wedding photos up on their social media.
MLW Anthology tomorrow night at 10 p.m. on Bein Sports and on YouTube at 6:05 p.m. will feature Mance Warner.
ROH is adding a new YouTube show called “ROH Week by Week” which will debut on Monday at 1p.m. Eastern hosted by Quinn McKay. It will air every Monday and cover the news of the week in the promotion.
There will also be an ROH Trivia Night on 5/28 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Zoom
This week’s ROH TV show will feature Dragon Lee with some of his biggest ROH bouts..
More ROH news from Kevin Eck.
The Fale Dojo in Auckland, New Zealand has opened for public fitness training. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
CWE has announced a live streaming show for 5/29 from Winnipeg. They are asking for donations. This will be the company’s 11th anniversary event. It will air live and free on the CWE Wrestling group discussion Facebook page.
NWA Wildside starts on IWTV on 6/8 and will be airing the promotion’s TV shows starting with the first episode in 1999. More than 300 episodes were produced and featured people like A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Ron Killings, Abyss, New Jack, Matt Sydal, The Briscoes and more.
A new group of New Japan Pro Wrestling action figures has been released, including Los Ingobernables.
The musical “Rockquiem for a Wrestler” loosely based on the life of the late Ivan Koloff is scheduled to live stream from the Triad Theater in New York on 6/27.
An ESPN story on Randy Savage. (thanks to Barry Werner)
Bill Apter released a podcast regarding the death of Shad Gaspard.
An article on training to be a pro wrestler.
A story on Freelance Wrestling in Chicago. (thanks to Lee Wall)
Rocky Romero’s new song Someday is out now. He’s interviewed on the newest episode of On The Turnbuckle to promote it.
Shazza McKenzie has launched a new podcast. First episode discusses Becky Lynch’s pregnancy and the CZW story from the perspective of a female performer. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Info regarding a Ivan Koloff musical.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: WCW Slamboree 1994
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