Daily Update: Kenny Florian plagiarism; Rusev injured or not?
Florian suspended
FOX Sports has suspended Kenny Florian, effective immediately, for plagiarism. The former UFC fighter and current fight analyst/commentator. In a FoxSports.com article, Florian took, word for word, portions of Lee Wylie’s analysis of 1940’s of boxer Willie Pep, when breaking down Sunday’s main event between Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz. Florian claimed to have lifted the lines from a running collections of notes he keeps about martial arts technique, but Wyle’s breakdown is:
Just five weeks old (i.e. how could Florian have forgotten he didn’t write it).
A video (i.e. Florian would have taken a bit of time to transcribe Wylie’s analysis verbatim as opposed to just quickly copying and pasting).
WWE Concussion Lawsuits
In the concussion lawsuits against WWE, the plaintiffs got a big win yesterday as the judge ruled that discovery/document production can begin with regards to the claims of Vito LoGrasso and former developmental wrestler Evan Singleton. This could change with the judge ruling on any of WWE’s outstanding motions to dismiss, though.
INVICTA FROM THE HANGAR AT THE ORANGE COUNTY FAIR IN COSTA MESA, CA ON UFC FIGHT PASS AT 9 P.M. EASTERN
Megan Anderson vs. Amber Leibrock
Amanda Bell vs. Ediane Gomes
Mizuki Inoue vs. Lacey Schuckman
Angela Hill vs. Alida Gray
Amber Brown vs. Shino VanHoose
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Raquel Pa’aluhi vs. Colleen Schneider
Livia Renata Souza vs. DeAnna Bennett for the strawweight title
Cris Cyborg Justino vs. Daria Ibragimova for the featherweight title
NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA DAY ONE ON SUNDAY IN KOCHI (not on New Japan World)
Kushida & Stuka Jr. vs. Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
The Panther & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Okumura
Fuego & Titan vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Barbaro Cavernario
Jay White & Dragon Lee vs. Virus & Hechicero
Juice Robinson & Mascara Dorada & Atlantis vs. Bushi & Evil & Tetsuya Naito
Volador Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Mephisto
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Mistico & Jushin Liger vs. Kazuchika Okada & Ultimo Guerrero & Gedo
Sunday has WWE in Canton, OH (Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto, Tommy Dreamer & Dudleys vs. Wyatt Family).
UFC FROM THE T.D GARDEN IN BOSTON
Fight Pass at 6 p.m. Eastern
Francimar Barroso vs. Elvis Mutapcic
Rob Font vs. Joey Gomez
Kyle Bochniak vs. Charles Rosa
Ilir Latifi vs. Sean O’Connell
Daron Cruickshank vs. Paul Felder
FS 1 at 8 p.m.
Maximo Blanco vs. Luke Sanders
Tim Boetsch vs. Ed Herman
Mehdi Baghdad vs. Chris Wade
Patrick Cote vs. Ben Saunders
Ross Pearson vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Travis Browne vs. Matt Mitrione
Eddie Alvarez vs. Anthony Pettis
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title
Raw will be live on Monday night in Columbus, OH. Brock Lesnar will be appearing on the show.
NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA DAY TWO ON TUESDAY IN KYOTO (not on New Japan World)
Ryusuke Taguchi & Fuego vs. Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka
The Panther vs. Okumura
Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Bobby Z
Dragon Lee & Jushin Liger & David Finlay & Titan vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Yoshi-Hashi & Virus & Hechicero
Stuka Jr. & Mascara Dorada & Atlantis vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi
Mistico & Kushida vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gedo
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Volador Jr. & Juice Robinson vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada & Mephisto
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Dayton, OH.
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Figure Four Weekly
Figure Four Weekly 1/4/2016: More on Gawker motioning to dismiss Hulk Hogan lawsuit
More information on Gawker’s motion to dismiss Hulk Hogan’s sex tape lawsuit, tons more.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: January 18, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: NJPW strips Nakamura, Sting to HOF
An update on Shinsuke Nakamura, WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling is the lead story of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. His departure, not losing the IC title in the ring, the decision making surrounding it, Nakamura’s final matches in Japan and his start in the U.S., New Japan’s next two PPV shows, and the future of the IC title.
Nick Diaz’s updated suspension, Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler, and the welterweight division title situation. UFC 197 through 200 with talk about what is next for Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, MMA in New York, what huge publicity coup UFC had that fell apart, is UFC too confident about high ticket prices, and a number of future main events. The plans for C.M. Punk’s debut.
Lots of WrestleMania updates, including what is on the books and other key matches. We’ve got more on John Cena’s surgery, updates on a number of WWE injuries, a look at the first Smackdown on USA, more on brain injuries to fighters and wrestlers, Notes on the next NXT tapings, new WWE camps, double standards, Linda McMahon update, NXT weekend, and football background of two NXT stars.
Rundowns of all the WWE & NXT house shows over the weekend and business notes. Updates on Royal Rumble.
A feature on Sting and his career, from growing up through Memphis, through WCW and TNA and his final run in WWE. How he got started, his first break, the Ric Flair match that made him a star, when he was originally going to win the NWA title and why it was delayed, what happened when he was champion, the Hogan vs. Sting disaster, how he ended up in TNA.
Full coverage of TNA’s tapings and PPV, contract issues, the Matt Hardy situation and what is the short-term future for television.
Yoel Romero and his potential test failure and how this changes the middleweight division. Romero’s background, fighter reactions to his test failure.
The future of the AAA Mega championship and the current plans for Guerra de Titanes, the first major show of 2016 in AAA.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 23, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Survivor Series review, Rock becomes Corporate Champion
A full review of WWF Survivor Series with The Rock becoming the Corporate Champion, more WCW woes, plus tons of news.
SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Rusev, who had denied Dave’s report of a minor knee injury during the week, is wearing a pad/sleeve on one of his knees during WWE’s tour of India.
Former Tough Enougher Daniel Puder was on a podcast recently and had some interesting comments to make about bullying from Big Show, Bill DeMott, and Bob Holly.
After a RevPro show, AJ Styles told the crowd that if there’s a spot in the Royal Rumble for him, he’ll kick ass for everyone. Here’s the video. (Thanks to Martin Bentley)
UFC/MMA
Diego Brandao tested positive for marijuana after his loss to Brian Ortega on Jan 2. More on this here.
Ronda Rousey will reportedly star alongside Tina Fey in a comedy called “Do Nothing Bitches”. In the movie, Rousey’s character is an instructor at a camp attended by rich housewives and she’ll likely whip them into shape. Universal Pictures purchased the rights.
Anyone who tried to sign up for EA Sports UFC 2 beta access and didn’t get an announcement email should read this post from EA Sports and follow the instructions outlined. The retail version of the game is out on March 15th and available for pre-order now.
The story of a gang member turning his life around with MMA and religion is detailed by Fox News Latino. Rene “Level” Martinez co-founded a street gang in the 1990s before changing his life and becoming a MMA fighter in the 2000s. He made a documentary about his journey. According to the story, his past life led him to doing backyard prize fights and some of those were uploaded to YouTube. That notoriety allowed for an opportunity to compete in MMA.
At yesterday’s Invicta weigh-ins, Bantamweight Colleen Schneider missed weight by ¾ of a lb on her first attempt. She weighed in again at ¼ lb over and was fined 25% of her purse as a result
In other news on tonight’s Invicta show, after weighing in at 144.6 lbs for her Featherweight title defence, Cris Cyborg was already up to 163.8 lbs this morning.
MISC
This week’s 6:05 Superpodcast features David Bixenspan and Brian Last discussing some fairly odd old-school wrestling topics, including the “career” of The Hangman, The Thing’s career as an enforcer for drug runners, and more.
Hoodslam is featured in an article from the Reno Gazette-Journal. The article briefly describes the Hoodslam experience and includes quotes from wrestler El Chupacabra. It also includes a video of the reporter doing wrestling moves in a ring with Chupacabra and she even does a flying headscissors. The feature plugs a local spot show and the Dark Sheik is quoted as saying, “Please, please don’t bring your kids.”
Nick Dinsmore’s wrestling school is the focus of a local newspaper article from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dinsmore talks about starting his school and running local indie shows. The article treats the whole thing rather seriously with the lead sentence reading: “Professional wrestling is among the most enigmatic of athletic endeavors.” A short video also shows trainees doing various moves.
Midwest Wrestling Association next event is February 6 in Columbus, Nebraska headlined by MWA Champion defending his title against Nathan Redwing.
Metro Pro Wrestling returns to the Turner Rec Center in Kansas City, Kansas, January 30 with special guest will be former WWF/NWA/ECW/SMW star Tracy Smothers!
In Your Face Wrestling runs tonight at the Polish Community Center, 250 Washington Ave Extension, in Albany, NY.
Smash Wrestling returns to Oshawa, Ontario, at the Harmony Creek Events Centre on Saturday, February 6th with Space Monkey vs. The Godfather.
Rock Solid Wrestling runs on Feb 12th at Northern College Lake Campus in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
ON THIS DAY IN WORLD PRO WRESTLING HISTORY: Daily pro wrestling history (01/16): Anderson and Eaton win WCW World Tag Team Titles