Daily Update: New Brock Lesnar dates, Lacey Evans speeding ticket
DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Fatal five-way No. 1 contender’s match announced for WWE Raw
The Miz and Maryse announce birth of second daughter
WALTER, Imperium challenge Kushida to six-man tag match
MLW Fusion results: Hart Foundation vs. Dynasty tag title match
WWE Main Event results: Lucha House Party vs. EC3 and Eric Young
NJPW Destruction in Kobe live results: Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White
UFC on ESPN+ 17 live results: Yair Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Stephens
Latest Audio:
WOR: Bryan’s new child, BOLA, UFC, AEW, WWE
DragonKing Dark: The Oddities of Idaho
F4W NEWSLETTER: The Fiend challenging for Universal title at HIAC Joseph Currier looks at how quickly Wyatt’s Fiend character has been elevated to the title picture. Plus, Bryan Rose’s notes on Japan, and Vinny’s TV reviews.
With an upcoming Universal title shot at Hell in a Cell, WWE seems poised to elevate Bray Wyatt’s Fiend character to the absolute top of the company.
Sunday’s Clash of Champions pay-per-view ended with an angle to kickstart The Fiend’s program against Seth Rollins. After Rollins retained the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman in the main event, The Fiend appeared and attacked Rollins as he was celebrating on the stage. The lights went out during the celebration, with The Fiend then hitting Sister Abigail on Rollins and putting him in the Mandible Claw.
The next night on Raw also included an angle with The Fiend. At the start of the show, it was confirmed that Rollins will defend his Universal title against The Fiend inside of Hell in a Cell at next month’s PPV. In the main event segment, The Fiend put Kane in the Mandible Claw after Kane made an appearance in Knoxville, Tennessee and saved Rollins from Robert Roode, Dolph Ziggler, AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson. The Fiend then taunted a terrified Rollins, and the show ended with a distorted version of the Firefly Fun House theme song and intro video.
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WON NEWSLETTER: NXT debut on USA, Clash of Champions reviewed
NXT debuted on the USA Network and we look at the good and the bad of the first broadcast, plus have coverage of a number of major weekend shows and stories behind the scenes at all of them, and extensive details on New Japan’s business plans going forward as some of the lead items in the new issue of the Observer.
We look at the changing TV landscape, NXT numbers, problems with the web site, the two big TV bouts, all the things promoted for the future, and what happened at the show.
We also have a full report on Clash of Champions, with a look at the business notes, the Hell in a Cell show, a major item going forward on ticket sales throughout U.S. wrestling, PPV estimates, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
We look at the changes at AXS TV and how it affects wrestling going forward, as well as MMA.
We also look at tons of changes happening in WWE in October, FOX’s plans for promoting Smackdown, Smackdown on the West Coast, Paul Levesque talks changes in NXT, what When Worlds Collide will be, Takeover changes, value of NXT to WWE business going forward, FS 1 studios show update, Smackdown going overseas, Kacy Catanzaro, Royal Rumble notes, Ric Flair notes, WWE stock market value, most watched shows on the WWE Network, as well as a look at the weekend WWE and NXT live events with match rundowns, highlights and business notes.
We’ve got coverage of New Japan’s Destruction shows, previewing this week’s big show, the Young Lions tournament, as well as looking at the two shows this past week.
We look at the New Japan annual financial report, talking about revenue, profits, U.S. expansion and how it’s going, why WWE runs so many smaller markets and how that applies too New Japan and AEW, a look at where New Japan revenue comes from, New Japan World subs, merchandise sales, what match was most important to New Japan World growth, how AEW got television on TNT without ever running a show while New Japan struggles to make any TV money.
We also have an interesting talk by Jon Moxley about competing in G-1.
We also have full coverage of AAA in New York, the story behind why it was different from a usual AAA show, why a lot of talent wasn’t there, why the main event was handicapped as compared to past matches as well as match-by-match coverage with star ratings, business notes and poll results.
We also have a full repot of UFC from Vancouver, what’s next for the different fighters, match-by-match coverage and business notes.
We also update the situation over the weekend involving Big Cass. We run it down, a well as give his own thoughts on why he’s sorry for what happened.
We also have full coverage of all the WWE television shows from the past week.
We’ve also got in-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows,the key demos for the WWE shows and what can be learned from them.
We also have the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
Current subscribers click here to read.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Brock Lesnar has a few more dates added onto his growing fall schedule. He will be on the September 30th Raw from Phoenix, AZ, the October 4th SmackDown debut on Fox challenging WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, the October 11th SmackDown for the WWE Draft in Las Vegas, the October 25h SmackDown in Kansas City, MO, and the 11/15 SmackDown in Philadelphia, PA. PW Insider first reported some of the additional dates.
Lacey Evans was given a speeding ticket in Alberta Saturday and recorded the exchange while in character. WWE was in Edmonton for a house show. Natalya responded on Twitter, saying the member of the RCMP was her cousin.
In a much different speeding situation, Mickie James went for a ride with Jeff Burton at NASCAR’s Richmond, VA, speedway.
Killian Dain cut a promo on Matt Riddle for their street fight rematch this Wednesday on WWE NXT while also calling out NXT Champion Adam Cole.
Keith Elliot Greenberg wrote a feature for The Daily Beast on the life and death of Brian Christopher.
Rey Mysterio was at the Minnesota Vikings-Oakland Raiders game Sunday.
John Cena will be on the Monday, September 30th, Ellen DeGeneres show.
Sheamus talked to The Express about his friendship with Becky Lynch.
Xavier Woods told a rather gruesome story to TMZ about how a doctor helped adjust his teeth after he injured them in a match.
Pro Wrestling
Kylie Rae made her return to wrestling Saturday night, defeating Isaias Velazquez at Freelance Wrestling’s Game of the Genders show. A late addition filling in for Shotzi Blackheart, this was Rae’s first match since AEW’s Double or Nothing. It was said to be an emotional atmosphere.
Jay White defeated Tetsuya Naito in the main event of Destruction in Kobe this morning to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Goto attacked White after, setting up a future title match.
NJPW LA dojo member Karl Fredericks won this year’s Young Lion Cup, finishing the tournament with a 6-1 record and 12 points. Fredericks defeated Shota Umino today.
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced their sold out Fighting Spirit Unleashed show this Saturday from New York City will air live on New Japan World with Japanese commentary.
Tenille Dashwood, Jordynne Grace & Rosemary will face Taya Valkyrie, Kiera Hogan & Madison Rayne at Impact Wrestling’s Prelude to Glory Impact Plus special on October 18.
Mattel is creating another 1000 Randy Savage Slim Jim figures with an online sale date of September 30th.
Former UFC fighter Stephan Bonnar will wrestle on the Paradigm Pro Wrestling Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix, a one-night tourney under UWFi rules. Bonnar will not be in the tourney, but Anthony Henry, JD Drake, and Dominic Garrini will be part of the eight man field.
Madusa was on the Ring The Belle podcast discussing her career, her conversation with Vince McMahon at the Hall of Fame, and intergender wrestling.
Former indie wrestler Paul Lee is running for mayor of Ringgold, GA, his hometown. He owns a local wrestling promotion that runs monthly shows. (Thanks to Jason Hawkins)
Hannibal TV results from Saturday in Hawkesbury, ON: Double Dragon d Fear The Beard, Junior Benito b Big Fat Seb, Knightman won a 10 man Battle Royal, Mathis Myre, Samuel and The Spoiler b Xavier Black, Crow and Predator, GNW Women’s Champion Jessika Black d Eve, The Blood Hunter defeated Genesis
UFC/MMA
UFC announced Saturday that featherweight champion Max Holloway will defend his title against top contender Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245 in Las Vegas on December 14. That makes two title fights for that show as Amanda Nunes will defend her bantamweight belt against Germaine de Randamie on that show as well. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani has reported that UFC might add a third title fight to the show, their final PPV of 2019.
Following the disappointing UFC Mexico City main event Saturday night that ended in seconds following an accidental eye poke, Yair Rodriguez said he gives Jeremy Stephens “the benefit of the doubt” to how he reacted to it. For his part, Stephens still wants the fight when he’s recovered enough to do so.
If UFC wants to keep it a main event, the only option remaining on the calendar is the final show of the year: an ESPN+ event in South Korea on December 21st. Depending on how long Stephens is out for, two options include UFC Boston in mid-October as a co-main event or UFC 244 from MSG as another good fight to add to an already loaded show.
UFC continues their show a week pace with an ESPN+ event from Copenhagen, Denmark, featuring Jack Hermansson vs. Jared Cannonier as the headliner. While a lot of UFC regional talent dot the card, there are still some familiar names to hardcores on the show like Ovince Saint Preux, Cowboy Oliveira, Gunnar Nelson, Macy Chiasson, Siyar Bahadurzada, Lando Vannata, and Marc Diakese.
On the flip side, Bellator runs two shows this weekend, one from Ireland, featuring the return of Michael “Venom” Page, Jack Gallagher, and Benson Henderson vs. Myles Jury and the other from Los Angeles featuring the continuation of their featherweight Grand Prix with a title fight between champion Patricio Pitbull and Juan Archeleta, plus Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi in an expected no. 1 contender fight for a shot at light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader.
UFC posted a behind the scenes video on Cain Velasquez working the AAA in New York City last weekend.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind at WWF Mind Games
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