Daily Update: SmackDown, Dana on Punk & Brock, UFC 207 hype
THE ROUND-UP
The Latest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
John Cena’s return to kick off tonight’s SmackDown
Kenny Omega: ‘WWE is hiring people just to hire them’
WWE Madison Square Garden live results: Styles vs. Cena vs. Ambrose
Braun Strowman vs. Sami Zayn set for the first Raw of 2017
WWE Raw video highlights: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens
WWE Raw live results: The final episode of 2016
AUDIO
WOR: RAW report, Ronda Rousey, RIZIN, HHH on Nakamura, more! 12/27
WOR: Cyborg USADA violation, Cain Velasquez out, Ronda Rousey, more! 12/25
DR. KEITH PRESENTS: The Christmas Party Wrap-Up! 12/25
DR. KEITH PRESENTS: Kent Walton’s Christmas! 12/24
There will be a Raw house show tonight in St. Louis.
Wednesday has a Raw house show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a SmackDown show in Nashville.
RIZIN ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 1 A.M. EASTERN AND 10 P.M. PACIFIC FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA
Satoru Kitaoka vs Daron Cruickshank
Kanna Asakura vs Alyssa Garcia
Vadim Nemkov vs. Aliston Vicente in a tournament substitute bout
Yusuke Yachi vs. Mario Sismundo
Tatsumitsu Wada vs. Kai Kara-France
Yuki Motoya vs. Allan Nascimento
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Andy Souwer
Tenshin Nakusawa vs. Nikita Sapun
Rin Nakai vs. Kanako Murata
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Szymon Bajor in the tournament quarterfinals
Amir Aliakbari vs. Heath Herring in the tournament quarterfinals
Baruto Kaido vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the tournament quarterfinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. King Mo Lawal in the tournament quarterfinals
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore
International Wrestling Revolution Group, or IWRG, has been one of Mexico’s top independent promotions for over two decades. Yet aside from the period where it was the Mexican home of Ultimo Dragon’s students when Toryumon was getting off the ground, the promotion rarely got much international attention… Subscribers click here to continue.
WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more
A look at WWE and New Japan gearing up for a changing pro wrestling landscape in 2017 with new moves and ideas planned by each side is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The story notes the WWE new moves in the U.K., the U.K. scene, the top talent there, notes on who WWE signed and why they didn’t sign the biggest names, long-term WWE plans for the market, HHH talks about WWE producing so much content and thoughts on how this changes the mentality of a lot of wrestlers in the U.K.
New Japan is making moves to expand internationally and its owner, Takaaki Kidani, talks about what he feels are the weakness of the WWE business model and why he thinks they will be running into trouble in just a few years.
This issue examines Urijah Faber’s career and the rise of lighter weight fighters, the success of Paige VanZant as a drawing card and what that means going forward, as well as future thoughts on Michelle Waterson, Mickey Gall and the others from Saturdays’ UFC show.
WWE’s final PPV show of 2016, Roadblock End of the Line is covered. Also, there’s talk about public interest, business notes on the show, what happened in the key bouts, the booking and why things happened the way they did, along with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Finally, there is an update on Mick Foley, what the original plans were for him and why they changed, and why he’ll soon be taking time off. Also, an update on Zack Ryder, a new WWE signee, a successful WWE franchise, advertised main events for this week’s television, WWE star competes in major fitness contest soon, as well as the most watched shows on the WWE Network, inside this issue.
Subscribers click here to continue.
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WON BACK ISSUE: December 5, 1999 WWF losing advertisers, Steve Austin gets good news regarding neck, more – If you’re looking for this week’s top story to be simplified into good vs. evil, you’re looking in the wrong place. After two years of the WWF’s new direction turning it into prime advertising for companies aiming products at in particular, teenage and young adult males, suddenly, this week advertisers were dropping like flies… Subscribers click here to continue.
TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Stephanie McMahon was prepared for Chicago’s CM Punk chants at last night’s Raw. During the opening segment, she responded to the chants by saying that if the crowd kept it up for two minutes and 15 seconds, they’d last a second longer than Punk did in his fight against Mickey Gall.
SmackDown closes out the year tonight with a big show that’s also in Chicago, Illinois. Three title matches are scheduled with AJ Styles defending the WWE Championship against Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler in a triple threat match, the Wyatt Family defending their tag titles in a four corners elimination match, and Alexa Bliss putting her Women’s title on the line against Becky Lynch. John Cena’s return to WWE TV will also kick off the show.
John Cena was interviewed by ESPN ahead of his return tonight.
Cody Rhodes spoke out on Twitter about last night’s Raw segment that referenced his father. In the segment, Bayley gave Goldust a Dusty Rhodes teddy bear before Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows interrupted the Golden Truth and Anderson tore the head off of the bear. Cody tweeted after it aired, “Not gonna’ say something mean or blow a whistle. All I can say…is that whoever produced that, I hope they never know what this feels like.” He also later responded to the reaction he got from the tweet, “Appreciate all the kind words tonight & even the dissenting opinions. I turned something private to public. I’m not perfect. I just miss him.”
Goldberg turns 50 years old today, and it’s also the anniversary of Kevin Nash breaking his WCW undefeated streak at Starrcade 1998. Goldberg returns to Raw next week in Tampa, Florida.
WWE revealed the logo for the upcoming United Kingdom Championship tournament.
Alexa Bliss gets her customized SmackDown Women’s title plates.
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
Ring of Honor announced Kyle O’Reilly & Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole & Cody Rhodes for their TV taping in Atlanta on January 14th. It’s the first 2017 ROH match that O’Reilly has been advertised for with his contract set to expire at the end of this year.
EVOLVE released a mini-documentary on Matt Riddle’s recent trip to China.
UFC
In an interview with TMZ Sports that was released today but appears to have been taped last week, Dana White was asked about Brock Lesnar and CM Punk’s futures in the UFC. White said that he doubted that Lesnar would fight again but wasn’t definitive about it. White said that he will figure out Punk’s future with him and needs to talk to him about it, though he seemed more pessimistic than Punk was recently on the MMA Hour about continuing his career in the UFC.
Josh Barnett has been flagged by USADA for a potential anti-doping violation caused by an out-of-competition sample taken on December 9th.
Cody Garbrandt was interviewed about his upcoming bantamweight title fight against Dominick Cruz at UFC 207.
The UFC released the first episode of Embedded for UFC 207, as well as the full Countdown special for the PPV.
John Gooden and Dan Hardy break down the Cruz vs. Garbrandt bantamweight title fight.
Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting profiled Amanda Nunes.
Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/27): Kevin Nash ends Goldberg’s streak at Starrcade
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