Daily Update: UFC fallout, NJPW, Shun Skywalker
DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
NJPW WTL & BOSJ night one live results: The tour begins
Two titles change hands at Impact Turning Point
Impact Turning Point results: Rich Swann vs. Sami Callihan
Impact Knockouts Tag Team title tournament bracket unveiled
Latest Audio:
WOR: Mike Tenay on the Hall of Fame, Zelina Vega, AEW, ratings 11/14
WON NEWSLETTER: November 16, 2020 Observer Newsletter: 2020 Observer Hall of Fame issue
One of our two biggest issues of the year, the 2020 Hall of Fame issue is out this week. It’s got complete results of the balloting among historians, active and retired performers, reporters and historians by category as well as final voting totals, plus who will and won’t be back on next year’s ballot.
The issue runs down the new members with extensive biographies on all of them. It explains the voting process and criteria, as well as runs down who came close. We also look at voting combinations that were popular, and notes on some of the key candidates. We list all of the first ballot Hall of Famers in history as well as the four highest vote getters in history. We look at people new to the ballot next year, who picked up Hall of Fame numbers in different categories along with bios of four of the five inductees.
Also in this issue:
AEW Full Gear show, including future AEW direction, match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results on the show.
Changes in the fundamental manner WWE has run its business since the beginning of time and why health conditions and economics have completely changed the industry.
New Japan’s upcoming tournaments, the Tokyo Dome show plans, the story behind it, business notes, plus a complete rundown of Power Struggle with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Survivor Series and this week’s WWE television that leads to it.
Where WWE may be taping from after it leaves Orlando and the pros and cons of the place, Tribute to the Troops and why the rating number may surprise people, WrestleMania note, Paige talks Alberto Del Rio’s case, Stalker tries to invader Paige’s home, Bellas talk a return to the ring, WWE new trademarks, Dwayne Johnson after a movie franchise adn plan for new show, John Cena’s next big role, UK TV ratings, how Smackdown and AEW rank among sports shows, plus the market value of WWE and the most-watched shows from the past week from the WWE Network.
Saturday’s UFC show with match coverage and business notes.
Ratings breakdowns in every segment for Wednesdays and every category for other shows, looking at stats not available elsewhere to get the deepest read into how shows are doing, what categories are doing well and how shows compare with previous weeks and one year ago.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about New Japan, Hall of Fame, Raw & Smackdown and the rest of the news with Wrestling Observer Radio. Here is Saturday’s show with Mike Tenay talking Zelina Vega, AEW and the Hall of Fame balloting results.
Regarding combat sports trending stuff over the past week, Terrence Crawford was No. 4 yesterday with 200,000 searches and Paul Felder was No. 16 with 50,000. The only other thing that trended on Google all week was Zelina Vega on Friday at No 16 with 100,000 searches. On today’s show with Mike Tenay and Garrett Gonzalez we talked in detail about the Vega situation and why in the end what happened was inevitable.
We are doing polls this weekend for today’s New Japan show in Nagoya as well as the Dragon Gate Kobe World show held earlier today in Kobe, you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs in the middle plus a best and worst match to [email protected]
New Japan World has another show at 4:30 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning from Komatsu:
Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
Great O’Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
David Finlay & Juice Robinsoni vs Evil & Yujiro Takahashi
Sanada & Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.
Cobb was revealed earlier today as the newest member of The Empire, as we had been noting for weeks. The Super Juniors tournament will continue on Tuesday in a show from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
In last night’s Rafael dos Anjos win over Paul Felder, there was all kinds of controversy over Chris Lee giving Felder rounds two, three and four and a 48-47 win when the other two judges had it 50-45. Media scores were not only 100 percent for dos Anjos, but 70 percent of the reporters’ scores were a 50-45 shutout.
Shun Skywalker beat Eita to win the Open the Dream Gate title earlier today at the Kobe World show, which is the company’s biggest event of the year. They announced that Kobe World would take place over two nights, 7/30 and 8/1, next year and that Masato Yoshino, who was going to retire this year, would be retire after the second show
WWE
Ringside News has this rundown of how the decision making went down for the women’s Survivor Series qualifying match on Friday’s Smackdown. This is all accurate and Chelsea Green was scheduled to win the match before getting hurt.
UFC
Aliaskhab Khizriev faces Wellington Turman on the 2/6 show, which is the card headlined by Alistair Overeem vs. Alexander Volkov.
AEW
For those into Mid Atlantic Wrestling nostalgia for 37 years ago, AEW is trying this out here as a promotional piece for Wednesday night’s show.
OTHER NEWS NOTES
MLW returns to television and streaming on Wednesday with a show on Pluto TV and YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern with Jacob Fatu vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. for the MLW title as the main event.
The MLW show scheduled for 12/5 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia has been moved to April 10, 2021.
Uly Diaz scored a three second knockout, the fastest in history,over Daniele Benedetto, at the Bare Knuckle Boxing show in Miami on Friday night.
This is a great historical piece on the formation of the UWA 45 years ago in Mexico, which was a long-term rival for EMLL
A story on the relationship between Don Callis and Kenny Omega.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk I Quit match
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