New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament kicked off in style with Kushida vs. Kyle O’Reilly in the main event. We’ll have coverage of every show of the tournament, and our Zach Dominello did a big preview piece for the entire tournament that’s a must-read. There’s also a preview in audio form on the latest DKP show featuring Alan and guest Mark Robinson.
NEW JAPAN BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS ON SUNDAY FROM SHIZUOKA (this won’t air live but should be up some time during Sunday on New Japan World)
Jay White & David Finlay vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Rocky Romero
Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Kyle O’Reilly & Matt Sydal vs. Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida & Katsuyori Shibata
Tiger Mask vs. Ricochet
Jushin Liger vs. Bobby Fish
Volador Jr. vs. Trent Baretta
Will Ospreay vs. Chase Owens
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
WWE EXTREME RULES ON SUNDAY AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN FROM THE PRUDENTIAL CENTER IN NEWARK, NJ ON THE WWE NETWORK AND PPV
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin preshow match
Kalisto vs. Rusev for U.S. title
Usos vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson tornado match
Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho asylum cage match
Charlotte vs. Natalya submissions match for women’s title
New Day vs Vaudevillains for tag team title
The Miz vs. Cesaro vs Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens for IC title
Roman Reigns vs. A.J. Styles in an extreme rules match for the WWE title
NEW JAPAN BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS ON MONDAY FROM NIIGATA (this won’t air live but should be up sometimeMonday on New Japan World)
Satoshi Kojima & Jay White & Ricochet vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay
Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson & Volador Jr.
Matt Sydal vs. Bushi
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gedo
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay
Kushida vs. Rocky Romero
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan & Bobby Fish vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Trent Baretta vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil
Raw will be Monday night in Baltimore at the Royal Farms Arena.
NEW JAPAN BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS ON TUESDAY FROM YAMAGATA (this won’t air live but should be up sometimeTuesday on New Japan World)
David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Gedo & Yoshi-Hashi
Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Kyle O’Reilly & Matt Sydal vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Kushida & Juice Robinson & Jay White
Tiger Mask vs. Volador jr.
Jushin Liger vs. Chase Owens
Bobby Fish vs. Ricochet
Will Ospreay vs. Trent Baretta
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bush
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday in Norfolk.
THE ROUND UP
Cody Runnels requested his release from WWE
AJ Styles ready for PPV, works Utica house show
Dave Meltzer’s live PWG report for May 20: Roderick Strong vs. Sami Callihan
New Japan Best of the Super Juniors night 1 live results: Kushida vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Bellator 155 live results: Carvalho vs. Manhoef disaster
If you’ve ever wanted to WATCH our radio shows here on the site, check out our new Youtube page! No full video shows, but lots of video clips, full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Figure Four Weekly 5/16/2016: WWE concussion lawsuit deposition takes a strange turn – Details on the developments in WWE’s concussion lawsuit, and more. Find out all the details in this weeks issue of Figure Four Weekly.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
READ IT HERE: May 23, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Extreme Rules preview, Vince McMahon sells portion of WWE stock, tons more
A look at what’s next for WWE after Extreme Rules, the UFC sale with lots of exclusive info, Vince & Linda McMahon selling their stock, Chris Weidman’s injury and how that changes plans, the staggering drop in kids viewing for WWE and exactly who watches the TV today, plus UFC 198 coverage and Best of The Super Juniors tournament news are among the stories covered in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
More on the injury returns and summer ideas and why WWE could have its deepest talent roster in a long time in very short order. Plus, talk about the NXT/WWE balance and why talent is actually more important for arena business if in NXT.
There is also an extenisve look at the Extreme Rules show.
In addition, updates on the UFC sale, including news about who is in, who is not in, what it all means, what is being sold, where Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta fit in and UFC fixture who indicates he’s likely gone if the sale goes through, all in covered in this issue.
A glimpse into Vince McMahon’s stock sale, what it means, how much money did he get, and how his stock sale only increased the difference in the value of UFC vs. WWE, and for how much Vince McMahon bought the company.
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More on the injury to Chris Weidman, how it happened, his future, Michael Bisping’s title shot and more on UFC 1999.
Also in this issue, find out who watches WWE on television and how many in each different age group.
Find out how WWE has changed the schedule of the Cruiserweight tournament and why, more on the arrest of Adam Rose, more on Stephanie McMahon’s book, how Stephanie will be pushed on television going forward, how Stephanie will be marketed as the face of the company, and another WWE firing.
Finally, there’s full coverage of UFC 198, including business notes including early estimates on success, ramifications of the show, match-by-match coverage, looking at the judging of close fights and poll results.
CLICK HERE FOR A FULL PREVIEW
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All the news from WrestleMania 15, the All Japan Tokyo Done show, and more will be in the latest back issue. Check out the latest online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: April 12, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Wrestlemania 15 business numbers, details on All Japan’s Tokyo Dome show, plus tons more. Both Davey Boy Smith and Japanese rookie woman wrestler Emiko Kado were both remaining in bad condition after an illness and in-ring injury respectively.
SATURDAY NEWS
Friday night’s Bellator 155 show on Spike wasn’t great and got even worse with the main event. The middleweight title fight between champ Rafael Carvalho and Melvin Manhoef was five rounds of a whole lot of nothing other than a lot of boos from the Boise, ID, faithful. Despite the lackluster fight, Carvalho did so little that it was assumed Manhoef would take the title. But that’s why judges exist and the champ retained via split decision. Ugh.
Trailer here for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which includes Sheamus in a featured role. So I guess that means we have done more promotion for Sheamus’ appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than WWE has.
Tickets for the final day of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, the live finals, are already sold out.
The Shane McMahon “tell-all” podcast with Mick Foley as host airs this Monday after Raw on the WWE Network.
WWE & PRO WRESTLING
As yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Randy Savage’s death, SI’s Extra Mustard section devoted some space and several articles about him. Here’s where you find ‘em.
In case you missed it, our Gary Mehaffy talked with Hornswoggle about his WWE release and what’s next. An interview with the recently released Rich Brennan is also coming to the site this weekend.
TNA announced their team for the AAA Lucha Libre World Cup: EC3, Tyrus, and Eli Drake.
Smackdown was up this week to 2.295 million viewers, up from last week’s 2.62 million. Will be interesting to see how the two-hour Raw replay that aired on Syfy in the old Smackdown time slot last night does.
CHIKARA’s ANIVERSARIO tour with Fight Club: Pro is running all over the United Kingdom, kicking off last night in Wales.More details and tickets is available here.
Big Japan announced a big tag title match to headline their next Korakuen Hall show on May 30th. It will be Ryota Hama & the returning Hideyoshi Kamitani defending their titles against “The Twin Towers” Kohei Sato & Shuji Ishikawa. Last year on the same date, in the same building, Sato & Ishikawa were a part of an incredible MOTY level tag against Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi.
Joey Ryan won DDT’s Iron Man Heavymetalweight championship today. He is the 1,073rd champion in the illustrious history of the hottest potato championship in wrestling. Former champs include a ladder, a curry, a camerman, a Yoshiaki Fujiwara and the belt itself.
The Stardom girls are touring Europe at the moment. Today in France, Io Shirai defended her World Of Stardom title and Mayu Iwatani defended her Wonder Of Stardom belt in France today.
The new issue of the Tabloid The Globe has a full page feature on Dwayne Johnson. Nice facts as the feature is called “10 things you don’t know about Dwayne Johnson”. (Thanks to Paul Kacprzak)
Here’s the tour:
Saturday 21st May at FIXXION WAREHOUSE, WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND
Sunday 22nd May at BUSH HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND
Friday 27th May at ASTON UNI STUDENT UNION, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND
Saturday 28th May at THE UNION, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
Sunday 29th May at LINSKILL CENTRE, NORTH SHIELDS, ENGLAND
Monday 30th May at ST. LUKES, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
Voices of Wrestling’s Brandon Howard did an interesting beginner’s guide to WWE business
ECWA returns to action tonight in New Castle, DE, at the United Methodist Church.
Here’s a story about Bill DeMott, after his daughter’s death, teaming up with the police department at her alma mater to fight drunk driving. (Thanks to Jay Reddick)
Our Kyle Johnson wrote a column wondering what happened to the WWE U.S. title in such a short amount of time.
Quebec indie NSPW has their Golden Opportunity VIII show tonight at Quebec’s Horizon Center where an old school hair vs. hair match will be on the show.
Here’s a story on WWE hopefuls rescuing a puppy in Orlando.
More news on the Jimmy Snuka trial. Snuka is now claiming that he can’t remember his own mother’s name.
UFC & MMA
Victory FC 50 runs tonight on UFC Fight Pass at 9 pm eastern with a headliner of heavyweights Abe Wagner and Daniel Gallemore. Former UFC fighters Yuri Villefort and Jake Lindsey are in separate fights on the undercard
UFC Fight Pass has another show Sunday afternoon with Shooto Brasil 63. Main Event is for the featherweight title with Champion Felipe Froes defending against Marcos Vinicius. The rest of the card is all Brazilian fighters with no name value in North America
Ian McCall will return to a UFC ring for the first time since January 2015 as he faces Justin Scoggins at UFC 201 in a fight just announced today.
The cast of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia hung with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Here’s the video.
Miscellaneous
This week on 6:05 Superpodcast with Brian Last and David Bixenspan, Jim Cornette returns to the show to talk about riots, watch notable squash matches, and much more. Plus Kenny Bolin joins the show for the Dennis Of the Week to discuss his friendship with the late, great, Dennis Coralluzzo.
Bartolo Colon has trademarked the name “Big Sexy” for a potential athletic apparel line. Move over Big Sexy Kevin Nash.
5/26 – IWA Mid South presents RETRIBUTION, Jammerz Rollerdome, 1515 Lynch Ln, Clarksville, IN
EVENTS
We want to wish a happy birthday to friend of the site Leva Bates who turns 33 today.
June 4 – UFC 199 from the Forum in Los Angeles with Michael Bisping getting his first title opportunity of his career battling Luke Rockhold for the middleweight belt
June 5 – AAA’s Victoria World Cup men and women’s trio tournament finals at Los Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City which will be a live iPPV show
June 7 – New Japan Best of the Super Juniors finals from Sendai live on New Japan World
June 8 – NXT Takeover from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL featuring Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor in a cage match plus a loaded lineup that includes American Alpha vs. The Revival and probably Shinsuke Nakamura vs Austin Aries, which could be WWE’s match of the month.
June 12 – TNA Slammiversary headlined by Drew Galloway vs. Bobby Lashley for the TNA title from Orlando
June 12 – Revolution Pro Wrestling in London, England headlined by Kurt Angle vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
June 18 – UFC in Ottawa: Rory McDonald vs. Stephen Thompson
June 19 – New Japan Dominion, one of the company’s biggest events of the year, featuring Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada in an IWGP title match and Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in a ladder match for the IC title
June 19 – WWE Money in the Bank from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
June 24 – ROH Best in the World from Concord, NC with Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe for the ROH title
June 25 – Ultima Lucha tapings in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles at The Temple
June 26 – Ultima Lucha tapings in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles at The Temple
July 7-11 The 10th annual Wrestling Observer/F4W convention in Las Vegas, EdinSanAntonio has all the information up on Facebook, or email him at [email protected].
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