F4W Radio Best of 2015
Things will be getting back to normal as the holiday season wraps up here. Hope everyone had a great past few days. Here it is! Dewe’s BEST OF 2015 compilation for subscribers, a look at the 50 greatest audio moments on the website in the past year. It has been a huge hit in years past.
Sunday we will have Wrestling Observer Live, Wrestling Observer Radio, After Dark Radio, the Bryan & Vinny Show looking at NWA/WCW from 30 years ago this week, and more. You can check out the NEW After Dark Radio Show site right now which has info on how you can participate in Sunday’s show by emailing me your best paranormal stories.
DRAGON GATE FINAL GATE IPPV AT Niconico.com LATE TOMORROW NIGHT/EARLY SUNDAY MORNING
Lindaman & Takehiro Yamamura & Kaito Ishida vs. Don Fujii & Yosuke Santa Maria & Nosawa
Jimmy K-Ness & Jimmy Kanda vs. U-T & Kzy
Masakatsu Funaki vs. ? in a Colosseum rules ten round match
Kotoka vs. Eita for the Open the Brave Gate title
Yamato & Naruki Doi vs. Gamma & Punch Tominaga for Open the Twin Gate tag tiles
Masato Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & T-Hawk vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Dragon Kid & Big R Shimizu vs. Naoki Tanizaki & Cyber Kong & Mondai Ryu vs. Ryo Saito & Jimmy Susumu & Genki Horiguchi for the Open the Triangle Gate titles
Shingo Takagi vs. Cima for the Open the Dream Gate title
Sunday has WWE shows in Hartford, CT (Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena; Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Chicago at the All-State Arena (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus for WWE title, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, New Day vs. Usos vs. Lucha Dragon for tag titles).
Monday will be the live Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as well as a house show in Allentown. With the house show in Allentown, those not expected at Raw since they are billed at the house show are Kane & Dudleys & Tommy Dreamer vs. Wyatt Family, Charlotte vs. Paige for the Divas title and Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze.
RIZIN DEBUT SHOW ON LATE MONDAY/EARLY TUESDAY FROM SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. James Thompson
Carlos Toyota vs. Kiril Sidelnikov
Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain
Hiroyoa vs. Wicky Nishiura under K-1 rules
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Hinata with alternate rounds of MMA rules and K-1 rules
A.J. Matthews (Bellator) vs. Anatoly Tokov
Hideo Tokoro (Bellator) vs. Kizaemon Saiga
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. D.J. Taiki
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida – heavyweight tournament reserve fight
King Mo (Bellator) vs. Brett McDermott – first round of heavyweight tournament
Teodoras Aukstuolis vs. Bruno Cappelozza – first round of heavyweight tournament
Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov – first round of heavyweight tournament
Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochoazka – first round of heavyweight tournament
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki
WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).
Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).
RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match
Heavyweight tournament semifinals
Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa
Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules
Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares
Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match
Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)
Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
Jerome LeBanner vs. Baruto (sumo star)
Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh
Heavyweight tournament finals
Figure Four Weekly
Figure Four Weekly (12/21/15): Hulk Hogan and Nelson Frazier Lawsuit Updates
Transcript gives new insight into the FBI/Gawker dispute, plus WWE gives us a peek at what their termination notices look like in the Nelson Frazier wrongful death lawsuit.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.
We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.
We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week. We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.
We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why. We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 28, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Slammy Awards, MMA Weight cutting
You can also order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer
You can also order print issues at www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected]
Rates are:
For the United States, it is $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected] For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.
If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can get one free classic issue of your choice sent to you today. With a 40 issue subscription, you can get two free classic issues sent to you today.
Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.
Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 9, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jesse Ventura wins Minnesota Governor election, WCW trailing WWF, more
Jesse Ventura becomes the Governor of Minnesota, WCW begins trailing WWF, ECW November to Remember recap, plus tons of news.
TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE
As noted on the front page, John Cena returns to Raw Monday and it is the first Raw sellout in the US since SummerSlam weekend.
Irv Muchnick has his review of the Concussion film up here. He says it was better than he expected. I believe Dave will give his review on our next edition of Wrestling Observer Radio.
6 ways Donald Trump’s wrestling career previewed his campaign
WWE
Thomas Golianopoulus has an article in the New York Times about John Cena and other pro-wrestlers “putting a headlock on Hollywood.” Cena on his role in “Sisters” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: “You’ve got to remember that I’m a recurring character on a weekly episodic television show. Right away I said, ‘Yes,’ because the do-gooder John Cena is not a guy that’s going to sell you heroin.” Golianopoulus’s stuff is always really good, so check this out.
Detroit News article on Xavier Woods and his trombone.
UFC/MMA
Dave’s article on the buyrate for Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm is up at MMAFighting.com.
UFC Free Fight: Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim, this fight earned Condit his original welterweight title shot.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha look to be coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fight. Presumably this would also mean they’d fight for the Strawweight title either on the undercard of UFC 200 or more likely in a headline position at the TUF 23 Finale during international Fight Week.
On UFC Tonight, Kenny Florian and Daniel Cormier discussed concerns over CM Punk’s long-delayed UFC debut.
OTHER PRO WRESTLING
30 years later: The car crash that killed Tyler, Lefebvre and Desbois
If you didn’t see it, here is the Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger match from the ROH Final Battle pre-show. Brutal Bob appeared on this year’s Bryan & Vinny Christmas Show and when the dust cleared, Bryan owes him $100.
This weekend’s ROH on Sinclair, which airs on Comet TV on Wednesday, is a “best of” show but as a year-end best of show, it was pretty great. The Jay Lethal/Jay Briscoe title vs title match from earlier this year aired in it’s entirety including a five minute hype video that is among the best you’ll ever see. They also did random holiday based skits with various ROH stars between clips that were very entertaining.
The new issue of Fighting Spirit Magazine is out and pretty loaded, with the annual FSM 50 wrestler ranking, Jim Cornette’s column goes longform on the death of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, our own David Bixenspan profiling Nick Bockwinkel with quotes from Larry Hennig, Baron Von Raschke, and Larry Zbyszko, Rob Naylor on ECW’s last PPV, John Lister profiling Catweazle, and much more. In the U.K., it’s available at WH Smith’s, and online, the best way for everyone worldwide to check it out is Pocketmags, since it’s compatible with just about every device.
On the latest 6:05 Superpodcast, David Bixenspan and Brian Last talk about the Poffos’ ICW, tape,libraries, why D-Lo Brown proclaimed himself “The Master of Sex,” Christmas pro wrestling cards. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Pro Wrestling, and more.
Chyna was billed as appearing at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show tonight but pulled out claiming flu-like symptoms. They announced she will be replaced by Billy Gunn, Mickie James and Magnus.
Nigerian wrestler Power Lee has received a special blessing ahead of his next bout. He’s seemingly the latest Nigerian star in the tradition of Power Mike and Power Uti.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune talks to former AWA TV producer Al DeRusha about his time in pro wrestling.
Masked Republic’s LuchaShop.com has a post-Christmas sale as well as new items like a limited edition Rey Misterio Jr vs. Psicosis print with autographed versions available. Coupon code BIX takes another 10% off your order.
Big article on Nick Bockwinkel from the Scene newspaper. I would go as far as to say it is quite awesome.
DGUSA.TV has a big sale on all Evolve, Dragon Gate USA, etc. DVDs and Blu-Rays.
Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/26): Austin Aires wins the ROH World Title