THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We're looking for reports on tonight's WWE Smackdown show in Mexico City, and NXT shows in Altoona, PA and St. Augustine, FL, as well as last night's WWE Smackdown show in Lima, Peru to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com. We will be doing one weekend poll, for UFC 218 on Saturday night, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. UFC TONIGHT FROM LAS VEGAS Fight Pass at 7:30 p.m. Gillian Robertson (125.5) vs. Emily Whitmire (125) FS1 at 8 p.m. Ariel Beck (125.5) vs. Shana Dobson (125.5)

Karine Gevorgyan (130) vs. Rachael Ostovich (125) - Gevorgyan was fined 30 percent of her show money for missing weight

Ryan Janes (185) vs. Andrew Sanchez (185.5)

Montana De La Rosa (125.5) vs. Christina Marks (125.5)

Brett Johns (135.5) vs. Joe Soto (135)

DeAnna Bennett (126) vs. Melinda Fabian (126)

Gerald Meerschaert (185) vs. Eric Spicely (185.5)

Lauren Murphy (125) vs. Barb Honchak (125.5)

Sean O'Malley (135.5) vs. Terrion Ware (136)

Nicco Montana (124.5) vs. Roxanne Modafferi (124) for the UFC women's flyweight title NEW JAPAN ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M. EASTERN (King of Pro Wrestling three-hour special) Ricochet & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Sho & Yoh for IWGP jr. tag titles

War Machine vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa for IWGP tag titles

Kenny Omega & Cody & Marty Scurll vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Baretta & Jado

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe vs. Kota Ibushi & Juice Robinson

Kushida vs. Will Ospreay for IWGP jr title

Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil for IWGP title BELLATOR TONIGHT FROM THACKERVILLE, OKLAHOMA ON SPIKE TV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN David Rickels (160.7) vs. Adam Piccolotti (160.6)

Hisaki Kato (185.2) vs. Chidi Njokuani (185.3)

Rafael Lovato Jr. (185.7) vs. Chris Honeycutt (185.4)

Julia Budd (143.9) vs. Arlene Blencowe (144.6) for the featherweight title CMLL TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN FROM ARENA MEXICO Stukita & Shockercito vs. Mercurio & Pequeno Olimpico

Pegasso & Stigma & Astral vs. Virus & Raziel & Cancerbero

Marcela & Silueta & Lady Maravilla vs. Dallys & Seductora & Tiffany

Blue Panther & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa vs. Sam Adonis & Hechicero & Vangellys

Marco Corleone & Titan & Valiente vs. Mr. Niebla & El Terrible & Rey Bucanero

Copa Juniors Cibernetico match: Caristico, Volador Jr., Mistico, Dragon Lee, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Negro Casas, Mephisto, Shocker, Euforia, Sanson, Felino Saturday we're looking for reports from WWE Raw in Salt Lake City, UT Smackdown in Merida, Mexico, and NXT in Bel Air, MD and St. Petersburg, FL to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com. NEW JAPAN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT FROM OSAKA ON NEW JAPAN WORLD SATURDAY (taped airing) David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Baretta & Chucky T

Togi Makabe & Henare vs. Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.

War Machine vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii UFC 218 FROM THE LITTLE CAESAR'S ARENA IN DETROIT ON SATURDAY Fight Pass at 6:15 p.m. Eastern Angela Magana vs. Amanda Bobby Cooper

Allen Crowder vs. Justin Willis

Jeremy Kimball vs. Dominick Reyes

Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Sabah Homasi FS1 at 8 p.m. Eastern Felice Herrig vs. Cortney Casey

Drakkar Klose vs. David Teymur

Yancy Medeiros vs. Alex Oliveira

Paul Felder vs. Charles Oliveira PPV at 10 p.m. Eastern Tecia Torres vs. Michelle Waterson

Justin Gaethje vs. Eddie Alvarez

Henry Cejudo vs. Sergio Pettis

Alistair Overeem vs. Francis Ngannou

Max Holloway vs. Jose Aldo for the featherweight title Sunday has WWE Raw in Anaheim at the Honda Center and Smackdown at Arena Monterrey in Mexico. NEW JAPAN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT SUNDAY IN KOCHI ON NEW JAPAN WORLD Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Evil & Sanada Raw will be Monday night from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. There will be a tag title match with Cesaro & Sheamus defending against Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose, as well as a four-way with Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese with the winner facing Rich Swann on 12/11 for a title shot at Enzo Amore. NEW JAPAN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT TUESDAY IN OITA ON NEW JAPAN WORLD Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Baretta & Chucky T

Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa Tuesday has two WWE show in San Diego. There will be the joint-branded Tribute to the Troops taping at the Naval Base at 10 a.m., followed by the Smackdown / 205 Live show from the Valley View Casino Arena. NEW JAPAN TAG TAM TOURNAMENT WEDNESDAY IN NAGASAKI ON NEW JAPAN WORLD Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka

Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 11/27/2017: Four who should be next on the WWE main roster

When WWE decides to call up wrestlers from NXT, they usually tend to be painfully drawn out or total surprises. The arrivals of Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan on the main roster last week was more the latter. Of the five, only Riot (who was formerly known as Heidi Lovelace before signing with WWE) had wrestled a match on a TakeOver special. The other four had yet to even have full runs on NXT television aside from sporadic appearances.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 4, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: AJ Styles, Minoru Suzuki and more enter the Hall of Fame

What is usually the most talked about issue of the year, the Hall of Fame double issue is out with biographies of the five new entrants, why they were so important historically, as well as a breakdown of the voting in not just total votes, but broken down among those in the industry, reporters and historians.

Among the stories covered include the birth of major league pro wrestling in Japan and how it got so big so quickly including the booking behind it, the heyday of pro wrestling in Australia, as well as both the East and West Coast scene in the 60s and 70s. Plus, look at next year's ballot.

This issue contains a feature on the history of Starrcade, how it started, its successes and failures over the years, including how Starrcade led to the growth of Crockett Promotions as well as the ending of the company. Look at the role Vince McMahon played in the killing of Crockett Promotions, the transition to Turner Broadcasting, the decisions that killed Starrcade as a major event, the rebirth of Starrcade, the Hogan vs. Sting and Goldberg vs. Nash matches and the tradition of Thanksgiving in Greensboro.

Read the full coverage of what led to the first Starrcade, what famous Starrcade matches were never supposed to happen, how tragedies and backstage brawls changed plans, how Starrcade led to the departure of Dusty Rhodes as booker of WCW and the role of Ric Flair.

There is also a feature on the career of Jim Cornette as a manger, including how he got into wrestling, how dominant he was as the best manager in his heyday, his biggest successes, the high point of Mid South Wrestling and Crockett Promotions, the economics of why SMW didn't work and how wrestling changed in the 90s and why it is so different today, and why the reality is that ECW, SMW and JCP all went down for the same reason.

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WON BACK ISSUE: November 13, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF not buying WCW, ECW November to Remember review

With the WCW crew enroute to Europe for a one-week tour, the questions about the future of the company remain. With little substantial information available, much of the talk going around consists of rumors, but it is clear the two possibilities remain--the company will either be purchased by a group headed by Eric Bischoff, or have its expenses cut to as much bare bones as possible and remain part of Turner Broadcasting.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

We won't be having a show up tonight but Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night covering the weekend news and the UFC shows. You can send questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

While WWE has not confirmed this, those close to the situation have confirmed stories that Jim Johnston, the longtime WWE musical composer, was released after his contract expired.

Mexico City is the hotbed for pro wrestling tonight as WWE, CMLL and Elite are all running shows tonight head-to-head. In addition, the Crash runs tonight in Tijuana with Daga & L.A. Park (first time on a Crash show in Tijuana) vs. La Mascara & Rush vs. Bestia 666 & Garza Jr., plus Young Bucks vs Flamita & Rey Fenix.

Impact officially closed their Nashville office yesterday so everything is now based out of Toronto.

Jimmy Jacobs was on Chris Jericho's podcast and said that his taking the photo that led to him being fired was not him trying to get fired, but he tabbed it that he also wasn't trying to not get fired. He talked about losing passion for working for WWE after getting out of rehab.

Today's New Japan tag team tournament results from Toyohashi:

Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page (3-2) beat Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2-3)

Seiya Sanada & Evil (3-2) beat Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (1-4)

Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka (3-2) beat Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan (3-2)

Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi (3-2) beat Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens (2-3)

WWE

A very interesting read by Maria Kanellis about Mike Bennett and his battles to drug addiction.

John Cena, who was sued by Ford for breach of contract for selling a 2017 Ford GT that he was able to purchase at a low price with the provison he would keep it for two years, then sold it for a large profit, has apologized to Ford and said he's willing to work with Ford to make things right.

WWE sent out a survey asking fans their interest in the following names if they'd want to see them wrestle in WWE: Terry Crews, Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate, Vladimir Klitschko, Danica Patrick, Marshawn Lynch and Rob Gronkowski.

Ronda Rousey produced a video for the launch of her new web site with clips of all kinds of training, including her doing WWE training.

UFC

Jeremy Stephens vs. Doo Ho Choi has been added to the 1/14 show in St. Louis.

UFC has announced that Triumphant Muay Thai will be coming to Fight Pass with a debut show on 12/20 (a VOD show) and they will have regular live events in 2018.

Featherweight champion Max Holloway, who defends tomorrow night, has a small role on the movie "Den of Thieves" which premiers at theaters on 1/19.

Some odds for the major UFC fights this weekend from 5 Dimes: Nicco Montano -200 Roxanne Modaferri +170 Max Holloway -290 Jose Aldo +245 Francis Ngannou -235 Alistair Overeem +195 Henry Cejudo -300 Sergio Pettis +255 Justin Gaethje -175 Eddie Alvarez +155 Tecia Torres -235 Michelle Waterson +195



MISCELLANEOUS

Verizon Media's show "The 5th Quarter" has an episode called "Wrestlestock," the idea that in 1968 there was a Woodstock but for wrestling fans, which debuts on Thursday. Among those in the series are John Morrison, Joey Ryan, Damien Sandow, Rocky Romero, Ryan Nemeth and JTG.

Amazon has ordeed a second season of the TV show "Tainted Dreams," which got five Daytime Emmy nominations and features former TNA wrestler Jessie Godderz.

Konnan interviews Alberto El Patron about Paige.

Fight Club Orange County on Thursday night at the Hangar at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa has a combined MMA and boxing show.

IHWE on 12/17 in Benbrok, TX a the El Gran Salon Event Center.

Evolve announced that Shane Mercer would be debuting with the promotion with the shows next weekend in Queens, NY and Melrose, MA.

Baja Stars USA on 2/17 in San Diego at 3020 Coronado Ave has Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. Bestia 666 & Garza Jr.

Martinez Entertainment on 12/17 in Kennedale, TX at Soccer Zone Arena has Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. M-ximo & La Mascara.

A story on Jeremy Wyatt.

A story on the demolition of the Pontiac Silverdome.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: dave@wrestlingobsever.com

​Feedback: feedback@wrestlingobserver.com

Show results and news tips: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

Wrestling Observer Radio questions: mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

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