DAILY UPDATE

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We'll be doing polls on just the Saturday night G-1 show this week (Okada vs. Ospreay) unless enough people watch the Dragon Gate show Sunday. 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" target="_blank">dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We're also looking for reports tonight from the WWE Raw show in Reading, PA, U.K. TV taping in Plymouth, UK, Impact tapings tonight in Windsor, ONT (Brian Cage vs. Michael Elgin street fight, Tessa Blanchard vs. Mad Man Fulton, Rich Swann vs. Jake Crist for the X title, Ethan Page & Josh Alexander vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz for the tag titles, Willie Mack vs. Rob Van Dam, Jordynne Grace vs. Keira Hogan) and NXT in Tampa to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

We're looking for reports on Saturday from the WWE Raw show in Wildwood, NJ, Smackdown in Columbus, GA, Impact tapings in Windsor, ONT (Rob Van Dam & Rich Swann & Willie Mack vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel, Eddie Edwards vs. Ace Austin), U.K. tapings in Plymouth, UK, ROH TV tapings in Manhattan, NY and NXT in Cocoa, FL to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

CMLL AT ARENA MEXICO TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN ON THE CMLL YOUTUBE PAGE

Super Astro Jr. & Sonic vs. Cancerbero & Raziel

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Esfinge vs. Ephesto & Luciferno & Hechicero

Marcela vs. Amapola for CMLL women's title

Gran Guerrero & Euforia & Templario & Soberano Jr. vs. Forastero & Sanson & Cuatrero & Volador Jr.

Rush & Mistico & Bestia del Ring vs. L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A.Park & L.A. Park Jr.

Jushin Liger vs. Caristico vs. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Negro Casas

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX FROM KORAKUEN HALL IN TOKYO LIVE AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN ON SATURDAY AND TOP MATCHES ON AXS TV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN

Juice Robinson & Yota Tsuji vs. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino

Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano & Yuya Uemura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Jeff Cobb & Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma vs. Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens

Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Ren Narita vs. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi &Bushi

Bad Luck Fale vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Lance Archer

KENTA vs. Evil

Kota Ibushi vs. Sanada

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay

UFC FROM SAN ANTONIO SATURDAY NIGHT ON ESPN TELEVISION AT 6 P.M. EASTERN

Domingo Pilarte (136) vs. Felipe Colares (136)

Mario Bautista (136) vs. Jin Soo Son (136)

Ray Borg (136) vs. Gabriel Silva (134)

Roxanne Modafferi (125) vs. Jennifer Maia (129)

Sam Alvey (205) vs. Klidson Abreu (205)

Raquel Pennington (136) vs. Irene Aldana (135)

Alex Caceres (146) vs. Steven Peterson (145)

Andrei Arlovski (246) vs. Ben Rothwell (265)

Alexander Hernandez (155) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (156)

James Vick (156) vs. Dan Hooker (155)

Greg Hardy (266) vs. Juan Adams (266)

Aleksei Oleinik (236) vs. Walt Harris (256)

Rafael dos Anjos (171) vs. Leon Edwards (171)

ROH FROM THE HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM IN MANHATTAN ON SATURDAY AT 7 P.M. EASTERN ON HONOR CLUB

Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal for ROH title

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe in a street fight for the ROH tag title

Marty Scurll & PCO & Brody King & Flip Gordon vs. Bandido & Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams & P.J.Black

Dragon Lee vs. Jonathan Gresham

Rush vs. T.K. O'Ryan

Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas vs. Moses Maddox & Jasper Kaun vs. Shaheem Ali &. LSG

MLW TV ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN ON BEIN SPORTS

Alexander Hammerstone vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. for National championship

L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.

DRAGON GATE KOBE WORLD FESTIVAL FROM KOBE WORLD MEMORIAL HALL ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT 2 A.M. EASTERN AND 11 P.M. PACIFIC AT https://dragongate.live/

Super Shisa & K-Ness & Shachihoko Boy & Problem Dragon & Draztick Boy vs. Kennichiro Arai & Jason Lee & Keisuke Okuda & Dragon Dia & Jimmy

BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria vs. Genki Horiguchi & Yasshi & Punch Tominaga vs. Hyo Watanabe & Yuki Yoshioka & Kota Minoura

Choi Hong-man vs. Ryo Saito & Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa

Kzy vs. Shun Skywalker

Takashi Yoshida & Yasushia Kanda & Kazma Sakamoto vs. The Strong Machines for the Open the Triangle Gate title

Susumu Yokosuka vs. Flamita for the Open the Brave Gate title

Ultimo Dragon & Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuji Kondo & Takuya Sugawara

Yamato & Kai vs. Naruki Doi & Kaito Ishida vs. Eita & Big R Shimizu for Open the Twin Gate title

Pac vs. Ben K for the Open the Dream Gate title

Sunday has a Raw house show in Orlando and Smackdown in Pensacola.

ROH FROM LOWELL, MA ON SUNDAY AT 7 P.M. EASTERN ON HONOR CLUB

Marty Scurll & PCO & Brody King vs. Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins & Bandido for the ROH trios titles

Rush vs. Dalton Castle

Dragon Lee vs Kenny King

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe for ROH tag titles

Matt Taven & T.K. O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia vs. Jay Lethal & Alex Shelley & Jonathan Gresham

Shane Taylor vs. Eli Isom for TV title

Silas Young vs. P.J. Black

Raw is Monday in Tampa with the Raw Reunion special featuring appearances from dozens of wrestlers from the past including Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, DX (HHH, Shawn Michaels, Sean Waltman and Road Dogg) and tons of others. There is also a Smackdown house show in Fort Myers, FL.

Tuesday has Smackdown and 205 Live tapings in Miami.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Recapping WWE Extreme Rules

Joseph Currier recaps Extreme Rules, which saw Brock Lesnar cash in to again become Universal Champion.

Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view ended with Lesnar cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Seth Rollins to win the Universal title. After Rollins & Becky Lynch defeated Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans in the main event, Lesnar and Paul Heyman came out with the briefcase. Rollins charged at Lesnar, but Lesnar gave him two German suplexes. The bell rang to start the match -- and Lesnar hit an F5 to again become Universal Champion.

Rollins will get his rematch for the Universal title at SummerSlam next month. He won a number one contender's battle royal on the post-Extreme Rules edition of Raw, defeating Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Corbin, Rey Mysterio, Sami Zayn, Big E, Bobby Lashley, and Cesaro.

Rollins' three-month reign as Universal Champion ended up being pretty lackluster. It started strong with a great defense against AJ Styles, but Rollins' matches were only as good as his opponents allowed them to be. It's difficult to succeed when the majority of your PPV title defenses are against Corbin.

WON NEWSLETTER: July 22, 2019 Observer Newsletter: SummerSlam takes shape, Fight for the Fallen review, more

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

We will have shows this weekend tonight with Garrett Gonzalez talking G-1 and other subjects and tomorrow Bryan and I will talk G-1, UFC and the Arena Mexico show tonight. Arena Mexico tonight with the farewell of Jushin Liger is probably the biggest show of the weekend. It'll certainly be the biggest crowd wise anywhere dating back to WrestleMania. Plus L.A.Park and Rush are on opposite sides of a trios match. Tomorrow's Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay match is a somewhat rare IWGP heavyweight champion vs. junior heavyweight champion match. It has been done a handful of times in history, including those two including a March 6, 2018, match that Okada won. No junior heavyweight champion in history has ever beaten the heavyweight champion in a singles match in New Japan Also, late tomorrow night is the biggest Dragon Gate event of the year, the Kobe World Festival. We have an interview up on the site with Larry Dallas talking about the show. It is the first time a Dragon Gate show from Japan will be broadcast live in the U.S. on a streaming service in English. Dallas and Rich Bocchini, who are having the times of their lives in Japan this week, will be doing the announcing. The thing with Dragon Gate historically is that it has always been the group in the last 15 years that is years ahead stylistically, so if you want to see what pro wrestling may look like in 2025 or so, this may be a good look. The main event result, if Ben K wins, would also at least open the door for talks for Pac in AEW. G-1 has been incredible once again, the last two days have had three can't miss matches with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jon Moxley and Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay. They are three of the best matches so far of the tournament. Court Bauer of MLW on Tony Schiavone's situation: "Unless AEW elects to reach out, Tony Schiavone cannot proceed with AEW or any other company doing anything. I was unaware of him doing the digital stuff until I read it in this week's Observer." WWE A story on Ali and Ricochet helping buy supplies for a kindergarten classroom in Arizona.

Add Candice Michelle to the list of names appearing on Raw Monday.

Mickie James' website had an interview with James who talked about the injury. "From the very moment of impact, I knew something was wrong. I hoped against all odds that it wasn’t a serious injury, but it was that bad. I don’t fault Carmella. She has always been a professional. I’ve been very lucky to avoid major injuries in the past; but eventually, everyone’s luck runs out in the ring. After 20 years, I guess mine did.” The expected recovery time for reconstruction ACL surgery like this is about nine months.

Seth Rollins talks to Tampa Bay Times about Raw on Monday.

Notes on John Cena's next movie release.

A story on the WWE Ghostbuster toy line. (thanks to Joe Puccio)

While never advertised, we've been asked a lot about Bret Hart. Hart was asked but declined the offer.

Shawn Michaels announcing Smackdown on Tuesday is a one-time thing.

Mickie James had surgery to repair the torn ACL in her right knee after injuring her knee in a match on June 1. The surgery was performed by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas in Birmingham, Alabama and it was a complete success.

A story on CFL star James Wilder Jr. talking about his recent WWE tryout.

www.BetOnline.ag has released odds on these WWE bouts for SummerSlam: Brock Lesnar -200 vs. Seth Rollins +150 Becky Lynch -250 vs. Natalya +170 Bayley -200 vs. Ember Moon +150

UFC The only person to not make weight for tomorrow night's UFC show in San Antonio was Jennifer Maia, who weighed in at 129 for her fight with Roxanne Modafferi. The fight will go on and Maia has been fined 30 percent of her purse.

Abu Dhabi Media announced the launch of UFC Arabia, the first Arabic language streaming platform in that part of the world. It will live stream fights in both English and Arabic. MISCELLANEOUS BetOnline odds for AEW All Out: Chris Jericho -200 vs. Adam Page +150 Cody Rhodes -180 vs. Shawn Spears +140 Kenny Omega +120 vs. Jon Moxley -160 Best Friends +150 vs. Dark Order -200 Young Bucks -100 vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix -140

Destiny World Wrestling on 8/9 in Mississauga, ONT at the Anapolis Banquet Hall with Jake & Dave Crist & Sami Callihan vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky in an Impact vs. AEW main event, plus Tenille Dashwood, Joey Ryan Aiden Prince, Trey Miguel, Josh Alexander and more.

Konosuke Takeshita isn't coming to Adelaide, Australia. The Sub Zero Pro promoter screwed up on the travel.

ONE sent a legal letter to Will Chope, a former UFC fighter who has been living and fighting in Asia, who criticized their drug testing program, saying that everyone knows the company's fighters are juiced but their testing hides results of guys they don't want to fail. The company wrote a letter saying the claims are false and baseless and constitute serious libel damage and told him to immediately remove the posts. Chope said he also received private messages from multiple people recommending to him that he remove the posts. Chope told Bloody Elbow that he was just pointing things out, and doesn't even care about steroid use, just that it's rampant in Asian MMA. Chope did take the posts down feeling it's not worth the risk because libel law in Thailand is much different than in the U.S.

Legacy Fighting on 7/26 in Phoenix at the Comerica Theater on AXS has Daniel Madrid (16-6) vs. Chris Harris (11-3) and Anthony Birchak (13-6) vs. Raphael Montini (6-2 in the top fights.

Hoosier Pro Wrestling on 8/3 in Columbus, IN at the 4-H Fairgrounds.

StocktonCon on 8/3 and 8/4 in Stockton at the Arena will have Kurt Angle (8/3 only), Lita, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Vickie Guerrero and Marty Scurll.

Sendai Girls runs a show with Fight Club Pro on 7/27 in Manchester, UK at Academy One with Meiko Satomura vs Toni Storm, Dash Chisako vs. Kay Lee ray in a no DQ match, Charli Evans & Millie McKenzie defend the Sendai Girls tag titles against Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu, Session Moth Martina vs. Aiger and more. Fight Club Pro has a show the night before in Wolverhampton at The Hangar with Aussie Open defending the men's tag titles against Satomura & Chisako.

Hurricane Pro Wrestling on 7/27 in Beaumont,TX at Ford Park live at 8 p.m. Eastern on the Title Match Network with Thunder Rosa vs. Mercedes Martinez, Miranda Alize vs. a mystery star and Hyan vs. Amber Nova, plus Heather Monroe vs. Alex Gracia and Priscilla Kelly vs. Rock-C.

There is a GoFund Me for medical bills for Kenny Bolin,.the former OVW manager who needs his knee replaced and eye surgery at www.gofundme.com/f/medical-bills-fundraiser-for-kenny-bolin

Superkicked tonight in Toronto at the Great Hall

Zenshi vs. El Hijo de L.A. Park has been added to the 7/25 MLW show at the Melrose Ballroom in New York.

Dean Malenko will be doing a seminar tomorow from 1-4 p.m. in Hazelton, PA at the Holy Family Academy and another seminar on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the CZW Wrestling Academy in Voorhees, NJ. Both seminar costs are $75. The seminars are open to all pro wrestlers of any experience level.

CWE has announced 8/17 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, at the Wildrose Room with Warlord, Johnny Devine and TK O'Ryan.

A story on a wrestler wearing a Hijab. (thanks to Chris Cruise)

Brady Roberts has created and produced a new Canadian comedy television series titled Paper Champions, about a failing independent wrestling company, loosely inspired by my time working on the independents. It is a 7 episode series and stars Kylee Bush (iZombie), Paul Lazenby (MMA Fighter, Deadpool), and Peter Chao (YouTube star) among others. The series features a cameo from Lance Storm and the Storm Wrestling Academy as well. As part of the launch of the series, a montage of Bad Wrestler AuditionsAn interview with Mercedes Martinez.

Notes on a benefit event for the Carol & Bruno Sammartino Foundation in Pittsburgh. (thanks to Chris Cruise)

A Slam Wrestling article on the late Buck Ramstead.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: TNA Victory Road 2009

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