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​F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Looking ahead to WrestleMania 34

Though there will always be some complications when putting a big show together, things have pretty much fallen perfectly into place for WWE heading into WrestleMania 34 on Sunday. The 14-match card was scheduled to be finalized heading into this week's television, with John Cena vs. The Undertaker left as the last thing to be confirmed. In a different era, it would have been insane to not announce such a big match before the go-home episode of Raw. But selling WWE Network subscriptions is a bit different than pay-per-views, and the match almost feels unnecessary on such a loaded event.

WON NEWSLETTER: April 9, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Massive Wrestlemania 34 weekend, more

The final words before WrestleMania, the change in UFC's PPV this week, coverage of Sakura Genesis and a look at the Andre the Giant documentary are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Read the update on WrestleMania and the week regarding the matches, the questions and ticket sales. Look at what WWE Fan Axxess has scheduled and notes on who will be appearing on the different shows.

Go through the background of UFC making Max Holloway vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov as Saturday's PPV main event, including how Tony Ferguson was injured, who else was asked to face Nurmagomedov, challenges for Holloway, examining the risk/reward for Holloway and what Dana White says about how it all went down.

Find out about the crazy risks that Will Ospreay has been taking, his match with Marty Scurll at Sakura Genesis as well as the Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. match, go through the upcoming matches, the lineups for the next month of new Japan major shows, business notes on the show, as well as the huge controversy Sabre got into based on a promo he did in Japan making mainstream media in Mexico.

Examine the life and times of Andre the Giant, and review the upcoming HBO documentary on Andre, how it got done, myths about Andre, Andre's early days, where the name came from, behind his confrontations with Akira Maeda, Blackjack Mulligan and Badnews Allen, the famous Andre vs. The Monster story, the build to Andre vs. Hogan and the sad end of his career and life.

There is more on Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman and their WWE futures, who WWE says won't be at Mania, notes to look for when WWE announces its new number, more on Greatest Royal Rumble, thoughts on WWE, injuries, health of Daniel Bryan, who else was talked with about teaming with Ronda Rousey, the next planned Roman Reigns program, Cena and Dwayne Johnson have new movies out, most watched shows on WWE Network, as well as results and highlights from every WWE and NXT show this past week with business notes.

Check out the new promotion that Josh Barnett and Kazushi Sakuraba are debuting next week in Japan at Sumo Hall, with the unique rules plus Sakuraba comments on it, and so much more.

ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to Dave@WrestlingObserver.com.

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

Pro Wrestling

There was a weird altercation Saturday at WrestleCon between Harry Smith and Jake Roberts that involved Smith throwing coffee at Roberts. Security quickly cleared the area and police were called, but Smith left the venue before they could arrive. In an interview with WrestleZone, Smith explained that Roberts refused to apologize to him for disparaging remarks he made about Davey Boy Smith on various podcast appearances. He says that Roberts refused to talk to him about it, which led to the incident. There was also some words before the Roberts incident exchanged between Smith and Scott Hall which apparently helped clear the air a bit.

This note from Dave Meltzer: "Terry Simms, a Texas regular on the regional level in the late 80s and 90s, passed away Sunday morning. The age that is listed for him is 55 but that is not confirmed. Simms was also known as Terry Garvin,Terrence Garvin, and Beauty in a tag team of Beauty & The Beast with Mark Guleen. Several friends noted that he had been in poor health of late but did not know exactly what the situation was as he was a very private person. He was a protege of Bill Dundee and also worked in Continental and some other territories, but was best known in North Texas during the period when Jerry Jarrett ran it under the USWA banners well as Global, World Class, Big D and other companies that worked in that area."

There is a Kaiju Big Battel show after WrestleMania tonight available on WWN Live.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan is doing a ''An Evening With Jim Duggan" on Sunday, April 15 at Absolute Comedy in Toronto, Canada, with a VIP session and more.

UFC/MMA

At last night’s post UFC 223 press conference, Dana White said he would be attending WrestleMania tonight to support Ronda Rousey. He also said that he didn’t even know Brock Lesnar was on the card. That's a bit surprising considering this week, he expected Lesnar to return to UFC. White posted a photo earlier sporting a Rousey t-shirt and said it's his first WWE event since he was a kid.

Not surprisingly, White has already started to warm up to the idea of Conor McGregor returning. "“I agree, it doesn’t look good. But at the end of the day, there’s a lot worse that goes on in all the other sports, so I’ll take a dolly through a window any day." If you're late to the party, McGregor threw a metal dolly through a van window Thursday, causing three fights to be canceled after two fighters were injured enough to be pulled from the show.

Georges St-Pierre said that he has no interest in a fight with new UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Daily Professional Wrestling History: Larry Zbyskzo wins the AWA World title

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