Jean Antone Passes Away
Jean Antone, who wrestled from 1961 to 1981 and got regular bookings even though she was never affiliated with The Fabulous Moolah’s stable, and held regional titles as well as the WWWA singles and tag team titles in Japan in the 70s, passed away today. She had suffered two aneurysms in March and had been in and out of the hospital ever since. Antone was known for being a great worker, which made up for the fact she was only 4-foot-11, regularly wrestling for Bob Geigel in matches against Kay Noble and her favorite opponent, Betty Niccoli. Greg Oliver, who had interviewed her many times, has a story on her death.
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s NXT show in Birmingham, AL to [email protected].
We’ll be doing a poll this weekend on the G-1 Climax show in Osaka at the Edion Arena which starts at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning Eastern and 1 a.m. tonight Pacific time with thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
TNA IMPACT TONIGHT ON POP TV AT 8 P.M.
Grado & Mahabali Shera vs. Baron Dax & Basille Baraka
Matt & Jeff Hardy vs. JT Dunn & Chuck Taylor
Eli Drake vs. James Storm for the King of the Mountain title
Ethan Carter III vs. Mike Bennett in the finals of the Bound for Glory Series
TONIGHT’S SHOW AT 4 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger vs. Captain New Japan & Ryusuke Taguchi
Satoshi Kojima & Kushida & Juice Robinson vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi
Michael Elgin & Katsuyori Shibata & David Finlay & Tomoaki Honma vs. Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo & Katsuhiko Nakajima
Seiya Sanada vs Tama Tonga
Togi Makabe vs. Bad Luck Fale
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto
Kazuchika Okada vs Tomohiro Ishii
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji
The last two matches should be something.
The Round-Up:
Dragon Lee to make ROH debut
NXT & CWC video highlights: Itami returns, Roode debuts, Gargano and Ciampa face off
NJPW G1 Climax 26 night 12 results: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Tetsuya Naito
WWE Cruiserweight Classic results: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano
WWE NXT results: Hideo Itami returns, Bobby Roode debuts
Figure Four Weekly: Figure Four Weekly 8/3/2016: Latest developments in wrestling related lawsuits – If it wasn’t clear before that the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker lawsuit is a whole lot bigger than Hulk Hogan or even Gawker, the events of the last few weeks have made it more obvious than ever before. Of course, the revelation two months ago that billionaire Peter Thiel had been funding Hogan’s lawsuit (and others against Gawker) was a game changer, but the effects of Thiel’s influence weren’t as obvious… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter: August 8, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE financial report, MMA rules change, UFC 201 – There really wasn’t a lot of big news coming out of the second quarter WWE conference call.
Even though the idea of barely making a profit in the quarter of WrestleMania would have been disastrous most years, this year it was stated well in advance that due to the time frame of programming costs, this quarter would probably break even.
WWE pushed that it was the most revenue ever generated in a quarter, but with the fallout of WrestleMania and the new free subscribers from the prior quarter, that was inevitable. Some of them stayed with the service, some may have forgotten to cancel the service, and there are also the contractual increases in television revenue. Plus there was the Mania event revenue… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter BACK ISSUE: June 28, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Reaction to WWF contracted Sable appearing on WCW TV, more on Hart/WWF lawsuit – After a week, it is even less clear what WCW hoped to accomplish when putting Rena Mero on Nitro on 6/14… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
THURSDAY NEW UPDATE
There is a Wrestling Observer Radio show from last night up on the site covering Smackdown and G-1 as well as a new show today interviewing Dan Severn on the site.
John Cena was on the Stephen Colbert show last night promoting Smackdown and wearing a blue suit just like he said he would. He heavily praised Dwayne Johnson.
Big Show confirmed a match with Shaquille O’Neal at WrestleMania in Orlando today when doing a promotional tour for the company in Shanghai, China, promoting the 9/10 house show.
As was noted earlier, Cris Cyborg vs. Lina Lansberg at 140 pounds was announced as the main event of UFC’s 9/24 show in Brasilia, Brazil. The show will also feature Roy Nelson vs. Bigfoot Silva.
Former WWE writer Kevin Eck has an interesting column talking about being in meetings where it was clear Vince McMahon did not see stardom in C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan, and also noting that if it was up to him, he’d build the company around Kevin Owens.
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
Chris Jericho will replace Edge doing a live “Talk is Jericho” podcast followed by a Q&A at Caroline’s on Broadway in Manhattan, NY, on 8/21 from10 a.m. to 2 p.m. That will be the morning of SummerSlam.
The 9/26 Raw show in Cincinnati is advertising Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins as the main event. (thanks to Brian Henke)
A story on Nicole Glencross of NXT is here.
Stephanie McMahon is speaking at Beyond Sports United in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
Bret Hart talks Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins:
“If you watch wrestling, like I do. If you watch for the wrestling. There’s so much talking. There’s some twit back there with a pencil behind his ear writing down all these things for wrestlers to say. It all starts to sound the same,” said Hart.
“There was a difference back in my time, where we all had to make up our own verbiage. So when you watch those interviews, a certain part of you comes out and that’s what makes those characters so great.
“I’ve seen today, even in my own case for the bits and pieces I’ve done in wrestling, where they give you five pages of script to go out and interrupt somebody and say this or that, it might even be really small and pretty limited sort of dialogue but it’s hard to do. Especially when they give it to you at 3:00 and then you start to memorize it, and you have it sort of memorized at 5:00 and they come up to you at 6:00 and it’s all changed.”
“I think that Cody Rhodes, if you watch wrestling like I do as a wrestling fan, he’s to me one of those wrestlers that I would put in the category of ‘Excellence of Execution’. Every move he does is safe and perfectly executed. There’s a lot of wrestlers today a) their execution is lousy and they’re not safe. You watch Seth Rollins who they’ve pushed as this huge mega, mega push. I watched him a few months ago, and you can watch it back on YouTube but he knees John Cena in the face. Just knees him in the face so hard, so recklessly, so dangerously, you can easily kill somebody with a knee like that in the face,” said Hart.
“It’s a testimony to John Cena that a) he finished the match and b) that he didn’t get a shotgun and shoot Seth Rollins when he came through the curtain.”
UFC / MMA
There will be a press conference tomorrow at 6 p.m. for the Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor fight, which should be entertaining.
Conor McGregor talking about witnessing a death at a fight is here.
Promotion for the 9/10 C.M. Punk vs. Mickey Gall fight with Punk training footage can be seen here.
Beneil Dariush vs. Rashid Magomedov was announced for the 11/5 show in Mexico City.
Tickets for the 9/17 show from Hidalgo, TX go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. Central time priced from $150 down to $45. There is a Fight Club sale for the best seats going on today.
UFC announced key Fight Pass bouts over the next few weeks. On Saturday, arguably the best fight of the show, Cub Swanson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri, will be on Fight Pass rather than FS 1. Neil Magny vs. Lorenz Larkin, a major welterweight fight, will be on the 8/20 Fight Pass part of UFC 202. While Josh Emmett, who is 10-0, faces Jeremy Kennedy, who is 8-0, on Fight Pass on 8/27.
MISCELLANEOUS
ROH has announced shows on 10/29 in Baltimore at the William J. Myers Pavilion as a TV taping, plus Survival of the Fittest will take place on two nights, 11/3 in Arlington, TX at the Convention Center and 11/4 in San Antonio at the Shrine Auditorium. Tickets for these shows go on sale tomorrow.
Cancun Boxing announced by Jim Ross airs tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern time on the CBS Sports Network. Ross and boxing Hall of Famer Al Bernstein call the action headlined by Jessica Chavez vs. Esmerelda Moreno for the WBC women’s flyweight title.
Anaastasia Yankova, who Bellator is trying to push as one of its new stars, faces Veta Arteaga on a 9/16 show in Cedar Park, TX. The show is headlined by Cheick Kongo vs. Tony Johnson in a heavyweight fight. Yankova is a Russian submission specialist.
A story on Chuck O’Neil, who combines doing both pro wrestling and MMA on the independent level in New England, who has fought in Ultimate Fighter and also talks about Matt Riddle can be read here.
Luis Santos vs. Igor Svirid was announced as the main event for the ONE show on 8/27 in Jakarta, Indonesia at the Jakarta Convention Center.
A correction from earlier this week. The 11/5 Great North Wrestling show in Hawkesbury, ONT will be headlined by Hannibal vs. Rick Steiner. The original press release stated Scott Steiner.
Absolute Intense Wrestling Girls Night out on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Cleveland at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel with Heidi Lovelace vs. Crazy Mary Dobson, Annie Social vs. Shayna Baszler, Allysin Kay (Siena) vs. Britt Baker, Nicole Savoy vs. Lufisto, Marti Belle and others.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix on 8/25 in Omaha has Michael Elgin vs. Branden Juarez vs. Hype Gotti as the main event.
Steel City Pro Wrestling on 8/28 at 2 p.m. in Hamilton ONT at 222 Queenston Road.
CMLL from Monday night at Arena Puebla: Espiritu Maligno & Sauron b Arkalis & Milenium, Ares & Cuatrero & Sanson b Black Tiger & Rey Samuray & Starman, Felino & Puma King & Tiger b Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther & Stigma, Dallys b Lluvia to retain the CMLL women’s title, Atlantis & Blue Panther & Stuka Jr. b El Terrible & Rey Bucanero & Vangellys-DQ, Mistico & Volador Jr. & Shocker b Marco Corleone & La Mascara & Ultimo Guerrero-DQ
Extreme Tiger & Rush vs. Bestia 666 & Judas Draven headlines a show on Saturday night in San Diego at the Montgomery-Waller Rec Center.
Promociones Tao has its fourth anniversary show on 8/16 in Queretaro, Mexico with L.A. Park & Mistico vs. Caristico & Blue Demon Jr. as the main event.
Promociones EMW on tomorrow night in Tijuana at the Auditorio has Psycho Clown vs. Pagano vs. Pentagon Jr. as the main event plus El Texano Jr & La Parka vs. Mesias & Villano IV. (thanks to Kris Zellner)
AAW on 8/19 in 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL has John Morrison vs. Sami Callihan, Eddie Kingston & Homicide vs. Mason & Devin Cutter, Heidi Lovelace & Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett vs. Jessicka Havok & Dave & Jake Crist plus AR Fox, Chris Hero, Jack Evans, Moose, Kimber Lee, Team Tremendous, Kongo Kong, Shigehiro Irie, Ricochet, Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett. They also run 9/1 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club with Pentagon Jr. vs. Tommaso Ciampa in an AAW title match plus Tommy End, Drew Galloway, Zack Sabre Jr., Fenix, Cedric Alexander, Chris Hero, Sami Callihan, Michael Elgin, Silas Young and Colt Cabana.
Upstate Pro Wrestling on 8/6 in Webster, NY at the Premier Sports Center.
House of Glory Wrestling on 8/19, the Friday night of SummerSlam weekend in Jamaica, NY at Club Amazura has Matt & Jeff Hardy, Ethan Carter III, Drew Galloway, Mickie James and more.
Action Packed Wrestling from last night in Huntington, WV: Benny Conley b Blake Hall, Garrett Coleman b G’Cute, Chuey Martinez & Shane Stratmore b Billy Bob & Lottery, Smokey C b Damien Wayne, Chase Stevens b TJ Phillips, Eric Darkstorm b Chase Owens (thanks to Jon Villareal)
The IWF has matches on 8/6, 8/20 and 8/27 at the IWF Cetnre in Nutley, NJ.
TODAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (8/4): Lex Luger wins WCW World Title on Nitro
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