THE ROUND-UP
THE LATEST NEWS
CM Punk vs. Mike Jackson official for UFC 225 In Chicago
Rey Mysterio reportedly added to the Greatest Royal Rumble
Undertaker now facing Chris Jericho at WWE Greatest Royal Rumble
New details on Brock Lesnar’s contract, WrestleMania finish
NXT TV taping spoilers: Fallout from TakeOver New Orleans
WWE NXT results: The War Raiders debut
THE LATEST AUDIO
WOL: Greatest Royal Rumble, Dave Meltzer interview, Brock vs. Roman details, more! 4/12
Wrestling Weekly: Wrestlemania recap, Harley Race turns 75 4/12
WOR: Andre the Giant, Smackdown, NXT, Brock Lesnar, tons more! 4/12
F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Seven thoughts from Wrestlemania 34
With a card that was still strong on in-ring action, Sunday’s WrestleMania 34 ended up being one of the weirdest events that WWE has ever produced. The show seemed destined to become one of the best in WrestleMania history, starting off with two very good matches and peaking with Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H blowing away all expectations. The Undertaker answered John Cena’s challenge shortly after that, squashing him in under three minutes. And Daniel Bryan returned to the Superdome and made his in-ring return in what was a great moment.
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 [email protected].
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If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Rey Mysterio is scheduled for the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia on April 27th, which was first reported by PWInsider earlier today.
Fox 8 in New Orleans reported that a UK tourist with the measles attended last Friday’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony before being hospitalized on Saturday. The Louisiana Department of Health is notifying other attendees, along with people who were on his flight to the city.
Triple H noted that NXT TakeOver: New Orleans was the most viewed TakeOver special in history.
Shayna Baszler got new Queen of Spades-themed sideplates for her NXT Women’s Championship.
Babatunde Aiyegbusi, a former football player who is signed to the Performance Center and wrestles at NXT house shows, accompanied Lio Rush for a dark match against Chico Adams at last night’s NXT TV tapings.
Peyton Royce passed her locker at the Performance Center down to Candice LeRae, with Dakota Kai taking over Billie Kay’s locker as well. LeRae’s locker was occupied by Bayley before Royce and Charlotte Flair had Kai’s.
Continuing the storyline where Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are fired from WWE, Kevin Steen’s Pro Wrestling Tees store has reopened.
Naomi responded to receiving racial abuse on Twitter: “I deal with negativity and racism like this on a daily basis but I don’t allow it to bring me down I encourage others who are experiencing the same or any type of bullying to be strong stay positive & not let the actions of others change who you are #feeltheglow”
With Nicholas winning and then vacating the Raw Tag Team titles at WrestleMania, WWE posted a list of the 10 youngest champions in company history (which also includes two WCW champions):
Nicholas (Raw Tag Team titles, 10 years old)
Rene Dupree (World Tag Team titles, 19 years and six months)
Tyler Bate (United Kingdom title, 19 years and 10 months)
Kenny Dykstra (World Tag Team titles, 20 years and 18 days)
David Flair (United States title, 20 years and three months)
Hornswoggle (Cruiserweight title, 21 years and one month)
Essa Rios (Light Heavyweight title, 21 years and two months)
Sean Waltman/1-2-3 Kid (World Tag Team titles, 21 years and five months)
Rey Mysterio (Cruiserweight title, 21 years and six months)
Paige (Divas title, 21 years and seven months)
Chris Jericho appeared at the Winnipeg Jets’ playoff game last night and put the Minnesota Wild on The List.
Jinder Mahal will be speaking at a Sikh Heritage Month event at Brampton City Hall in Ontario, Canada tomorrow night.
Rusev tweeted after Jericho replaced him in the Greatest Royal Rumble casket match against The Undertaker: “Life is life….. it will be #RusevDay somewhere”
Jim Cornette reviewed WrestleMania 34 on this week’s episode of his podcast.
Pro Wrestling
Chuck Carroll of CBS Local Sports reported that Tenille Dashwood and ROH are working on agreeing to a long-term contract. Dashwood is currently working on a short-term deal.
Scott D’Amore of Impact Wrestling wrote about footage from Impact being part of WWE’s upcoming Hardys DVD: “We keep saying it over and over, ‘when companies work together the fans win!’ Congrats to @wwe, @IMPACTWRESTLING, and @MATTHARDYBRAND for putting the fans 1st”
Japanese wrestler Super Strong Machine will officially be retiring at Korakuen Hall on June 19th.
SANADA and BUSHI visited Keiji Mutoh in the hospital as he recovers from getting both of his knees replaced.
Low Ki wasn’t cleared to compete ahead of tonight’s MLW tapings and Matt Sydal is missing the show due to injury.
Jake Hager, the former Jack Swagger, will be debuting for MLW soon.
IPW UK announced James Ellsworth vs. Jimmy Havoc for their show in Milton Keynes on May 2nd.
NWL has ceased all operations and canceled all upcoming shows, noting that refunds will be issued in the next 10 days.
UFC/MMA
In addition to CM Punk vs. Mike Jackson, Holly Holm vs. Megan Anderson has been added to the card for UFC 225 in Chicago.
Michelle Waterson is worried that other fighters will think they have to emulate Conor McGregor to be successful if nothing happens to him after the UFC 223 media day bus attack.
Justin Gaethje thinks the lawsuits that will be filed against McGregor are plenty of punishment for him.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is listed as an early favorite in potential fights with McGregor and Tony Ferguson.
Daily Professional Wrestling History: Sting & Rick Steiner win UWF Tag Team titles
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