WRESTLING NEWS
**If there was any doubt about the power of John Cena on ticket sales, the latest in a long line of examples was made this week. When Cena was announced for the 3/6 edition of Raw in Boston, WrestleTix listed the tickets distributed at 7,705 and within 48 hours of Cena’s announcement, that number jumped to 9,732. This follows Cena’s appearances last June for a show in Laredo, Texas, and the final SmackDown of the year in Tampa where he moved a significant number of tickets when he was added to those two events.
**Alex McCarthy reported on Friday that WWE informed him of the available tickets put on sale today for Money in the Bank, they were all sold in one minute. He added that over 30,000 fans were in the queue at one point and that only premium and single tickets will be available in the coming weeks. The success of this show from a ticket-selling perspective was a no-brainer with a major card being brought to the O2 Arena in London, England (the demand would indicate they could have run a stadium for this show and done very well). Money in the Bank will take place Saturday, July 1st, and will also run in the same arena the night before for Friday Night SmackDown.
**After his brother’s DUI case was closed this week in Volusia County, Florida, Matt Hardy posted the following statement regarding Jeff:
Incredibly proud of my brother. For the last 9 months, he’s worked extraordinarily hard on himself. He’s in the best space I’ve seen him in for decades. I’ll always support him, believe in him & love him. I’m excited for your new lease on life & where it takes you.
**Friday Night SmackDown is in Evansville, Indiana with WrestleTix reporting over 7,900 tickets distributed as of Thursday night and nearly a guarantee the set-up of 8,100 will be hit by show time at the Ford Center. The following has been announced for the show at 8 p.m. ET o Fox:
*Face-to-Face: Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley
*The Firefly Funhouse returns
*Rey Mysterio vs. Karrion Kross
*Imperium vs. Braun Strowman, Ricochet & Madcap Moss
**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s taped edition of AEW Rampage from Phoenix and back in its regular time at 10 p.m. ET on TNT:
*The Young Bucks vs. Aussie Open
*Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm
*Lance Archer vs.
*Action Andretti vs. Sammy Guevara
*Keith Lee and Dustin Rhodes speak
**IMPACT Wrestling has its No Surrender event tonight at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas and streams at 8 p.m. ET on IMPACT+ and Fite TV. The card will include:
*IMPACT Championship: Josh Alexander © vs. Rich Swann
*Knockouts Championship: Mickie James © vs. Masha Slamovich
*Knockouts Tag Team Championships: The Death Dollz © vs. Allysin Kay & Marti Belle
*Dot Combat Match for the Digital Media Championship: Joe Hendry © vs. Moose
*#1 Contenders Match: Steve Maclin vs. Brian Myers vs. PCO vs. Heath
*Motor City Machine Guns & KUSHIDA vs. KENTA, Chris Bey & Ace Austin
*Kon vs. Frankie Kazarian
*Pre-Show: Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw
*Pre-Show: Jonathan Gresham vs. Speedball Mike Bailey (this could be the best match on the show, although the countdown is only 30 minutes and has two matches to fit)
**Josh Barnett has announced another match for Bloodsport over WrestleMania Weekend. Yuya Uemura is set to take on Alex Coughlin on Thursday, March 30th at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The match joins the previously announced bout between Kota Ibushi and Speedball Mike Bailey. Jon Moxley, John Hennigan, Timothy Thatcher, and Jeff Cobb are also advertised for the show, which will stream on Fite+.
**Fight Network is releasing an upcoming season of “Diary” episodes that were produced by Jorge Barbosa focusing on IMPACT talent and Invicta FC fighters. The latest season launches on 2/20 with the first of a two-part episode on Josh Alexander with the second released on 2/27. The rest of the season will have Jordynne Grace on 3/6, Gisele Shaw on 3/13, Jessica Delboni on 3/20, Karina Rodriguez on 3/27, Bhupinder Gujjar on 4/3, Trey Miguel on 4/10, Kay Hansen on 4/17, and Rosemary on 4/24. The episodes will air on television as well as the IMPACT and Invicta FC YouTube channels.
**There was an insane match on IMPACT with Trey Miguel and Crazzy Steve having a Monster’s Ball Match that featured tons of weapons including thumbs tacks, barbed-wire, and tables. Both men bled throughout the match which lasted about sixteen minutes of television time. Both took major bumps into the tacks including Trey taking a Black Hole Slam on them. Steve revealed “Janice” (the barbed wire 2×4) and used it on Trey’s forehead. The ending saw both fight on the edge of the apron with Trey hitting a Roll of the Dice to send both through the barbed-wire board, Trey rolled Steve into the ring and pinned him to retain the X Division title. In front of a larger crowd, this would have likely torn down the house with the risks they took but the atmosphere remains the largest hindrance for IMPACT’s shows as they are producing some of their best episodic television in years with tremendous talent and very strong booking. The show opened with an excellent tag match with the Motor City Machine Guns beating Speedball Mike Bailey & Jonathan Gresham after the tag champions hit the Dirt Bomb.
**The WWE stock closed at $85.79 on Friday.
MMA NEWS
**The lawsuit filed last month against Conor McGregor regarding an incident on a yacht in Spain last summer, has been dropped. The Sunday World reported earlier this week that the proposed civil suit was dropped by the plaintiff, a woman who had alleged that McGregor attacked her on a yacht last summer causing her to jump from the yacht and was in fear for her life. A McGregor spokesperson had denied the accusations when they first reported. It was not stated if there was any settlement between the parties.
**A bill is being proposed in California by Assemblymember Matt Haney, a Democrat from San Francisco, that would seek a pension fund for retired MMA fighters. The bill was introduced earlier this month with the hope of creating a fund to benefit fighters that have a certain amount of fights that took place in the state of California throughout their careers. ESPN spoke with Ronda Rousey, who is one of the proponents of the bill as is the California State Athletic Commission. The fund would be financed by $1 off every ticket sold to an MMA event in the state being allocated for the fund with fighters 50 years of age or over qualifying for the pension fund and would need to have had at least 13 fights within the state. A similar pension fund exists in California for retired boxers but there is no such fund in any state for MMA fighters. Since 2012, the CSAC has sent out 171 cheques to retired boxers with the average payout being $19,000.
Rousey told ESPN:
I was really almost like shocked and encouraged by humanity [that] anyone is even thinking of the fighters after they’re not fighting anymore. I just kind of thought that nobody cares ever, that they only want to see us punch each other and it’s really cool and then they forget about us and don’t ever think about us for a second after that. This is the first time I’ve really felt that anyone is actually thinking about the fighters themselves, not just the fight, and actually cares about the people and not thinking of us as a product. And if this doesn’t pass, I’ll be extremely disappointed.
**The UFC will hold another Fight Night card at the Apex on Saturday. It is their final card at the Apex for the foreseeable future with no Apex events announced until April at the earliest. While last week’s and this weekend’s cards have been extremely thin, they have a huge slate of fights coming up over the next two months. Below is the card for Saturday night:
MAIN CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Nikita Krylov (29-9) vs. Ryan Spann (21-7)
*Andre Muniz (23-4) vs. Brendan Allen (20-5)
*Don’Tale Mayes (9-5) vs. Augusto Sakai (15-5-1)
*Tatiana Suarez (8-0) vs. Montana De La Rosa (12-7-1) – It is Suarez’s first fight since June 2019 and was considered a future champion after winning TUF and has the most to gain with a decisive win on Saturday.
*Yohan Lainesse (9-1) vs. Mike Malott (8-1-1)
PRELIMINARY CARD (4 p.m. on ESPN+)
*Erick Gonzalez (14-7) vs. Trevor Peek (7-0)
*Jasmine Jasudavicius (7-2) vs. Gabriella Fernandes (8-1)
*Jordan Leavitt (10-2) vs. Victor Martinez (13-4)
*Ode Osbourne (10-5) vs. Charles Johnson (13-3)
*Rafael Alves (20-11) vs. Nurullo Aliev (7-0)
*Joe Solecki (12-3) vs. Carl Deaton (15-5)
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and Kate from Montreal will be hosting Rewind-A-SmackDown tonight at 11 p.m. ET for all POST Wrestling Café. If you can’t watch the show live, it will be posted immediately afterward for all patrons.
**John Siino and I will have an IMPACT No Surrender POST Show on Saturday covering the show from Las Vegas and all the latest news regarding the promotion and the recent weeks of programming. This will be available for POST Wrestling Café members.
**You a new edition of MCU L8R on the Café feed as WH Park is joined by Rich Fann & Scrump to discuss the new Ant-Man & The Wasp – Quantumania film.
**The N.W.A. Podcast is back on Saturday night with Nate Milton, Andrew Thompson, and Kris Ealy.
**Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and I recently spoke with labor attorney Lucas Middlebrook about the steps needed for professional wrestlers to unionize, the difference with an association, what can be learned from MMA, the nature of contracts with the major promotions, and the level of fear that exists among the industry.
*****
MCU L8R: Ant-Man & The Wasp – Quantumania
WH Park, Rich Fann & Scrump review Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, the first film of Marvel’s Phase 5. They discuss the film’s themes of abandonment, the fallout from responsibilities shirked, their love of Jonathan Majors as Kang, and of course the eternal question: Was it #NotMyKang or #NotMyMODOK for WH.
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Lucas Middlebrook
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston speak with labor attorney Lucas Middlebrook on the state of independent contractors in professional wrestling.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with the announcement of ‘All Access’, a bloody main event, more matches added to Revolution, and a great All-Atlantic title match.
*****
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the February 21st, 2023 edition of WWE NXT headlined by Bron Breakker vs Jinder Mahal for the NXT Championship
*****
NOAH Keiji Muto Retirement at Tokyo Dome
John Pollock & Wai Ting cover NOAH’s return to Tokyo Dome for Keiji Muto Grand Final Pro Wrestling “Last” Love featuring Keiji Muto’s retirement match against Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya, and an unadvertised bonus match.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with Edge challenging Austin Theory for the U.S. Championship following Elimination Chamber.
*****
NJPW Battle in the Valley POST Show
WH Park & Karen Peterson cover NJPW’s Battle in the Valley card with Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and KAIRI vs. Mercedes Monè.
*****
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