Daily Update: Daniel Bryan, Junior Dos Santos, Impact

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

GFW crowns new World Champion at TV tapings

AUDIO

JNPO: In focus with combat sports storyteller Esther Lin 8/18
WOL: Sempervive and Nason talk Conor vs. Floyd, SummerSlam, more 8/18
Wrestling Weekly: Ric Flair, Daniel Bryan, Adam Cole 8/18

We’re doing polls this weekend for three shows, the ROH iPPV on Saturday, NXT Takeover on Saturday and SummerSlam on Sunday, so you can a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected].

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 8/14/2017: PROGRESS comes to Boston

On the second stop of their weekend in the United States, British promotion PROGRESS Wrestling presented an intimate show in the Boston area on Sunday night. Things didn’t go quite as planned up to that point. It started when PROGRESS and WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne couldn’t wrestle on either show after being busted open in an indie match on Friday. Then, TK Cooper suffered an ankle injury in New York and the excessive heat in the crowded venue marred what otherwise appeared to be a fun show.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: August 21, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Ric Flair hospitalized, G1 Climax finals, more

An update on Ric Flair and extensive G-1 Climax coverage are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Full coverage of G-1, including polls on the last three nights, G-1 MVP, G-1 best match and a chart showing star ratings for everyone in the tournament and who had the best top-end matches, who was the most consistent and more, in this issue.

Look at the finances of G-1, what are New Japan’s major programs and biggest shows for the next two months, full coverage of all three nights at Sumo Hall, a measure of the change in interest levels over the past year, a look at the return of Katsuyori Shibata, and U.S. G-1 television plans for the summer and fall.

Preview WWE’s SummerSlam weekend, injury updates, lineup changes, ticket sales and plans for next year.

There is an update on the Daniel Bryan situation and why his coming back to wrestle next year is so unique, more on the WWE Network in China, how streaming services have done in China, Ronda Rousey and WWE, Adam Cole and WWE, the Mae Young Classic, Mike Bennett talks drug addiction issues, Bayley talks about her injury, Sami Zayn raising money, Dwayne Johnson update, Scott Dawson update, Shayna Baszler talks Rousey in wrestling, UK ratings, the story of Jericho’s one-night comeback, how Dolph Ziggler’s fortunes faded, WWE market value and the most watched shows on the WWE Network.

Check out all the WWE and NXT arena events from the past week with highlights from each show and business notes.

Examine the situation with Alberto El Patron and GFW and why it is what it is, as well as notes on the upcoming GFW tapings, Alberto’s response, new talent coming, the situation with Lucha Underground and what happens if Lucha Underground is no more.

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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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WON BACK ISSUE: July 24, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: ECW Heatwave review, wrestling business uncertainty, more

While a hot PPV show and an impromptu brawl in the middle of the show stole the headlines, in the big scheme of things, with the future of the company at stake, those were only minor issues. After five years of the biggest boom period in the history of this industry, pro wrestling, ironically, like so many industries in this ever changing world, has never been faced with so much uncertainty

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE
Daniel Bryan was the guest on Edge and Christian’s podcast this week. One of the highlights from the interview was him discussing his forced retirement due to his concussions, primarily the lesion that was found in his brain. He says that he was originally cleared by three different doctors, two of which WWE recommended. WWE still would not clear him, and instead they sent him to do some experimental testing, which is where the lesion was found. When he told this to one of the doctors that originally cleared him, that doctor told him that a lesion was a vague term when it came to brain injuries, that something may be there, but not necessarily a lesion. When talking about his brain and reflexes, Bryan noted that he found out the testing they did on him, and the results thereafter, noted that while his reflexes were slower than that of NFL or other athletes that have taken the test, they were not slower than a normal person, which he considers himself to be. You can listen to the show in full here; the concussion talk starts around the two hour mark.
Adam Cole has been spotted with the NXT crew that is heading to New York.
WWE released six more episodes of its Southpaw Regional Wrestling parody series.
Triple H appeared on CBS Sports’ “In This Corner” podcast ahead of SummerSlam. When asked which promotion is WWE’s biggest competition, he said: “When you say, ‘What’s the No. 2 promotion?’ and ‘WWE doesn’t have a promotion knocking on its door and pushing them,’ Raw and SmackDown do. Raw and SmackDown have a promotion right on their tail pushing them to do more. That promotion is going to run a show on Saturday night at the Barclays Center, and it’s called NXT.”
Triple H also previewed tomorrow’s NXT TakeOver special in an interview with ESPN.
The New York Times has a profile on WWE Champion Jinder Mahal here.
Sam’s Town in Las Vegas is doing a viewing party for SummerSlam starting at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday.
Linda McMahon is taking criticism here for not standing up to Donald Trump. (thanks to Chris Cruise)
It was announced today that The Rock has selected a number of tracks for inclusion in the upcoming WWE 2K18 game. The tracklist includes names like Bruno Mars, Eazy-E, Kanye West and more.
Pro Wrestling
Impact ratings got a boost from last night’s Destination X special, with the show doing 320,000 viewers as compared to last week’s 277,000.
Jim Cornette as an authority figure and Taryn Terrell were surprise debuts at last night’s first night of the Impact TV tapings. Impact will be taping constantly over the next several days, finishing up on Tuesday. There will be 12 weeks of tapings done this week, taking the company through the end of October and everything leading to Bound for Glory is being taped.
Cornette discussed his return to Impact.
John Hennigan, using the name Johnny Impact, a spoof on his old Johnny Nitro name in WWE, will debut on Impact next week.
The Pope is no longer with GFW, saying that negotiations between the sides failed due to arithmetic.
The ROH iPPV tomorrow, even though it is listed on the ROH website as starting at 6 p.m. Eastern, it actually starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, so it will be over long before NXT TakeOver.
ROH star Jonathan Gresham “married” independent star Jordynne Grace earlier this morning. The wedding was officiated by none other than Nikita Koloff. Grace tweeted that Koloff isn’t ordained anymore because he let his license expire and that the ceremony was more fun than anything official. She wrote that they plan to do something more official and legal in the future for their wedding.
Lucha Underground will air on television in India via Dsports.
Jeff Cobb has been added to the MLW: One Shot show in Orlando on 10/5. Other matches confirmed include Ricochet vs. Shane Strickland and MVP vs. Sami Callihan.
UFC/MMA
The UFC announced today that Junior Dos Santos has been flagged for a potential USADA violation. An out-of-competition sample collected on August 10th tested positive for a currently unknown substance. This puts him out of UFC 215, where he was scheduled to face Francis Ngannou. Dos Santos’ manager released a statement denying that Dos Santos has ever used PEDs.
A match that could determine a future opponent for Tyron Woodley’s welterweight titles, Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal, has been added to the October 7th UFC PPV from Las Vegas.
Rory MacDonald says he will most likely not be fighting again in 2017.
Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva is making a transition into kickboxing. He’s signed with Glory and will fight Rico Verhoeven at Glory 46.
Artem Lobov vs. Andre Fili has been added to the UFC Fight Night in Gdansk, Poland on October 21st.
Felice Herrig vs. Cortney Casey has been added to UFC 218, which will take place in Detroit on December 2nd.
Michael Page is not happy with recent Bellator treatment.

Today in Pro Wrestling History: WWE SummerSlam 2013

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