Daily Update: UFC Mark Hunt vs. Frank Mir; Hogan-Gawker; Cesaro return?
HOGAN V GAWKER UPDATE
As noted yesterday in our front page story, a Pinellas County, Florida jury of four women and two men ruled in favor of Hulk Hogan on all counts in his lawsuit against Gawker Media, founder/publisher Nick Denton, and former editor A.J. Daulerio. So far, he’s been awarded $115 million in compensatory damages, consisting of $60 million for emotional damages and $55 million for economic loss. The latter number, while at least somewhat nebulous, was calculated by his team as what he could have made from the sex tape if he had chosen to market it and Gawker hadn’t posted short excerpts. When it comes to understanding what’s happening legally, why Gawker is so sure they’d prevail upon appeal, how much money Gawker has to put up to appeal, and so on, the best article to check out is the one that Peter Sterne wrote yesterday at Politico NY.
Looks like Gawker changed its corporate name about two weeks ago.
As far as the approximately 2,000 pages of unsealed documents from the case that Florida 2nd District Court of Appeals released yesterday, everyone is still going through them. As far as the case itself is concerned, the biggest significance appears to be a detailed explanation of why Gawker felt that Hogan was actually suing to prevent the other sex DVD, with his racist comments, from coming out. In communications with his lawyer and with Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, that appears to be his primary concern. With regards to the pro wrestling business, Hogan is not kind to TNA in deposition excerpts included in the document dump, including saying that comparing TNA’s Bound For Glory to WWE’s WrestleMania is like comparing a tricycle to NASCAR
UFC FIGHT NIGHT BRISBANE
UFC has a Fight Night card tonight from Brisbane, Australia (tomorrow morning local time) headlined by Mark Hunt vs. Frank Mir with Neil Magny vs. Hector Lombard as the co-feature. Ross Pearson vs. Chad Laprise (replacing Abel Trujillo, who had visa issues presumably related to his domestic abuse convictions) is the featured bout on the Fight Pass Prelims. Be sure to check out our live coverage
Fight Pass at 7 p.m. Eastern
Damien Brown vs. Alan Patrick
Chad Laprise vs. Ross Pearson
FS 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern
Viscardi Andrade vs. Richard Walsh
Rin Nakai vs. Leslie Smith
Dan Hooker vs. Mark Eddiva
Alan Jouban vs. Brandan O’Reilly
Seo Hee Ham vs. Bec Rawlings
Steve Bosse vs. James Te Huna
Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Daniel Kelly
Johnny Case. vs. Jake Matthews
Neil Magny vs. Hector Lombard
Mark Hunt vs. Frank Mir
We will be doing our weekend show on Saturday night covering CMLL, the NCAA finals and UFC.
There is a huge weekend of events coming up. We’ll only be doing polls this week on the CMLL Dos Leyendas show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s TNA tapings in Orlando, tonight’s WWE house show in Syracuse, NY (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Kalisto, Dudleys, Usos, Natalya, Charlotte, A.J. Styles, Kane) and tonight’s NXT show in West Palm Beach at [email protected]. NXT is doing split crews as there is also a show in Tampa.
NEW JAPAN FROM NAGOYA (NOT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD) ON SATURDAY
Jushin Liger & Kushida & David Finlay vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta & Gedo
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi & Jay White vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall
Tiger Mask vs. Steve Anthony for NWA jr. title
Kenny Omega vs. Juice Robinson non-title
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin vs. Young Bucks
Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Satoshi Kojima for Never Open weight title
We’re looking for reports on Saturday’s final night of TNA tapings in Orlando, WWE shows in White Plains and Buffalo, Evolve in Queens and NXT in Wachula and Coral Springs [email protected]” target=”_blank”>[email protected]
EVOLVE IPPV FROM QUEENS, NY SATURDAY AT 6 P.M.
Ethan Page vs. Mike Bailey
Drew Gulak vs. Fred Yehi
Sami Callihan vs. TJ Perkins
Chris Hero vs. Tracy Williams
Team Tremendous vs. Anthony Nese & Caleb Konley
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Johnny Gargano
Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle for Evolve title
NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS AT 8 P.M. FROM MADISON SQUARE GARDEN ON ESPN
NEW JAPAN FROM AMAGASAKI (NOT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD) ON SUNDAY
David Finlay & Jay White vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta
Kushida vs. Gedo
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi
Katsuyori Shibata & Captain New Japan vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall
Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson for Never six man titles
Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Evil for ROH TV title
Sunday we’re looking for reports on WWE shows in Wilkes-Barre, PA and Binghamton, NY and Evolve in Brooklyn to [email protected]
EVOLVE IPPV ON SUNDAY AT 8 P.M. FROM BROOKLYN AT AMERICAN LEGION FLOYD BENNETT POST 1060 AT WWW.WWNLIVE.COM
Ethan Page vs. Fred Yehi
TJ Perkins vs. Mike Bailey
Sami Callihan vs. Tracy Williams
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Drew Gulak
Matt Riddle vs. Chris Hero
Timothy Thatcher vs. Caleb Konley for Evolve title
Johnny Gargano & Drew Galloway vs. Team Tremendous for Evolve tag team title
URSHOW IPPV FROM PHOENIX AT THE CELEBRITY THEATER AT www.urshow.tv and www.fight.tv SUNDAY AT 9 P.M. EASTERN
Roy Jones Jr. vs. Mavrick Harvey in a boxing match
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Kurt Angle in a pro wrestling match
Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping in a grappling match
Shannon Ritch vs Mavrick Harvey in an MMA match – Yes, this match is replacing the Dan Severn vs. Ken Shamrock fight.
DDT JUDGEMENT 2016 19TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW AT SUMO HALL MONDAY NIGHT AT http://taima.tv/r/PuroresuOnDemand
Womens’ Battle Royal
Men’s Battle Royal
Joey Ryan & Candice LaRae vs. Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie vs. Akito & Yasu Urano
Saki Akai & Makoto Oishi & Lady Beard vs LiLiCo & Kota Umeda & Mizuka Watase
Antonio Honda & Hiroshi Fukuda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Leona
Extreme title in Barbed wire power point no power blast match: Kendo Ka Shin vs. Super Sasadango Machine
Falls count anywhere: Kota Ibushi & Gota Ihashi vs. Sanshigo Takagi & Jun Kasai vs. KENSO & Michael Nakazawa
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki
Danshoku Dino vs Akebono
Tetsuya Endo & Konosuke Takeshita vs. Daisuke Sasaki & Shuji Ishikawa for KO-D tag team titles
Isami Kodaka vs. Harashima for KO-D open weight title
F4W MANIA~!
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Figure Four Weekly 2/22/2016: All the latest on the Hulk Hogan Lawsuit
All the latest details on the Hulk Hogan/Gawker lawsuit.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
SUBSCRIBERS READ IT HERE: March 21, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: UFC 196 breaks records, New Japan Cup, WWE Road Block
We’ve got a major history issue! The life of Hayabusa. The story behind one of the more noted sports owners, Eddie Einhorn, and his two major forays in pro wrestling. Our lead story goes into the records set at UFC 196, including why PPV numbers were so strong, lessons about the UFC audience, what the audience wants from big fights now, the value of stars and momentum and what comes next. Update on what may be the end of UFC’s long struggle to get legalized in New York.
WrestleMania update, the entire lineup, ticket sales, compared previous company records, boxing attendance record, more people talked about for the WWE Hall of Fame this year, physical Hall of Fame location, WWE TV revenue compared to NASCAR, Foley talks Mania, Foley’s new show, WrestleMania in Europe, NXT TV taping dates, WrestleMania 2017, William Regal’s warning to wrestlers, Heyman signs a new distribution deal, AAA star gets tryout, interesting career and role John Cena’s grandfather played in major league baseball and college baseball.
What happened in the Chris Jericho vs. Neville match including the ironies of the WWE officiating. WWE’s most underutilized talent is right now, full coverage of Roadblock.
NJPW struggles, major shows upcoming, the New Japan Cup finals, NJPW’s current trajectory.
Major story on the life and career of Hayabusa, childhood, becoming a wrestling fan, start in the business, rise to stardom, career title history, the politics that hampered his career, injuries, big show matches, his career breaks, the heyday and fall of FMW, the various attempts restart it. The end of his career, how close he came to death, his thoughts while he was paralyzed.
Results of Nikkan Sports fan voting awards, Japan’s major newspapers, the best of 2015.
Eddie Einhorn, his role in making college basketball a popular television sport, and his attempt in the 1970s to get into pro wrestling and ran opposition to the NWA and WWWF. The background of Pedro Martinez, his partner, including when he ran wrestling in Madison Square Garden and his famous fight with Toots Mondt.
The ratings of all the major wrestling and MMA programming from the past week, as well as results of the major arena events around the world and reviews of the key television shows.
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If you are into Japan history, or wrestling history for that matter, this a good issue for you!
SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE & Pro Wrestling
Lucha Underground season 3 began taping today in Boyle Heights.
Advertising for the April 15th WWE event in Amsterdam is listing Cesaro as returning to action.
Yesterday, Lance Russell, Wrestling Observer Hall of Famer and long-time friend of ours, turned 90 years old. He’s a one of a kind human being and we wish him a very happy birthday weekend.
WWE announced yesterday that the live WrestleMania Kickoff Show will air on USA Network this year starting an hour before the main card. I believe this is the first time they’ve done a live basic cable pre-show since they stopped doing Sunday Night Heat at pay-per-views, and it will be the first to have a match in even longer.
Shane McMahon tweeted photos of him training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Renzo and Rolles Gracie as well as more Muay Thai classes with Phil Nurse.
Lucha Underground made the official announcement today that Rey Mysterio Jr. debuts in Aztec Warfare on this week’s show. That was made pretty clear on last week’s show as well. There is an Aztec Warfare sneak peak here.
It was announced that Mick Foley will be replacing Superstar Billy Graham for what were supposed to be AXXESS appearances, as Graham cited health issues for needing to pull out.
Trina Michaels made her debut for TNA this past week. Doing the “fan jumps the railing” gimmick to save her favorite wrestler Barbi.
A guy named The Hornet, one of Santino Marella’s top trainers/coaches at his Battle Arts Academy, has gone abroad, and was hand picked to be one of the head trainers and successors to Ricardo Rodriguez for Great Khali’s CWE School in India.
The Saturday night WrestleCon show with Matt Hardy vs. Lance Storm is nearly sold out, so if you are going to WrestleMania and want to attend that show as well, buy your tickets now.
Chikara King of Trios 2016 preview video.
This week on 6:05 Superpodcast, David Bixenspan and Brian Last wish Lance Russell a happy 90th birthday, interview both Donnie B and Ron Skoler, and much more.
UFC & MMA
ONE Championship: Union of Warriors results from yesterday in Myanmar – In the Main Event, Aung La Nsang submitted Mohamed Ali in the 1st with a guillotine; Flyweight Adriano Moraes submitted Eugene Toquero with a Brabo choke in the 1st; 17 year old Christian Lee got his third straight first round finish in a 161 lb catchweight fight with a TKO due to ground and pound over Anthony Engelen
Jessica Aguilar tore her ACL in training and is out of her fight at UFC 197 against Juliana Lima. No replacement has been named as of yet.
Thomas Almeida vs Cody Garbrandt looks to be the headline fight for UFC Fight Night 88 in Las Vegas in May. Both Bantamweights are unbeaten and have looked really good early in their UFC careers.
Dave has an article on Dan Hardy talking his love for broadcasting here.
– If you haven’t seen it already, Jim Ross has been added to the commentary crew for a portion of the URFight show on Sunday night. There is a great promo by Dan Severn on Ken Shamrock here. Shamrock pulled out of the fight, then Tank Abbott couldn’t pass a physical, so now Severn, who has been training hard for months, has no fight. He’ll still be there signing autographs.
Chael Sonnen also claims he almost grappled Nick Diaz on the URFight show, before it ended up being Michael Bisping.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Edge and Christian win the WWF World Tag Team Titles
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