WWE Battleground airs tonight on the WWE Network. The kickoff show begins at 7 p.m. EST with the main show starting at 8 p.m. EST. Spoiler Alert: If you don’t want to find out who is most likely winning, based on the current odds at 4:15pm eastern, don’t read ahead. The card is:
WWE Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE title – The story here is how they get to the double championship. Any finish is possible, altough at this point, Ambrose is the favorite at -900. It would make sense to wait until Summer Slam to create two champions.
John Cena, Enzo Amore, & Big Cass vs. The Club (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, & Luke Gallows) – This match should be awesome. As is often noted, WWE six man tags NEVER disappoint. This should be great. The faces are big favorites at -675.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens – Everyone is expecting this to steal the show but it depends on how much time they get. It feels too early to do the blow off here and it’s possible they continue this to Summer Slam. Zayn is a moderate fav at -600.
WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag – This also feels like too soon to do a title change. I’m not sure which three Wyatt’s will be in the match. Surprisingly, the Wyatt’s are big favorites at -750, so I’m expecting a schmoz finish.
Sasha Banks & a mystery partner vs. WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte & Dana Brooke – I won’t speculate on who the tag partner will be (It’s definitely Judy Bagwell), but I’ll say that there have been some interesting names floating around. Sasha and ? are favorites at -1350. Dave thinks it’s either Bailey, Nia, or Lita. Given that Sasha said he’d be wrong, you can rule out those three. If it’s Judy Bagwell…
Intercontinental Champion The Miz vs. Darren Young for the I-C title – The Miz is a -1050 favorite so it appears that this feud must continue. I wonder if Bob Backlund will be in Young’s corner given that he was in attendance at the Dan Gable HOF induction yesterday. If you haven’t listened to the show with Dave and Bryan from last night with Dave speaking about his induction, you should do that.
United States Champion Rusev vs. Zack Ryder for the US title – Rusev is at -900. Thanks for stopping by Zach. Lana and Zach would be a good pairing. You could easily turn her into a Snooky type. I was always surprised they never paired Zach with a female version of himself.
Chris Jericho hosts The Highlight Reel with guest Randy Orton – We’ll see if anyone cares about the return of Orton, hopefully find out if he is in fact ready for Lesnar. The set getting damaged is a -500 favorite.
Becky Lynch vs. Natalya – The interesting note here is that yesterday, Natalya was the underdog at +450. Today she is the favorite at -1200. I would have exptected a Lynch win, but as Lynch’s biggest hater, I’d be happy with her loss.
The Usos vs. Breezango on the Battleground kickoff show – Breezango is the favorite at -600 which is surprising to me since they usually put the faces over in the preshow. However, it’s Breezango. Who knows. Seriously, 29 writers and the best they can do with tag team names is to combine both names. Its incredibly lazy writing. How about the Photo Bombers? See, it took me 3 seconds to come up with something better than Breezango. It sounds like something I’d order laying in a hammock.
Check out the Observer Staff predictions here, and follow along all night with the action, with the sites only HOF member, Dave Meltzer. From all of us here at the F4W / Wrestling Observer Empire, congratulations Dave!
[Dan Velten]
THE ROUND-UP
WWE Battleground 2016: Observer staff preview & predictions
WWE Wildwood, NJ, live results: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens
NXT Cocoa, FL, live results: Mojo and Carmella’s final NXT appearances
WWE Superstars results: The Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz
NJPW on AXS TV results: Goto faces Nakamura; Naito battles Shibata
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Figure Four Weekly
READ IT HERE: Figure Four Weekly 7/18/2016: Does WWE policy apply to Brock Lesnar? – The latest big pro wrestling/mixed martial arts hybrid story involving Brock Lesnar saw him flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Association (USADA) for a potential anti-doping violation in an out of competition test collected on June 28. The results came in on the evening of July 14th and the UFC was notified the following day.
Subscribers click here to continue reading.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
READ IT HERE: July 25, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Results of the WWE draft, Brock Lesnar fails USADA drug tests, – The WWE draft ended up just as planned from the start, with the same dynamics of Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins as the top Raw program and John Cena vs. A.J. Styles as the top Smackdown program.
With one of the biggest news weeks of the year, it’s a double issue of the Observer this week, covering the draft, the Jon Jones & Brock Lesnar drug test failures and drugs failed for, the Roman Reigns drug test failure, a major WWE star who is no longer under contract, lots more on the UFC sale, details on the latest concussion lawsuit against WWE, as well as coverage of the beginning of the G-1 tournament and the beginning of the Super J Cup.
The lead story covers the draft. We look at what, when the draft idea started, were the planned main events for SummerSlam. We look at what did and didn’t change about the draft and why. We look at what failed about the draft. We look at what changed in the final week before the draft. We look at why certain people were called up from NXT and some interesting decisions made. We look at the situation with he cruiserweight, the announcing team changes, and what’s new with Brock Lesnar.
We’ve got a complete rundown of not only who is on what brand but slotting and what the slotting shows, as well as the Cesaro interview.
We also go through the Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar drug test failures. We talk about the drugs, what their medical usage would be for, Jones past test results and Twitter responses. We also look at what Lesnar tested for, Mark Hunt’s reaction, what punishment Lesnar is facing, and how this pertains to pro wrestling. We also look at what John Cena said about the test failure.
We’ve got more on the UFC sale including several other companies that had interest in buying UFC and why each one ended up dropping out as the bidding reached high points. We look at what different stations had wanted to do with UFC, and why a media company would have made sense as a buyer. We look at what revenue stream and logic was used to generate the $4 billion sale figure, as well as notes on Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta after the sale.
Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter BACK ISSUE
READ IT HERE: June 14, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Sable sues WWF for $140M, Martha Hart upset with WWE – Pro wrestling’s latest spill into the national headlines came with Rena Mero’s $140 million lawsuit filed on 6/3 against Titan Sports and her subsequent quitting of the company.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
The G1 is once again back tomorrow morning on NJPW World at 5:30 a.m. EST with a show in Fukushima. The card is:
Kazuchika Okada vs. Hirooki Goto
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tama Tonga
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Naomichi Marufuji
Togi Makabe vs. SANADA
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bad Luck Fale
Katsuhiko Nakajima, Gedo, & Toru Yano vs. BUSHI, EVIL, & Tetsuya Naito
Captain New Japan & Tomoaki Honma vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Kenny Omega
Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, KUSHIDA, & Michael Elgin
David Finlay vs. YOSHI-HASHI
Here are G1 results of night four from last night/this morning.
WWE / Pro Wrestling
According to TMZ, Tammy Sytch wants the producers of the TV show “Botched” to help her get plastic surgery.
Ramon Flores from the Milwaukee Brewers comes to bat to Razor Ramon’s theme. (thanks to Devin Axtman)
This article is about Seth Rollins and how he doesn’t forget where he came from, which is Davenport, Iowa, an easy place to forget.
Rob Schamberger painted a portrait of Dave Meltzer.
Speaking of Dave, he discussed Brock Lesnar’s drug test failure and Roman Reigns’ suspension with The Hannibal TV. Dan Gable also touched on Lesnar’s test failure and his experience with him in the NCAA.
WECT-TV has a story with video on a pro wrestling fan expo in Wilmington, NC.
This article is about an Australian girl with WWE aspirations. She’s already had a WWE offer but it was taken back once it was discovered how young she was. Remember, WWE hates lying about your age. Seemingly, in WWE one can lie about anything else, just never that.
Matt Hardy did a very entertaining in-character AMA on Reddit a few days ago which had some hilarious content. The whole thing can be found here. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
UFC / MMA
Dan Henderson says that, whether he wins or loses, he is ready to retire after challenging Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title.
VARIETY
On NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, Donald Trump said Vince McMahon called to tell him that he liked Trump’s grandiose entrance on the first night of the Republican National Convention.
“Well, Vincent’s a good friend of mine. He called me. He said, ‘That was a very, very good entrance.’ But I didn’t want to do it a second time, because, you know, it never works out the second time,” Trump said.
Miami Herald also has an article about the name drop.
The Summer Slam Events Calendar
TONIGHT – WWE presents Battle Ground PPV at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. It will be the fourth event under the Battleground chronology, and the first event under the newly reinstated WWE brand extension.
TONIGHT – Crossfire Wrestling – Merritton Community Centre, 7 Park Avenue St. Catharines ON, for our 5 year Anniversary show “BRING THE HEAT V”
TONIGHT – PWEclipse – Summer Surrender, Oshawa, Ontario
TONIGHT – Fenix vs. Pentagon Jr. headlines for Lucha Libre New York at Club LaBoom in Queens, NY
July 29, 30, 31 – ECCW returns to the Agrifair 2016 Abbortsford, BC with three shows per day. Friday and Saturday shows start at 12:00PM – 3:00PM – 8:00PM. Saturday July 30 will feature “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart. Sunday’s shows start at 11:00AM – 2PM and 5PM
July 30 – UFC 201 – LAWLER VS. WOODLEY from Atlanta, GA
July 30 – WSOF 32: Moraes vs. Hill 2 – Live on NBCSN from Everett, Washington. Also featuring Ben “Phoenix Jones” Fodor vs Caros Fodor in a brother vs brother fight
July 30 – Smash Wrestling – Oshawa Music Hall, 39 King St E, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 1B2
July 31 – BATTLEWAR 36; Les Foufounes Électriques, 87 Sainte-Catherine Street East, Montreal, QC
Aug 4-6 – !BANG! TV – Professional Wrestling Spectacular, 3 charity shows in 3 days. – More information.
Aug 5 – NEF Presents Dana White: Looking for a Fight. More info here.
Aug 6 – UFC FIGHT NIGHT – RODRIGUEZ VS CACERES, from Salt Lake City, UT
August 6 – Absolute Intense Wrestling Girls Night Out in Cleveland at Our Lady of Mt Carmel with Crazy Mary Dobson, Allysin “Sienna” Kay, Veda Scott, Shayna Baszler, Annie Social, Kelly Klein, Heidi Lovelace, Lufisto, Nicole Savoy and more.
Aug 12 – Live Professional Wrestling, downtown Toronto at the Tranzac! 292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 2M7, Canada – All proceeds go to the Autism Ontario group.
Aug 12 – BIG WEST WRESTLING presents BOWLING, BODYSLAMS & BBQ, Lake City Bowling & Billiards: Kelowna, BC
Aug 12 – Zack Sabre Jr. vs.. Jeff Cobb has been added to the Revolution Pro show in London at York Hall in Bethnal Green.
Aug 13 – World Women’s Wrestling’s 2016 IRON MAIDEN Championship at the Americal Civic Center in Wakefield, MA
Aug 13 – wXw NOW – The End (Tommy End’s final show in Germany, booked by The Sumerian Death Squad)
Aug 13 – NWA Mid South Wrestling in Dyresburg, TN at the Herb Welch Wrestle Plex headlined by Matt Riviera vs. Jeremy Moore.
Aug 19 – Superkick’d Pro Wrestling Rock Show – Blazed The Great Hall, 1087 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H3
Aug 19 – The Hardys, Drew Galloway, Ethan Carter III and Mickie James appear for House of Glory Wrestling in Jamaica, NY. That’s the Friday before SummerSlam.
Aug 20 – UFC 202 – DIAZ VS MCGREGOR 2, from Las Vegas, NV
Aug 21 – WWE Presents THE SummerSlam PPV event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It will be the twenty-ninth event under the SummerSlam chronology and the second consecutive SummerSlam to be hosted in the Barclays Center.
Aug 21 – Chavo Guerrero Jr. will appear for Smash Wrestling on in Pickering, Ontario at Super Showdown lV.
Aug 21 – Octagon & Tinieblas Jr. vs. Fuerza Guerrera & Pirata Morgan headlines in Houston at the Arena Theater.
Aug 26 – Absolute Intense Wrestling – Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, 1355 W. 70th St. Cleveland, OH
Aug 26 – CONFLICT Wrestling: “Black or White”
Aug 26 – Bellator 160 from the Pond in Anaheim and live on Spike TV. Benson Henderson vs Patricio Pitbull Freire
Aug 27 – UFC FIGHT NIGHT – MAIA VS. CONDIT from Vancouver, BC.
Aug 28 – Destiny wrestling proudly presents “SUMMER HEAT”.
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