Dada 500 in critical condition
Jeremy Botter also reported that Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris was in critical condition on a ventilator last night after his heart stopped at some point. Bellator sent out this statement from his family: “The Harris Family would like to inform Dada’s friends and fans that Dada is ok and resting comfortably in a Houston area Hospital under the care of an incredible staff of doctors and nurses. Click here for the full info.
Check out F4WOnline.com’s coverage of Bellator 149
EARLY SATURDAY AM
NEW JAPAN/ROH JOINT SHOW FROM TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL LIVE ON NEW JAPAN WORLD AT 1:30 A.M.
Jay White vs. David Finlay
Jushin Liger & Matt Sydal vs. Delirious & Gedo
Frankie Kazarian vs. Dalton Castle
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly & Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Moose & Kushida vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Roderick Strong vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi
Mark & Jay Briscoe & Toru Yano vs. Young Bucks & Kenny Omega for Never six man titles
Jay Lethal vs. Tomoaki Honma for ROH title
SATURDAY NIGHT
WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT 9 P.M. FROM GARDEN GROVE, CALIF. ON NBC SPORTS NETWORK
Ozzie Alvarez (6-3) vs. Andrew Ramm (4-3)
Jamie Yager (6-4) vs. Greg Parker (5-1)
Timur Valley (10-1) vs. Chris Gutierrez (8-1-1)
Marlon Morales (15-4-1) vs. Joseph Barajaas (12-1) for the bantamweight title
SUNDAY
First, the UFC presents Fight Night: Cowboy vs. Cowboy at 9 pm eastern on Fox Sports 1 (Early prelims start at 5:30 pm eastern only on UFC Fight Pass, followed by the Fox Sports 1 prelims at 7 pm eastern).
UFC FROM THE CONSOL ENERGY CENTER IN PITTSBURGH
FIGHT PASS AT 5:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME
Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Anthony Hamilton
Sarah Moras vs. Lauren Murphy
Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Marion Reneau
FS 1 AT 7 P.M.
Nathan Coy vs. Jonavin Webb
Oluwale Bamgbose vs. Daneiel Sarafian
Alex Garcia vs. Sean Strickland
Shane Campbell vs. James Krause
Joe Riggs vs. Chris Camozzi
Cody Garbrandt vs. Augusto Mendes
Dennis Bermudez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Derek Brunson vs. Roan Carneiro
Cowboy Donald Cerrone vs. Cowboy Alex Oliveira
WWE FAST LANE FROM THE QUICKEN LOANS ARENA IN CLEVELAND
You may want to DVR the UFC and flip on the WWE Network and watch live as WWE presents Fast Lane at 8 pm eastern (kick off show starts at 7 pm eastern only on the WWE network). You can still buy WWE Fast Lane on regular PPV, but if you do, JBL thinks you’re an idiot. He’s probably right. Just order the network, people. It’s cheap and awesome. In my opinion, the best way to enjoy WWE is to skip all the TV and just listen to the B&V shows to stay up with the story lines, and then only watch the PPVs/Special Events and the NXT TakeOvers.
FAST LANE FULL CARD
Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar for the WrestleMania title shot
Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler for IC title
A.J. Styles vs. Chris Jericho
Charlotte vs. Brie Bella for Divas title
Big Show & Kane & Ryback vs. The Wyatt Family
Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks vs. Naomi & Tamina
Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio 2/3 falls for U.S. title (preshow match at about 7:30 p.m.)
We’re looking for reports on the WWE house show in Youngstown, OH with Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Kane, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Ryback and Rusev.
Bryan and Dave will be posting the first of two weekend shows tonight. They will cover Bellator and the first ROH show of the weekend in Japan. The Sunday Wrestling Observer Radio will cover FastLane, the second ROH in Japan, and UFC.
There will also be radio shows next weekend on both Friday & Saturday covering the ROH PPV from Las Vegas and the UFC Fight Pass from London.
We’re doing polls this weekend on the Bellator show tonight and the WWE Fast Lane show on Sunday, so thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We’re also looking for reports on tonight’s NXT shows in Asbury Park, NJ and Gainesville, FL to [email protected]
Raw will be Monday night in Detroit. Brock Lesnar is scheduled for the show.
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Indianapolis.
If you’ve ever wanted to WATCH our radio shows here on the site, check out our new Youtube page! No full video shows, but lots of video clips, full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Figure Four Weekly 2/8/2016 Kevin “Mordecai” Thorn voices issues with WWE Network royalties, more
Former WWE Superstar Kevin Thorn voices his frustrations with the amount of money WWE pays in royalties for the WWE Network, plus more.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Feb 22, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE 2015 Financial Report, Kevin Randleman passes
The 2015 business of WWE is the lead in a packed issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. We go through the keys to the current business: biggest revenue streams, why the stock was down, compare with the past, the truth about television ratings, house show business, social media effect, Vince McMahon talks ratings, what ratings mean right now and in the future, network numbers, both good and bad signs regarding those numbers, why numbers declined and will go up soon and what kind of seasonal gain can be expected.
The career of Kevin Randleman, his most famous matches, comments from Bas Rutten, comments he made about first getting into fighting, plus his career as a pro and college wrestler.
We also have a piece looking at matches that in one night changed promotions or made superstars, and how that fits in with this past week’s Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega match. A full rundown of the New Beginnings in Osaka and New Beginning in Niigata shows, with match-by-match coverage, story behind both shows, star ratings and poll results. We also look at the big shows coming up for New Japan.
Lots more about Daniel Bryan, details on his medical issues, lots of things not really put into perspective, Brie Bella;s retirement, Wade Barrett situation, Titus O’Neil suspension and fine, FastLane notes, the weirdness of the Fast Lane main event as it pertains to the company’s future, WWE injury updates, more on John Cena’s injuries, Cesaro talks his own injury and Bryan retirement, WWE Network notes, notes on wrestlers who received tryouts last week, Jericho vs. Styles notes, WWE star opening up a wrestling themed restaurant, plus highlights of all the NXT and WWE house shows over the past week and business notes.
WWE’s new Global Cruiserweight series concept, how the tournament will work, the schedule, the scouting of participants and more.
Bellator’s deal with Rampage Jackson and details of how it happened.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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You can also order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer
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Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.
Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: Jan 11, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Finger Poke of Doom, Awards results, Sam Muchnick passes away
Details on World Title changes in 3 promotions including the Finger Poke of Doom, full results of the Observer Awards, plus tons more.
SATURDAY UPDATE
WWE/Pro Wrestling
If you missed it, Dave and Bryan did a Friday night bonus show talking a bunch of wrestling and MMA news, plus a full review of the Bellator show with Kimbo vs. Dada 5000 and Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock. Bryan and Mike will be back tomorrow with a two-hour Wrestling Observer Live Fast Lane pre-show on Sirius Satellite Radio and Sports Byline USA at 3 PT/6 ET talking all the weekend news as well. Plus, there will be a Bryan & Vinny Fast Lane post-show, and Observer Radio post-show, and a new After Dark Radio. Details will be on the front page for all of that.
Obviously we knew it was coming, but Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows officially announced their departure for WWE at today’s NJPW show. Meanwhile, Ryan Satin is reporting at ProWrestlingSheet.com that Michael Elgin has signed a 2 year deal with NJPW. We have confirmed that this is accurate.
The Rock and Kevin Hart have signed on to host the 2016 MTV Music Awards, which will air on April 10th at 8 PM on MTV.
This week’s edition of the 6:05 Superpodcast with David Bixenspan and Brian Last includes part two of their conversation with Scott Teal about his Crowbar Press books and writing Nick Gulas’s programs, a chat with Rik Ratchet about Dennis Coraluzzo and “Iron” Mike Sharpe, a “What If?” discussion about the prospect of Roddy Piper accepting Gary Hart’s offer to go to World Class in 1982, and much more.
If you want a sneak peak of Jim Ross and Josh Barnett doing commentary for New Japan on AXS TV, here is the link. Their first show together debuts on March 4th.
Bray Wyatt carries on family tradition in WWE
Local news story about Ed “Strangler” Lewis.
A story here about the history of pro-wrestling and the Tampa area.
UFC/Bellator/MMA
Botter also reported that the main event of the UFC’s Netherlands debut in Rotterdam will be Alistair Overeem vs. Andrei Arlovski. “This is a bit of a surprise since not only is Overeem coming off a huge win while Arlovski is coming off a huge loss, but they’re also training partners at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque.
UFC Fight Night 83 weigh-ins for Sunday’s event were held today in Pittsburgh. Both main eventers made weight as Donald Cerrone weighed in at 170 pounds and Alex Oliveira weighed in at 171 pounds for the battle of the Cowboys. Late replacement fighter Augusto Mendes weighed in at 142 pounds for his bout against Cody Garbrandt. The bout was scheduled to be at bantamweight (135 pounds), but it appears they knew ahead of time that Mendes would be missing weight as Garbrandt ended up weighing in at 140.5 pounds. The bout will be a 142-pound catchweight bout and Mendes will be fined 20 percent of his purse. The other two last week replacement fighters, Anthony Smith and Kelly Faszholz, made weight for their bouts. You can watch the entire weigh-ins by clicking here.
During last night’s show, Bellator announced their next tentpole event for May 14th in San Jose. Featured on that show will be a Light Heavyweight bout between Phil Davis and King Mo and a lightweight fight between former Champion Michael Chandler and Josh Thomson
Earlier today, Luis Santos beat Rafael Silva by TKO in just over a minute in the main event of the ONE Championships event in Jakarta, Indonesia. On the undercard, Angela Lee won her fourth straight as a pro, in under a year, with a 2nd round sub.
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ON THIS DAY IN WORLD PRO WRESTLING HISTORY: Ricky Steamboat wins NWA Title; Bob Backlund wins WWWF Title