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Elias vs. Baron Corbin announced for WWE Raw
Hulk Hogan returning to WWE Raw on Monday
Impact ratings for last episode on Pop TV, updated Homecoming card
NWA title defense set for ROH TV tapings
NJPW notes: Wrestle Kingdom attendance, Six-Man tag title match
Kota Ibushi suffered concussion at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13
NJPW running back-to-back shows at Tokyo Dome in 2020
First night of NJPW G1 Climax 29 taking place in United States
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 live results: Omega vs. Tanahashi
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WOL: New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 13 recap show! 1/4
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WOR: New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 13 recap from Tokyo 1/4
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F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: WWE’s biggest news stories of 2018
2018 was an especially mixed year for WWE. It’s been an incredible year for WWE financially — even if that hasn’t always been mirrored by traditional metrics. They agreed to two transformative TV deals that will shape the company for years to come. WWE also reached a lucrative 10-year deal with the Saudi General Sports Authority, with the first two shows in Saudi Arabia being among the most controversial in the history of the promotion.
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WON NEWSLETTER (ONLINE ONLY): January 7, 2019 Observer Newsletter special: History of the Tokyo Dome – NO HARDCOPY AVAILABLE
When the Tokyo Dome opened on March 17, 1988, the idea of pro wrestling there wasn’t even an idea.
The Dome was built to be the new modern home of two baseball teams, the Yomiuri Giants of the Central League, the team of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh years earlier, the unofficial national team that had all its games on NTV, and sold out every game. The Dome held 48,316 fans for baseball, but for years, every single Giants game announced the attendance as 56,000. The other team, the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Pacific League, which played there through the 2003 season, were the ones that the average person could get tickets to see.
The idea was baseball and concerts, the Rolling Stones (who have 19 Tokyo Dome sellouts), Michael Jackson (who sold 405,000 tickets for nine dates in December 1988), U2, Madonna and Japanese artists. But while it has housed numerous sporting events, including NFL and Major League Baseball, with the exception of baseball and concerts, it’s probably best known for pro wrestling.
Pro wrestling was still huge on television back then. All Japan, headed by Giant Baba, was a fixture on Nippon TV, one of the major networks. New Japan, on TV-Asahi, had matches airing in prime time.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
WWE has announced that Bobby Roode & Chad Gable’s Tag Team title defense against The Revival on Monday’s Raw will now be a lumberjack match.
WWE paid tribute to “Mean” Gene Okerlund with a 10-bell salute at last night’s NXT television tapings.
Mauro Ranallo apologized for what he felt was a substandard performance from him on commentary at last night’s NXT tapings: “Like me or loathe me, I pride myself on performing my job at the highest level possible. Tonight, I failed. I know it will come across as an excuse to some but the car accident and other personal issues affected me more than I thought. I apologize to @WWENXT I WILL BE BETTER.”
NXT UK is holding TV tapings at the SkyDome Arena in Coventry, England on Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23.
Becky Lynch’s appearance on MTV’s Ridiculousness will air at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time tonight. The episode was filmed in October, with Lynch filling in for Sasha Banks while Banks was out of action.
The Undertaker appeared in a 26-minute documentary for Onnit called “True Wrestling,” which focuses on indie wrestling.
Mick Foley returned to the Worcester Centrum for a WWE Revisited video. Foley won his first WWF World Championship at the venue on December 29, 1998, and the episode aired on this day 20 years ago.
The Knoxville News Sentinel has an article on the wrestling school that Kane (Glenn Jacobs) and Tom Prichard are opening in Knoxville. Jacobs’ spokesman noted that Jacobs is an investor in the school and won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations.
Pro Wrestling
The fallout from Wrestle Kingdom 13 takes place overnight tonight as Korakuen Hall hosts New Year Dash 2018. The show will air live on New Japan World for free at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time. The full card for the show won’t be revealed in advance, but it will feature tag matches and angles to build what’s next for NJPW. There will be a NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team title match on the show, with Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori defending against Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Togi Makabe. Taguchi, Yano & Makabe won the pre-show gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom to get the title shot.
Every title that was on the line at Wrestle Kingdom 13 changed hands:
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Kenny Omega to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Tetsuya Naito defeated Chris Jericho in a no DQ match to win the IWGP Intercontinental title
Taiji Ishimori defeated KUSHIDA to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Juice Robinson defeated Cody Rhodes to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
EVIL & SANADA defeated Guerrillas of Destiny and The Young Bucks in a three-way match to win the IWGP Tag Team titles
Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the Revolution Pro Wrestling Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship
Shingo Takagi & BUSHI defeated El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru and SHO & YOH in a three-way match to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles
Will Ospreay defeated Kota Ibushi to win the NEVER Openweight Championship
Omega wrote “1-1” on Twitter following his match with Tanahashi, bringing up that they both have a win against each other.
Jay White confronted Tanahashi in a backstage angle after Tanahashi’s IWGP Heavyweight title win, likely setting up a future match between the two.
Jericho also said in his post-match comments that he wants to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight title.
Jericho posted a picture of welts on his torso and back after his match against Naito.
Matt Jackson tweeted after the Tokyo Dome show: “Thank you Japan.”
Ospreay posted an in-character tweet after his match with Ibushi: “My reckless style has shortened not only my career but my life. You all wanted change, so that I have a long career. You’ve just shorten everyone else’s.”
NJPW apologized for the streaming issues that occurred on New Japan World at the start of Wrestle Kingdom: “From 16:00 to 17:20, the server faced too much traffic, making it difficult to log in and for new registration. It is currently stabilized. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”
Impact Wrestling uploaded the opening video for Sunday’s Homecoming PPV.
UFC/MMA
Fabricio Werdum, who is serving a two-year suspension for a drug test failure, has requested his release from the UFC.
Conor McGregor and Dee Devlin welcomed the birth of their second child. McGregor wrote: “Heading home with my two healthy babies and an energized and healthy SuperMam 2019 is off to the best start! Thank you for the well wishes everybody!”
Daniel Cormier’s coach wouldn’t be surprised if Cormier fights two or three more times in his career.
Jon Jones and Anthony Smith have both hinted that they’ll be facing each other next.
Cris Cyborg’s YouTube channel has a 19-minute video of Cyborg from UFC 232 and dealing with her loss to Amanda Nunes.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: NJPW Tokyo Dome cards
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