FRIDAY UPDATE: UPDATES ON NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS, STRIKEFORCE, UPCOMING EVENTS, ROSS TO SMACKDOWN

By Dave Meltzer

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        We're looking for reports on tonight's WWE house show in Lubbock, TX (HHH vs. JBL, Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero, Batista & Big Show & Matt Hardy vs. Edge & Mark Henry & MVP) and the ROH show in Dayton (Nigel McGuinness vs. Adam Pearce ROH vs. NWA title match; Austin Aries vs. Necro Butcher; Bryan Danielson vs. Erick Stevens; Roderick Strong vs. Chris Hero, Jimmy Jacobs & Joey Matthews vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
        The biggest show of the weekend is Night of Champions from WWE with a lineup of HHH vs. John Cena for the WWE title, Edge vs. Batista for the World title, Kane vs. Mark Henry vs. Big Show for the ECW title, Chris Jericho vs. ? for the IC title, Mickie James vs. Katie Lea Burchill for the women's title, Matt Hardy vs. Chavo Guerrero for the U.S. title, The Miz & John Morrison vs. Fit Finlay & Hornswoggle for the WWE tag titles and Bob Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase & ? for the World tag titles.  At one point it was announced that there would be a Divas championship match with Natalya, but that wasn't followed up on and my impression is that on tonight's Smackdown show, it's not acknowledged.  This may have changed with the draft, but the original plan was for Jeff Hardy to be the mystery opponent for Jericho. 
 
        WWE runs the same basic house show as tonight in Lubbock tomorrow night in Abilene.  Raw will be live on Monday night from Oklahoma City and Smackdown will be taped with ECW on Tuesday night from the Tulsa Convention Center, where a lot of the old UWF TV shows in the 80s were taped at.
 
        ROH also runs a major show tomorrow night in Chicago with Aries vs. Jacobs, McGuinness vs. Jerry Lynn non-title, Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Pearce & ? vs. Strong & Brent Albright and Steen & Generico vs. Tyler Black & Necro Butcher.
 
       Tonight's Smackdown::
*Kane & Big Show vs. Mark Henry & MVP
*Fit Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder
*Edge vs. Matt Hardy in a non-title match
*Michelle McCool & Kelly Kelly & Cherry vs. Maryse & Victoria & Natalya
*Domino vs. Vladimir Kozlov
*Batista vs. Umaga
        If you're counting, that means on a Smackdown TV show, seven wrestlers on the show are not from Smackdown, although with the talent sharing initiative of Vickie Guerrero and Armando Estrada I guess the ECW guys are still supposed to appear on Smackdown.  Both HHH and Jim Ross are heavily featured on the show in their Smackdown debuts.  As you can imagine, because of that, the rating will be far more closely watched than usual.
 
        Tonight's Strikeforce from the HP Pavilion in San Jose
*Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thompson for the lightweight title
*Bobby Southworth vs. Anthony Ruiz for the light heavyweight title
*Elaina Maxwell vs. Miesha Tate
*Raymond Daniels (top star of Chuck Norris' WCL) vs. Jeremiah Metcalf in Daniels' MMA debut
*Anthony Figueroa vs. Chris Cariaso
*Nam Phan vs. Billy Evangelista
*Brian Caraway vs. Alvan Cacdus
*Jesse Jones vs. Cyrillo Padhillo
*Travis Johnson vs. Jorge Interiano
*Alexandre Trivino vs. Eric Jacob
*Bobby Stack vs. Jose Palacios
*Jesse Gillespie vs. Eric Lawson
        Drew Fickett, who was scheduled to be a last minute replacement for Joe Riggs (himself a last two week replacement for an injured Shonie Carter) became the third person to face Luke Stewart pulled.  Riggs was pulled after admitting in a pre-fight questionnaire that he had taken a percoset three days earlier in the week and the CSAC wouldn't allow him to fight.  Fickett agreed to do the fight on no notice, but the Maximum Fighting Championships in Canada, who he signed to fight for on 7/25 in Edmonton, informed him that his contract calls for no fights less than 45 days before their event, so he had to pull out.  Stewart won't be fighting on the show.
        We will have live coverage of the show tonight on the site starting at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time.  The show will air starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time live on HD-Net.  Remember that is not a staggered feed so it'll be 7:30 p.m. on the West Coast, immediately following Inside MMA.
 
        The most in-depth coverage of the WWE draft, including the decision making process that took place in the last week, leads off two issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that will be out over the next week.  The first issue is available right now if you are a premium subscriber to this web site and comes out Tuesday otherwise.  A special issue will also come out Wednesday with more coverage, and will be available to web site subscribers within the next few days.
 
        We look at the Vince McMahon angle, the build to it, timing of the McMahon angle and a look back at last year's attempt to do something similar.  We also look at how this shows the difference in mentality between the different U.S. promotions and what they look at every week.
 
        We look at all the draft changes, including analysis of the good and bad of each move.  We look at who did and didn't know ahead of time and how this affects the PPV.  We look at WWE's new goals for Smackdown and the different reasons HHH's move was made.  We look at notes out of the meetings that led to these changes being made.  We also look at one of the key changes that is, at least tentatively, slated to include one of the main events at next year's Wrestlemania.  We look at the moves that were sure things.  We look at a wrestler who didn't move that the company is looking to repackage and look at some ideas shot down.
 
        We also look at how the Jim Ross thing went down in creative, on television, his reaction at first, and his later change of mind.  We look at what Ross did that seemingly guaranteed the move would be made according to those close to the decision making process.  We also look at the business reason why the move wasn't a good one. 
 
        We also look at the draft rating and how it compares with other draft ratings that didn't give away $1 million.  We look at the funny press release WWE sent out when the rating came out that touted the success of Million Dollar Mania and more business thoughts on the show.
 
        We also look at a lot of the other strange goings on in WWE over the past week.
 
        We've also got a look at what Lorenzo Fertitta going full-time to work in UFC may or may not mean.  We look at Fertitta's previous role and from a financial standpoint how significant and seemingly crazy this move is.  We look at Fertitta's background, why he said he made the move and look at the major differences between UFC's attempt to expand internationally and WWE's success in doing the same thing.  The story looks at Fertitta's outside business interests and when put in comparison to where UFC currently is, shows just how major a move this really is.
 
        We've also got coverage of the Ultimate Fighter final, with a complete rundown of the ratings, match-by-match ratings and how the ratings pattern was very different for this show than most MMA shows and what that means.  We look at some amazing stuff when it comes to ratings, as well as the future for Amir Sadollah as compared to other TUF winners, the future of Evan Tanner, C.B. Dollaway talks both about whether he tapped and what happened with Jesse Taylor that got him on the show, as well as poll results and match-by-match coverage.
 
        We look at what Vince McMahon has publicly said about MMA, and how privately his company reacts completely different behind-the-scenes.  We've got updates on Randy Orton, Ric Flair, the business notes from the recent Australia and New Zealand tour, how the changes in schedule at the last minute led to a main star and several key behind-the-scenes personnel missing Raw.  We look at more outside business ventures from a WWE main star, as well as a look at the departure of 21-year-veteran promoter Bob Collins from the organization.
 
        We have notes on McMahon getting an award, as well as business analysts predicting WWE's growth in 2008.  We have notes on a funny conclusion in a magazine article on WWE and how this is reminiscent of articles from another generation.  We have a look at the best selling pro wrestling DVDs, a guy in developmental being given a Bill Goldberg gimmick, a funny quote from a WWE wrestler about his childhood, changes in one of the top heel characters, an update on Carlito, a gimmick a new wrestler is expected to get, Shane McMahon talks about WWE's priorities in the Japanese market and business notes from the past week.
 
        We also have an historical look back at Japanese pro wrestling in the 70s with the death of the Great Kusatsu as well as a look back at what may have been the biggest night in the history of Japanese pro wrestling on television.
 
        We also have our monthly WWE & TNA business rundown, covering arena business, television and PPV and how each facet is doing as well as look at the trends.
 
        We have the most detailed rundown of ratings of every national wrestling and MMA show of the past week, including segment-by-segment of the major shows and Canadian numbers.  We look at the star segment once again on TNA, what did and didn't click on Raw, as well as the first Elite XC show after CBS airing on Showtime.
 
        We also have results from the major league arena events held around the world and the major TV show rundowns.

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Also in the issues:
 
--More on the Pro Wrestling NOAH crew going to Europe and the match of the year candidate in Coventry
 
--Reaction to the Convetry show
 
--Major TNA injury
 
--TNA major show copies something WCW tried in the past that was a failure
 
--Update on Joe vs. Nash feud
 
--Notes on Frank Trigg becoming a regular pro wrestler
 
--Rock star dating TNA woman and how it happened
 
--Notes on new TNA signings
 
--Booker T talks his current TNA tenure
 
--TNA weekend house show news and updates
 
--A look at TNA TV over the next three weeks
 
--Detailed update on UFC coming to New York state and what has delayed it
 
--Update on ticket sales to UFC events
 
--Buy rate updates on UFC
 
--More matches for the head-to-head battle on 7/19 between UFC and Affliction
 
--More matches talked about and falling through
 
--A look at a head-to-head battle last year and what that seemed to show
 
--Former top international star cut
 
--John McCarthy update on why he doesn't expect rule changes that UFC favors to happen
 
--A look at the next UFC PPV
 
--Next European show
 
--Updated talk about doing a major stadium event
 
--This week's episode of Tito vs. Dana
 
--Update on Brock Lesnar's training
 
--Jesse Taylor talks about his being kicked out of the finals
 
--Another legendary announcer has falling out with the major promoter and what happened
 
--Story behind a wrestler being immortalized in a national postage stamp
 
--Update on Mistico injury
 
--Another major turn
 
--Update on wrestlers leaving AAA
 
--Major wrestling star to marry famous model next month
 
--Wrestling doing a spoof on the K-1 World Grand Prix
 
--Legend doing an autobiography
 
--Two more junior heavyweight tournaments
 
--Update on Japanese magazine industry
 
--Japanese indie gets TV deal
 
--MMA fighters doing pro wrestling this past week
 
--Major national TV specials on 60s and 70s wrestling stars
 
--Former wrestling star gets national endorsement deal
 
--Funny story with Dwayne Johnson at Congress this past week
 
--Death of one of the U.S. greatest heavyweight wrestlers and his brief pro wrestling tenure
 
--Update on wrestling Hall of Fame flood
 
--Lots more on the Hogan family for this week including Hogan losing a deal and an update on his TV shows
 
--Update on Bobby Lashley doing MMA
 
--Update on reality show looking to use a current pro wrestler as its lead
 
--Network loans a promotion $3 million
 
--Lots more on the next CBS show for Elite XC
 
--Future of Phil Baroni
 
--Fighter on Affliction show who needs to make amends or won't be able to fight
 
--Update on wife of legend and son of another legend fighting over the weekend

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--There is a great feature article on the life of the late Ray Gunkel, one of Georgia's all-time biggest wrestling stars, written by Steve Johnson at http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/06/24/5975651.html  Lots of important history of the famous Georgia wrestling war in the early 70s that came out of his death, as well as the early days of wrestling on the Superstation.
 
--There is a story on JBL returning to Abilene, TX, where he went to college, for a WWE show on  Saturday night at http://reporternews.com/news/2008/jun/25/  In the article, he talked about wrestling in the same building he watched Don "The Lawman" Slaton (the local Abilene wrestling star of the 70s) as well as The Funks and Von Erichs.
 
--We are sorry to report on the death of long-time subscriber James Melroy, who wrote about pro wrestling and MMA for the Long Beach Press-Telegram.  Melroy passed away on Wednesday at the age of 36 and was a good friend of Todd Martin.  His grandfather, who was like a father to him, had passed away less than a week earlier.  If you knew him or read his stuff, you can send condolences to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
--My story on tonight's Melendez-Thomson match is at http://sports.yahoo.com.mma/news
 
--Business Week at http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2008/id20080625_258661.html has a story on the new UFC video game
 
--A correction from Wednesday.  The Jackson vs. Griffin Countdown show's first replay on Wednesday will be at 9 a.m. on Spike, not 9 p.m. as we listed.  So, basically, nobody will see it.  The debut showing is at midnight on Monday.
 
--In Cable ratings for last week, USA was No. 1 at 2.3, followed by TNA at 1.7.  Spike was No. 9 at 1.0.  Sci-Fi was No. 12 also at 1.0.  ECW for last week actually fell slightly below the station's weekly prime time average, which is never good for a non-themed show on a themed network.  Raw was No. 6 and No. 7 overall, but No. 1 and No. 2 in 18-34 and No. 2 and No. 3 (behind NASCAR on TNT) in 18-49 and 25-54.        
 
--Showtime 2 will have a week of prime time MMA starting 7/21 with specials.  On 7/24 will be Kimbo Slice night.  They are also going to replay the March Strikeforce show featuring Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le.
 
--Tickets went on sale today for the 7/26 Elite XC CBS/Showtime card in Stockton at the Stockton Arena box office and www.stocktontickets.com
 
--CNN has a piece on the NWA 60th anniversary at http://www.cnn.com/video?#/video/sports/2008/06/26/nwa.60th.anniversary.cnn (thanks to Keith Lipinski)
 
--Poll on which of these upcoming shows you have the most interest in
UFC 86 Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson 32.3%
WWE Night of Champions HHH vs. Cena 28.5%
Affliction Fedor vs. Sylvia 16.1%
TNA Victory Road Joe vs. Booker 11.7%
UFC TV special Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin 6.2%
CBS Scott Smith vs. Robbie Lawler 3.8%
Dream lightweight finals 1.4%
        Interesting the CBS show finished so low since it will, likely by a wide margin, have more viewers than anything else on the list
 
--Today's Daily Oklahoman at http://news.ok.com/ross-accepting-position-change/article/3262775 has an article on Jim Ross and his moving to Smackdown.  Ironically, Ross was scheduled today to be hitting all the local media to promote the Oklahoma City Raw show on Monday that he's no longer appearing on.
 
--UFC sent Marc Ratner with Brock Lesnar, Roger Huerta and Sean Sherk to do media this week to promote the 8/9 UFC event at the Target Center in Minneapolis 
 
--Australia's version of TV Guide has a small interview with Edge this week, talking about how to be a good heel (thanks to Graeme Cameron)
 
--Peachstate Wrestling Alliance runs tonight in Bremen, GA at the Rec Center with Buff Bagwell, Disco Inferno, Mike Jackson, Sal Rinauro and midgets Little Poppa Pump and Little Mr. Kennedy
 
--Tomorrow will be the 10th anniversary of the Undertaker vs. Mick Foley Hell in a Cell match from Pittsburgh (thanks to Bryan Costello)
 
--On Yahoo yesterday they had a list of the 20 most searched for real names of famous people.  No. 8 was Hulk Hogan and No. 13 was HHH.  Tiger Woods, Madonna and Lil Wayne were top three.  No. 10 was Ray Stevens, but not the wrestler Ray Stevens.  No. 15 was Sting, but not that Sting either.   (thanks to Guy Bogard)
 
--Paul Heyman on the Jim Ross move to Smackdown at http://thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/heyman/article1350062.ece  Good story, pretty much spot on in some ways.  The site also has a new Chris Jericho interview at http://thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/article1345875.ece 
 
--In the U.K. for the week ending 6/15, Impact did 45,000 viewers, Raw had 55,000 viewers, Smackdown had 80,000 viewers for the Friday night show and 34,000 for the Saturday morning replay and an ECW replay had 34,000 (thanks to Ian Hamilton)
 
--We are sorry to report the passing away of Mary Horlander, the grandmother of Michael Weaver Jr., a regular correspondent to the site, as well as the mother of Bob Barnett, who passed away on Sunday.  Deepest sympathies to both.
 
--GWA has a free show tomorrow night in Lima, OH
 
--CHIKARA Pro on 7/13 at the Alhambra in Philadelphia haw Incoherence vs. Fabulous Two for the Campeonatos de Parejas (tag team championship)
 
--There is an MMA show tomorrow night at the Palace in Auburn Hills, MI with a U.S. vs. Canada theme.  The show is all amateur fighters
 
--The Grappling World Team Trials will be held in Rocklin, CA on 9/13 and 9/14.  MMA fighters Jeff Monson and Tara LaRosa both won gold medals in the world grappling championships, which is held in conjunction with the freestyle and Greco world championships, in 2007.
 
--Scotty 2 Hotty appears tomorrow night in Marion, IN
 
--A parejas increibles match with Hector Garza & Perro Aguayo Jr. vs. Mistico & Averno headlines a bullring show on 7/3 in Cancun (thanks to Kris Zellner)
 
--In Thursday's USA Today crossword puzzle, the clue was "wrestling legend Flair called the Nature Boy," which had three letters (thanks to Jeff Ream)
 
--"Get Smart" opens today in Australia.  It got bad reviews, with a * rating, in the Sydney Morning Herald.  At last report, it had 53% good reviews.  (thanks to James Stanios)

--A fake Steve Austin was signing autographs for $10 a pop at the Wal-Mart in Greensburrg, IN last week.  He's now being sought by police for fraud and identity theft. The Wal-Mart is returning $10 to anyone who got an autograph.  The funny part of the story is some employees became suspcious when he  pulled up in a jalopy.
 
--ESPN's Robert Flores, when calling a home run by Miguel Bautista of the Pirates on Sports Center Wednesday night called it a Batista bomb.  He had mentioned being a big Ric Flair fan during an ESPN boxing broadcast earlier this year.
 
--Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 was the No. 5 best selling game on PS2 in Australia this past week (thanks to Jereme Warneck) 

-- A quick look at the members-only content available on the site today aside from the July 3rd issue of the Observer (second new issue
in the past two days) that was posted Thursday evening:
 
* A new Bryan & Vinny Show running down ECW and TNA Impact from last night, plus various thoughts.  Members can download this one-hour show right now by clicking here:
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/5814/105/
 
* A new Figure Four Daily with Lance Storm talking all the news in wrestling, including his thoughts on the draft and RING OF HELL, which
he is four chapters into.  Members can listen to this 45-minute show by clicking here:  http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/5808/105/
 
* We will also be doing a members-only show late Sunday night recapping the Night of the Champions PPV and all of the related
fallout.  We'll also discuss the first "A-level" Smackdown show.  If you haven't seen it, we've already got a Smackdown report up in the
Features section of the site.

* A brand new Karl Stern history of wrestling show with a bunch of Q&As and a surprise appearance by Buddy Landell.  Members can access
this one-hour show right now by clicking here:
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/5816/105/
 
--Rich Tate's Atlanta wrestling nostalgia:
74 years ago today:  Orville Brown, the actual first champion of what came to be the national version of the National Wrestling Alliance, beat Frank Speer via DQ
50 years ago:  Southern champion Freddie Blassie beat Ronnie Etchison
39 years ago:  El Mongol & The Pro beat The Assassins to win the Georgia tag team titles in a match where Pro had vowed to unmask unless they won the titles
33 years ago:  Abdullah the Butcher beat Jerry Brisco to retain the Georgia title, Harley Race & Toru Tanaka beat Mr. Wrestling I & II and Dick Slater & Bob Orton Jr. won the Georgia tag team titles from Robert Fuller & Bob Armstrong
30 years ago in Macon:  Stan Hansen & Thunderbolt Patterson & Mr. Wrestling II beat Ole Anderson & Rock Hunter & Abdullah the Butcher
 
--ChickFight returns to Ipswich, U.K. on 8/3 at the Caribbean Centre featuring Jetta, Eden Black, Cheerleader Melissa (Raisha Saeed) and Wesna
 
--South Atlantic Wrestling tomorrow night in Louisa, VA at the Betty Queen Intergenerational Center features the Midnight Express, managed by Jim Cornette, facing Damien Wayne & Mike Booth, plus Tammy Sytch, Baby Doll and Manny Fernandez
 
--New CMLL on Fox Sports Espanol at 9 p.m. Sunday
 
--OVW from last night in Charleston, IN before 80 fans:  Rough Rida Rashaad & D-Bo b Sergio & Ranger Milton, Al Barone (who was at one point considered to be Santino Marella's bodyguard on Raw) b Shiloh, Dirty Money b Lumpy Magoo, Mobile Homers won three-way over War Party and Theta Lambda Psi, Rudy Switchblade b Turcan Celik, Igotta Brewski b J.D. Michaels, Nick Dinsmore & Rob Conway & Joey Matthews b Apoc & Vaughn Lilas & Anthony Bravado (current OVW champ) (thanks to Mike Giralico)
 
--Danny Bonaduce did his entire radio show today talking about taping the Hulk Hogan Celebrity wrestling show.  He noted he was training with RVD and RVD gave him a concussion.  RVD then called into the show and apologized, and they set up RVD coming on the show to talk about legalizing marijuana (thanks to Jeff Cohen)
 
--Texas All-Star Wrestling on 7/12 in Humble, TX at the bingo Hall with Daivari vs. Nick Daniels on an all cage match show
 
--Hack Myers has been added to the 7/6 BANG show in Ocala

{plug} 

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