LAW Aug. 2 Update: Raw Rating, Snuka Charges, Women's Title
Aug 2, 2016 15:26:53 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2016 15:26:53 GMT -5
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING NEWS
By: John Pollock
**This week’s edition of Review-A-Raw is posted on the site with Wai Ting and I reviewing Monday’s Raw from Atlanta with the return of Brock Lesnar and a surprise appearance by Randy Orton to close the show, Week 2 of the brand split and how this week’s Raw followed up to last week’s great show with lots of news and your feedback to the show. Review-A-Raw is available at fightnetwork.com/law/aug-2-review-a-raw-jimin-rawn-lutter-with-john-pollock-wai-ting/ and on iTunes by subscribing to Live Audio Wrestling.
**Monday night’s episode of Raw averaged approximately 3,331,000 viewers and is basically identical to the average from last week. The show did 3,463,000 viewers for the first hour and dropped to 3,399,000 in the second and then third hour did 3,081,000 viewers.
**Judge Kelly Banach has refused to throw out the charges against Jimmy Snuka for homicide, despite a request from the prosecution to do so. The prosecution doesn’t believe Snuka’s mental state is going to improve and doesn’t see the point in keeping the case open if his condition will not be changing. The Judge was not comfortable with throwing out the charges as Snuka is still scheduled for another hearing in December to see if there are any improvements after it was ruled earlier this year he was not mentally competent to stand a trial for the 1983 charges for the death of Nancy Argentino. It was also brought up at the hearing about Snuka being advertised for WrestleCon next year over WrestleMania weekend in Orlando and Snuka’s team stated he is not scheduled to appear at the event. The WrestleCon website is no longer advertising Snuka appearing.
**The Smackdown tapings are in Nashville, Tennessee tonight for the second week of the brand split. On tonight’s show they are advertising the main roster debut of American Alpha and A.J. Styles is going to have a segment involving John Cena and likely setting up their rematch for SummerSlam.
**Wai Ting and I will be back on Wednesday morning with Review-A-Smackdown and it should be posted on the website at in the afternoon.
**Daniel Bryan was a guest on the “Bear Hug It Out” podcast this morning in Nashville to promote tonight’s Smackdown taping in the city. Bryan confirmed that Smackdown would be adding a women’s championship but are not rushing to add it yet and waiting to do it right. Clearly, this was something most anticipated and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has also added that Smackdown will be adding tag titles in the future as well. The women’s division is much weaker at the moment on Smackdown with Natalya and Becky Lynch as the keys to the division and followed by Naomi, Eva Marie, Alexa Bliss and Carmella. On the Raw side they alone can build the division with Sasha Banks and Charlotte and also have Paige and Nia Jax as the women members of the division. Bayley seems to be imminent for a call up to the main roster and will add a lot of depth to either brand.
**The G-1 Climax had a day off on Tuesday and will resume on Wednesday morning with a card from Kagoshima at 5:30am Eastern on New Japan World with the following A Block tournament matches:
*Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Tama Tonga vs. Hirooki Goto
*Naomichi Marufuji vs. Seiya Sanada
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe
Both the Tenzan vs. Fale and Sanada vs. Tonga are must win matches for the four involved as they all have four points. Okada and Makabe are on top of the A Block with 8 points each and it is guaranteed they will either get one point apiece if they have a draw or two points for the winner and would mathematically eliminate the loser of the two matches.
Our next G-1 podcast will be out on Friday and will be hosted by Chris Charlton & WH Park as they review the Wednesday and Thursday shows and share their own thoughts on this year’s tournament so far.
**Jim Ross and Josh Barnett are calling the next installment of New Japan shows for AXS TV in L.A. today and tomorrow. The tapings will include four episodes dedicated to this past January’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 event from the Tokyo Dome and featuring the Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi main event (an entire episode dedicated to the match) and the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. A.J. Styles match for the Intercontinental title.
**The WWE Network had added a Smackdown post-show called “Talking Smack” and will air live every Tuesday night at 10pm Eastern. There is also a 30 minute pre-show each week for both Raw and Smackdown at 7:30pm Eastern.
**Lilian Garcia has announced that she is leaving the WWE for the time being in order to work closer to home and take care of her father, who is battling two forms of cancer. Garcia began with the WWE in 1999 and then left the company in 2009 and returned in 2011.
**Last Thursday’s episode of Impact averaged 350,000 viewers on POP and that was going against the final night of DNC coverage with Hillary Clinton’s speech.
**Adam Copeland has announced that due to a scheduling conflict, he will be unable to appear for a Q&A show with Jay “Christian” Reso on Sunday August 21st in New York City at Caroline’s. The two had been announced for the show to coincide with SummerSlam weekend in Brooklyn and Copeland tried to rework his schedule but said it was not logistically possible to be in the U.K. for the following morning. Reso will be still be doing the Q&A show that day and the show will be hosted by Nick Hausman.
**Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs will be a guest on next Monday’s Raw from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
**Mick Foley noted on Raw that the upcoming reality series “Holy Foley” will be premiering on the WWE Network immediately after SummerSlam on August 21st.
**NXT will be running shows in Des Moines, Iowa on September 16th, Omaha, Nebraska on September 17th and St. Paul, Minnesota on September 18th.
**Jim Ross has announced he will be doing two matiness shows over WrestleMania weekend in conjunction with MLW’s WaleMania III in Orlando, Florida. Ross will be holding the one-man Q&A shows on Saturday April 1st and Sunday April 2nd at 2pm Eastern each day at the Plaza LIVE at 425 Bumby Avenue in Orlando and tickets go on sale August 22nd at TicketFly.com.
**Below is this week’s video version of Review-A-Raw and includes this week’s promo winner (to win a Pro Wrestling Tees shirt, you can cut your own 0:30 promo and post using #PWTsPROMO):
LAW MMA UPDATE
**This Friday on The MMA Report, I will be welcoming Yair Rodriguez and Court McGee to the show to chat about their fights this Saturday night on the UFC card from Salt Lake City, Utah. Rodriguez is headlining the card against Alex Caceres and McGee (who is from Utah) will be fighting Dominique Steele.
**The UFC 201 preliminary fights on FS 1 averaged 331,000 viewers this past Saturday night from Atlanta with Jorge Masvidal and Ross Pearson in the featured prelim bout.
**Nick Diaz turns 33 years old today and Monday marked his freedom to officially resume his fighting career after his suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission expired. Diaz was originally suspended for five years after a drug test from his UFC 183 fight against Anderson Silva was above the allowable limit for marijuana and the NAC opted to throw the book at Diaz for his latest marijuana infraction. Diaz fought the suspension and fine and got a reduced penalty and is now free to return.
**The UFC will be returning to Portland, Oregon on Saturday October 1st and have announced a number of fights for the card. Louis Smolka will take on Sergio Pettis on a flyweight fight, Will Brooks will meet Alex Oliveira in a lightweight fight and Josh Burkman is set to fight Bobby Green on the card in a lightweight fight.
By: John Pollock
**This week’s edition of Review-A-Raw is posted on the site with Wai Ting and I reviewing Monday’s Raw from Atlanta with the return of Brock Lesnar and a surprise appearance by Randy Orton to close the show, Week 2 of the brand split and how this week’s Raw followed up to last week’s great show with lots of news and your feedback to the show. Review-A-Raw is available at fightnetwork.com/law/aug-2-review-a-raw-jimin-rawn-lutter-with-john-pollock-wai-ting/ and on iTunes by subscribing to Live Audio Wrestling.
**Monday night’s episode of Raw averaged approximately 3,331,000 viewers and is basically identical to the average from last week. The show did 3,463,000 viewers for the first hour and dropped to 3,399,000 in the second and then third hour did 3,081,000 viewers.
**Judge Kelly Banach has refused to throw out the charges against Jimmy Snuka for homicide, despite a request from the prosecution to do so. The prosecution doesn’t believe Snuka’s mental state is going to improve and doesn’t see the point in keeping the case open if his condition will not be changing. The Judge was not comfortable with throwing out the charges as Snuka is still scheduled for another hearing in December to see if there are any improvements after it was ruled earlier this year he was not mentally competent to stand a trial for the 1983 charges for the death of Nancy Argentino. It was also brought up at the hearing about Snuka being advertised for WrestleCon next year over WrestleMania weekend in Orlando and Snuka’s team stated he is not scheduled to appear at the event. The WrestleCon website is no longer advertising Snuka appearing.
**The Smackdown tapings are in Nashville, Tennessee tonight for the second week of the brand split. On tonight’s show they are advertising the main roster debut of American Alpha and A.J. Styles is going to have a segment involving John Cena and likely setting up their rematch for SummerSlam.
**Wai Ting and I will be back on Wednesday morning with Review-A-Smackdown and it should be posted on the website at in the afternoon.
**Daniel Bryan was a guest on the “Bear Hug It Out” podcast this morning in Nashville to promote tonight’s Smackdown taping in the city. Bryan confirmed that Smackdown would be adding a women’s championship but are not rushing to add it yet and waiting to do it right. Clearly, this was something most anticipated and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has also added that Smackdown will be adding tag titles in the future as well. The women’s division is much weaker at the moment on Smackdown with Natalya and Becky Lynch as the keys to the division and followed by Naomi, Eva Marie, Alexa Bliss and Carmella. On the Raw side they alone can build the division with Sasha Banks and Charlotte and also have Paige and Nia Jax as the women members of the division. Bayley seems to be imminent for a call up to the main roster and will add a lot of depth to either brand.
**The G-1 Climax had a day off on Tuesday and will resume on Wednesday morning with a card from Kagoshima at 5:30am Eastern on New Japan World with the following A Block tournament matches:
*Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Tama Tonga vs. Hirooki Goto
*Naomichi Marufuji vs. Seiya Sanada
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe
Both the Tenzan vs. Fale and Sanada vs. Tonga are must win matches for the four involved as they all have four points. Okada and Makabe are on top of the A Block with 8 points each and it is guaranteed they will either get one point apiece if they have a draw or two points for the winner and would mathematically eliminate the loser of the two matches.
Our next G-1 podcast will be out on Friday and will be hosted by Chris Charlton & WH Park as they review the Wednesday and Thursday shows and share their own thoughts on this year’s tournament so far.
**Jim Ross and Josh Barnett are calling the next installment of New Japan shows for AXS TV in L.A. today and tomorrow. The tapings will include four episodes dedicated to this past January’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 event from the Tokyo Dome and featuring the Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi main event (an entire episode dedicated to the match) and the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. A.J. Styles match for the Intercontinental title.
**The WWE Network had added a Smackdown post-show called “Talking Smack” and will air live every Tuesday night at 10pm Eastern. There is also a 30 minute pre-show each week for both Raw and Smackdown at 7:30pm Eastern.
**Lilian Garcia has announced that she is leaving the WWE for the time being in order to work closer to home and take care of her father, who is battling two forms of cancer. Garcia began with the WWE in 1999 and then left the company in 2009 and returned in 2011.
**Last Thursday’s episode of Impact averaged 350,000 viewers on POP and that was going against the final night of DNC coverage with Hillary Clinton’s speech.
**Adam Copeland has announced that due to a scheduling conflict, he will be unable to appear for a Q&A show with Jay “Christian” Reso on Sunday August 21st in New York City at Caroline’s. The two had been announced for the show to coincide with SummerSlam weekend in Brooklyn and Copeland tried to rework his schedule but said it was not logistically possible to be in the U.K. for the following morning. Reso will be still be doing the Q&A show that day and the show will be hosted by Nick Hausman.
**Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs will be a guest on next Monday’s Raw from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
**Mick Foley noted on Raw that the upcoming reality series “Holy Foley” will be premiering on the WWE Network immediately after SummerSlam on August 21st.
**NXT will be running shows in Des Moines, Iowa on September 16th, Omaha, Nebraska on September 17th and St. Paul, Minnesota on September 18th.
**Jim Ross has announced he will be doing two matiness shows over WrestleMania weekend in conjunction with MLW’s WaleMania III in Orlando, Florida. Ross will be holding the one-man Q&A shows on Saturday April 1st and Sunday April 2nd at 2pm Eastern each day at the Plaza LIVE at 425 Bumby Avenue in Orlando and tickets go on sale August 22nd at TicketFly.com.
**Below is this week’s video version of Review-A-Raw and includes this week’s promo winner (to win a Pro Wrestling Tees shirt, you can cut your own 0:30 promo and post using #PWTsPROMO):
LAW MMA UPDATE
**This Friday on The MMA Report, I will be welcoming Yair Rodriguez and Court McGee to the show to chat about their fights this Saturday night on the UFC card from Salt Lake City, Utah. Rodriguez is headlining the card against Alex Caceres and McGee (who is from Utah) will be fighting Dominique Steele.
**The UFC 201 preliminary fights on FS 1 averaged 331,000 viewers this past Saturday night from Atlanta with Jorge Masvidal and Ross Pearson in the featured prelim bout.
**Nick Diaz turns 33 years old today and Monday marked his freedom to officially resume his fighting career after his suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission expired. Diaz was originally suspended for five years after a drug test from his UFC 183 fight against Anderson Silva was above the allowable limit for marijuana and the NAC opted to throw the book at Diaz for his latest marijuana infraction. Diaz fought the suspension and fine and got a reduced penalty and is now free to return.
**The UFC will be returning to Portland, Oregon on Saturday October 1st and have announced a number of fights for the card. Louis Smolka will take on Sergio Pettis on a flyweight fight, Will Brooks will meet Alex Oliveira in a lightweight fight and Josh Burkman is set to fight Bobby Green on the card in a lightweight fight.
