THE ROUND-UP
THE LATEST NEWS
NXT TakeOver New Orleans live results: Gargano vs. Ciampa
ROH Supercard of Honor XII live results: Kenny Omega vs. Cody
UFC 223 live results: Khabib vs. Iaquinta, Namajunas vs. Jedrzejczyk
Pentagon vs. Fenix set for Impact PPV, LU premiere date revealed
Updated list of entrants for WWE WrestleMania 34 battle royals
WWE United Kingdom tournament coming to Royal Albert Hall
Zack Sabre Jr. signs new deal with NJPW
THE LATEST AUDIO
WOL: NXT TakeOver vs. ROH Supercard of Honor 4/7
Wrestling Weekly: Remembering Johnny Valiant; WrestleMania preview 4/7
WOR: Conor McGregor, UFC disaster, Brock Lesnar, ROAD REPORT, more! 4/6
F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Looking ahead to Wrestlemania 34
Though there will always be some complications when putting a big show together, things have pretty much fallen perfectly into place for WWE heading into WrestleMania 34 on Sunday. The 14-match card was scheduled to be finalized heading into this week’s television, with John Cena vs. The Undertaker left as the last thing to be confirmed. In a different era, it would have been insane to not announce such a big match before the go-home episode of Raw. But selling WWE Network subscriptions is a bit different than pay-per-views, and the match almost feels unnecessary on such a loaded event.
WON NEWSLETTER: April 9, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Massive Wrestlemania 34 weekend, more
The final words before WrestleMania, the change in UFC’s PPV this week, coverage of Sakura Genesis and a look at the Andre the Giant documentary are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Read the update on WrestleMania and the week regarding the matches, the questions and ticket sales. Look at what WWE Fan Axxess has scheduled and notes on who will be appearing on the different shows.
Go through the background of UFC making Max Holloway vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov as Saturday’s PPV main event, including how Tony Ferguson was injured, who else was asked to face Nurmagomedov, challenges for Holloway, examining the risk/reward for Holloway and what Dana White says about how it all went down.
Find out about the crazy risks that Will Ospreay has been taking, his match with Marty Scurll at Sakura Genesis as well as the Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. match, go through the upcoming matches, the lineups for the next month of new Japan major shows, business notes on the show, as well as the huge controversy Sabre got into based on a promo he did in Japan making mainstream media in Mexico.
Examine the life and times of Andre the Giant, and review the upcoming HBO documentary on Andre, how it got done, myths about Andre, Andre’s early days, where the name came from, behind his confrontations with Akira Maeda, Blackjack Mulligan and Badnews Allen, the famous Andre vs. The Monster story, the build to Andre vs. Hogan and the sad end of his career and life.
There is more on Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman and their WWE futures, who WWE says won’t be at Mania, notes to look for when WWE announces its new number, more on Greatest Royal Rumble, thoughts on WWE, injuries, health of Daniel Bryan, who else was talked with about teaming with Ronda Rousey, the next planned Roman Reigns program, Cena and Dwayne Johnson have new movies out, most watched shows on WWE Network, as well as results and highlights from every WWE and NXT show this past week with business notes.
Check out the new promotion that Josh Barnett and Kazushi Sakuraba are debuting next week in Japan at Sumo Hall, with the unique rules plus Sakuraba comments on it, and so much more.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
War Machine appeared on the pre-show television tapings at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans tonight and are now known as the War Raiders.
Kazuchika Okada has been spotted in New Orleans and is in town to watch Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles at WrestleMania. Nakamura has reunited with a lot of his friends from NJPW this week, including Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, and Tomohiro Ishii.
During a promo at WrestleMania Axxess today, Daniel Bryan (in his role as SmackDown general manager) said he wants Johnny Gargano to lose to Tommaso Ciampa tonight because he wants Gargano on SmackDown.
For the Bellas’ YouTube channel, Bryan watched his first match on WWE NXT, which was against Chris Jericho, back and commented on it.
Bryan got emotional when helping WWE introduce their “Connor’s Cure Superstars” at Axxess, went to the Superdome and revisited his title win from WrestleMania 30 ahead of his return to the ring at the venue, and surprised Brie Bella during her WrestleMania Axxess signing.
Jeff Jarrett, Road Dogg, and Elias performed “With My Baby Tonight” in a preview video for an upcoming Table for Three episode. Jarrett and Road Dogg also reflected on Jarrett’s Hall of Fame induction.
Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness will be making their WrestleMania debuts on commentary when they call Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali’s Cruiserweight Championship match on tomorrow’s pre-show.
Sports Illustrated reported that Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson’s “Something Else to Wrestle With” is scheduled for an initial 13-episode run on the WWE Network.
WWE released video packages for Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H, AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka, and Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali.
Stephanie tweeted out a sneak peek of her WrestleMania 34 gear.
The New York Post interviewed Charlotte about tomorrow being the biggest night of her career.
While speaking with Fox Sports Australia, Dolph Ziggler said that he hasn’t signed a new deal with WWE yet but is working towards agreeing to a contract.
Cesaro and Sheamus claimed that they still don’t know who Braun Strowman’s partner will be at WrestleMania.
Alexa Bliss told Cageside Seats that signing Ronda Rousey is exactly what WWE’s women’s evolution needed.
WWE’s Instagram posted artwork teasing whether The Undertaker will accept John Cena’s challenge.
Woken Matt Hardy made an in-character appearance on Bourbon Street last night.
WWE and Cricket Wireless announced a multi-year renewal of their partnership.
Pro Wrestling
ROH posted about technical issues for tonight’s Supercard of Honor show: “Honor Nation, we quadrupled our server capacity for this event and you exceeded it with tens of thousands of users trying to login… have no fear, more hardware is being added now! #ROHSupercard”
EVOLVE Tag Team Champions Chris Dickinson & Jaka (w/ Stokely Hathaway) retained their titles against Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch at WrestleMania Axxess today.
Dave Bautista posted a video with CM Punk where they pretended that Bautista was his waiter and joked about how much Punk has changed.
Fansided interviewed Flip Gordon about All In and teaming with The Young Bucks against Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky in tonight’s ladder match for ROH.
Cody Rhodes tweeted that Deonna Purrazzo will be booked for All In.
Former WCW World Champion David Arquette made an appearance at this morning’s Pancakes and Piledrivers show in New Orleans.
UFC/MMA
Audie Attar, Conor McGregor’s manager, issued a statement claiming that there’s “so much rumor and misinformation” going around about McGregor. He said McGregor wants to get back to fighting as soon as possble.
Ariel Helwani reported that, while there were potential stumbling blocks remaining, the UFC and McGregor were working towards a new contract before everything went down and hoped to announce it this week.
While appearing on ESPN’s “Get Up,” Dana White said McGregor isn’t apologetic for the bus attack incident.
Khabib Nurmagomedov challenged McGregor to resolve their issues inside the cage or outside of it.
In response to people who called it a cop out that he isn’t fighting tonight, Ray Borg tweeted papers from his hospital visit.
Paul Felder wants a future main event to make up for being scratched from UFC 223.
Daily Professional Wrestling History: John Cena defeats The Rock at Wrestlemania XXIX
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