By Bryan Alvarez | bryan@wrestlingobserver.com | @bryanalvarez
We're looking for your thoughts on Sunday night's WWE Payback and Saturday night's UFC 161, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along ...
By Bryan Alvarez | bryan@wrestlingobserver.com | @bryanalvarez
We're looking for your thoughts on Sunday night's WWE Payback and Saturday night's UFC 161, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped Tuesday night in Dayton.
We've got a new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter up on the site today, as well as our back issue this week, which is the 1996 WrestleMania issue.
Our lead story this week looks at the latest news stories as well as what came out in them which is new covering the 1983 case involving the death of girlfriend of Jimmy Snuka as well as a look back at the career of Snuka. It's a story that has been covered before, but was front page news in two newspapers this past week and got tremendous response.
We look back at the career of Snuka, his run in the WWF, who Nancy Argentino was, family reaction, Snuka's story, new information revealed, where mistakes were made in the handling of the case, how different things were 30 years ago and the reaction this got at the time, and Snuka's post-WWF run career.
We also have a story covering this year's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, including trivia notes, what was unique about this year's show, how the final changed from original plans, more on New Japan's next PPV show, plus full coverage of the final night of the round-robin tournament and the final four night. We also have a history of all the previous finals.
We also have more on the reaction to the lower Raw ratings, update on Payback, changes in the TV show and why, and an update on WWE injuries to some of the biggest names in the company.
We also look at new executives coming into WWE, notes on Dwayne Johnson's movies, John Cena reality show notes, a look at WWE's last training camp and what has been noted about the new class.
We also look at Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose talking about their current situation, Lanny Poffo talks Randy Savage and the WWE Hall of Fame, more notes on new WWE signees, notes on recent Intercontinental champions, if the IC title and U.S. titles are effective in elevating talent, plus business notes from WWE over the past week and house show highlights.
We look more at Bellator's move to Friday nights, the history of MMA shows on Fridays, Bellator's average on Friday vs. Saturday in the past, why the move was made, Bellator's Summer plans and notes on the new Bellator reality show.
We also have full coverage of UFC's weekend show from Brazil, with the record night of submissions, the future of Fabricio Werdum, notes on the ratings, funny challenges and match-by-match coverage.
We also look at the April and May ratings for WWE and TNA and compare them from how they were doing, including what have been the changes year-over-year in wrestling and what, in particular, has changed, consistent with every major wrestling television show. Is WWE or TNA doing better than they were a year ago.
The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.
The Observer is now in its 29th year of being the leading insider pro wrestling publication in the world. The biggest and most influential names in the pro wrestling and MMA industry, from bookers to promoters to Hall of Fame wrestlers and fighters to the biggest names on camera and behind the scenes, along with thousands of readers in all 50 states and more than 30 countries subscribe. Many have subscribed for 20 years or longer consecutively. They get the most detailed and i