Table of contents for October 2016 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated

BEFORE I BEGIN my column, a message from Captain Obvious: It was a lot easier publishing magazines prior to the advent of the Internet. Everybody in the publishing industry knows this. The ones that haven’t been entangled by the web and devoured by electronic predators are the ones that learned how to combat the problem and change with the times. PWI can publish a digital version of the magazine, produce a podcast, and keep our readers engaged on a daily basis via Twitter, but if the bread and butter of our company—our print magazine—is unappetizing, we’ll have no reason to be here. I’d like to think that PWI has been able to shift on the fly through the years to maintain its long-ago established position as an independent voice of…

BRAND SPLIT, PART 2 I’m very optimistic about WWE’s plans to re-launch the brand extension. It does seem the circumstances are right this time for the extension to add depth to the WWE product, not dilute it. The move also takes some pressure off Creative, which feels the need to please all the fans all the time. More adultbased content on Tuesday nights sounds like the way to go. CREATIVE TOO RIGID? If this were the Attitude Era, Creative would have allowed Seth Rollins to enjoy a superhero’s welcome and turn Roman Reigns into a fullfledged villain. But this isn’t the Attitude Era when plans could dramatically change from week to week. I understand there are long-term plans—merchandising, etc.—associated with who is a babyface and who is a heel. But…

I WAS LUCKY enough to be at ringside inside the Quillen Arena in Harrington, Delaware, and the crowd noise was incredible. People were frantically waving signs and positioning to be seen on camera. The preliminaries were over and the main event was about to begin. His entrance music hit the sound system. No, I was not at Monday Night Raw. This was a political rally for Donald J. Trump. The Quillen Arena is actually more of an open pavilion, no walls, just roof. And it was a wholesome crowd in attendance, seeming more like an ordinary weeknight at the Delaware State Fairgrounds. No bring-your-own weapons matches between Trump supporters and protesters. There was not one protester in sight. The merchandise tables full of T-shirts, caps, and buttons would’ve been the…

TAP HERE FOR VIDEO THEY CALL JAX Dane “Godzilla” for good reason. At 6’4” and 284 pounds, he is an imposing physical specimen who relishes in intimidating challengers to his NWA title reign. Inside the ring, he is, quite simply, a monster. Outside of the ring, however, the 35-year-old Texan is thoughtful, respectful, and well-spoken. It’s easy to see how he has become the standardbearer for the NWA. “As NWA champion, my goal is pretty simple: to represent the brand and the company with an exceptional level of class,” Dane said. “This heavyweight championship is the oldest and most prestigious wrestling championship in the history of professional wrestling. I feel like it’s my duty to carry both the championship and myself in a way that would make the legendary champions…

RAW [USA] --VIEWERS IN MILLIONS April 11: 3.53 April 18: 3.34 April 25: 3.13 May 2: 3.43 May 9: 3.24 May 16: 3.19 May 23: 3.27 May 30: 3.23 June 6: 3.25 Analysis: Back to reality. After reaching above the four-million-viewer threshold on the day following WrestleMania 32, Raw dropped back down to 3.53 million—and that’s the best number it has achieved since the big event. WWE’s flagship program fell to 3.13 million viewers on April 25, its lowest number of the year. With Shane and Stephanie McMahon still feuding after 15 years in the opening segment, and “boring” chants haunting World champion Roman Reigns during his bout against Alberto Del Rio, it’s no wonder why Raw is still going through the post-WrestleMania blues. Meanwhile, the WWE Universe is growing…

We encourage promoters and readers to e-mail results to: PWIResults@yahoo.com Please try to utilize the exact format you see in the “Arena Reports.” Also, please distinguish between handicap matches and three- or fourway matches. And, when reporting the result of a handicap match, indicate the number of competitors and who was the last man eliminated. Finally, please note pinfall finishes. Following these guidelines will help us greatly and make it more likely that your report will be used. SPOTLIGHT CARD OF THE MONTH NEW YORK NEW YORK—ROH at Terminal 5: Cheeseburger & Davey Vega defeated J. Diesel &Juan Francisco de Coronado …reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) beat All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) …Dalton Castle beat Michael Elgin, Moose, & Lio Rush in a four-way … IWGP junior heavyweight champion KUSHIDA…

THE SETH ROLLINS that spoke to Pro Wrestling Illustrated by phone in the summer of 2015 was a different man: short on time and patience, and confident to a flaw that he would steal the show at WrestleMania 32, as he did in memorable fashion at WrestleMania 31. Make no mistake, the Seth Rollins who granted PWI one of his first extensive interviews since his May return was as confident as ever, but also more introspective, grateful. Even humble. It’s the kind of changes one goes through when everything he’s worked for his entire life is nearly taken from him.PWI’s 2015 Wrestler of the Year was in the eighth month of his WWE World title reign when a routine move during a match against Kane resulted in him tearing the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus…

TAP HERE FOR VIDEO THE PWI STAFF didn’t realize there was a problem brewing with Nick and Matt Jackson until Publisher Stu Saks learned the brothers had made some critical comments about our magazine via social media. The gist of The Young Bucks’ complaints was that PWI was choosing to ignore their accomplishments. In their opinion, inferior tag teams were consistently ranked higher in our “Official Ratings,” if the Bucks were rated at all. “I hope Nick and Matt have checked our ratings pages over the past several issues, because they have been consistently ranked among the top 10 tag teams,” stated Saks. “In our August issue, they reached number four, their highest ranking to date. We gave them that ranking based on their accomplishments in Ring of Honor, Pro…

TAP HERE FOR VIDEO NAPALM BOMB WAS just eight years old when the first East Coast Wrestling Association Super 8 tournament was held just up I-95 in Wilmington, Delaware. At the time, the Baltimore native was a huge wrestling fan who cherished spending Saturday mornings with his mother, Loretta, watching men such as Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker do battle on TV. At the time Napalm Bomb never once thought about stepping into a ring himself. By the time the ECWA wrapped up its 20th annual Super 8, however, it was difficult to argue that the 6’3”, 253-pound muscleman had found his true calling. On that warm April 23 evening, over a period of three hours, Napalm Bomb defeated Super 8 “original” Danny Inferno, 2012 Super 8 winner…

IT’S BACK! WHETHER WWE will resurrect the term “brand extension” is still unknown, but, in one of the biggest surprises of 2016, President and CEO Vince McMahon has approved the concept that Raw and Smackdown will have separate rosters with their own distinct storylines. The working notion is Raw won’t change much; it will remain the three-hour flagship program and maintain its broad appeal and PG flavor. The prediction, and perhaps the great desire among older fans, is that Smackdown—hosted by Mauro Ranallo, someone with real sports credibility—will have a more competitive edge and feature more of the up-and-coming stars from NXT. The looming question is whether WWE will introduce a second world title, as it had with the original 2002-13 brand extension. The most popular sentiment, one espoused by…

SHORTLY AFTER THIS magazine goes on sale, the world’s best athletes will converge on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2016 Olympic Games. Jordan Burroughs will be among them, looking to win a second gold medal in wrestling after claiming gold in the 74 kilogram (163 pounds) weight class in London in 2012. While we don’t cover freestyle or “amateur” wrestling in PWI, I was offered an opportunity to interview Burroughs for the PWI Podcast and I leapt at the opportunity. Not only is his story timely with the Olympics set to begin, but it also touches on the under-reported connections between amateur wrestling and the pro game. For generations, freestyle wrestlers have bristled at comparisons to their cousins who perform inside a ring instead of on the mats. Collegiate…

TAP HERE FOR VIDEO LAST SPRING, JADE debuted in TNA with Marti Belle as members of The Dollhouse, a trio headed by Taryn Terrell. With her cute little mini-skirts and hair done up in ponytails, the California native looked less like a wrestler and more like a Barbie Doll come to life. The Dollhouse members were the quintessential “mean girls,” out-sassing The Beautiful People and looking down their flawless noses at other wrestlers and fans alike. “It was everything I’m not,” Jade said recently in an interview with PWI. “I hated who I was. In The Dollhouse, we always followed the leader, be it Taryn or Awesome Kong. Taryn wanted us to be crazy. Being new, we wanted to please her and secure good standing with her. With Kong, it…

WILL OSPREAY became the youngest wrestler ever to win the prestigious New Japan Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and became a viral video star along the way. Ospreay defeated Ryusuke Taguchi in the finals of the twoweek tournament, which concluded on June 7 at Sun Plaza Hall in Sendai, Japan. The 23-year-old Ospreay became the first British wrestler ever to prevail in the tournament, which has been won by the likes of Jushin Liger, Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit), Black Tiger II (Eddie Guerrero), and Prince Devitt (Finn Balor). The win over Taguchi came 11 days after Ospreay’s controversial match against Ricochet, the winner of the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. The Ospreay/Ricochet bout received worldwide attention for its dazzling display of athletics and agility, looking more like…

FOR PERIOD ENDED JUNE 19, 2016 TOP 10 1 DEAN AMBROSE 225, Cincinnati, OH (–) WWE World heavyweight champion 2 SETH ROLLINS 232 Buffalo, IA (–) No. 1 contender WWE World title 3 JAY LETHAL 225, Elizabeth, NJ (3) ROH heavyweight champion 4 ROMAN REIGNS 265, Pensacola, FL (1) No. 2 contender WWE World title 5 Kazuchika okada 240, Tokyo, Japan (–) IWGP heavyweight champion 6 AJ STYLES 218, Gainesville, GA (8) No. 3 contender WWE World title 7 LASHLEY 273, Denver, CO (–) TNA heavyweight champion 8 THE MIZ 220, Cleveland, OH (–) WWE Intercontinental champion 9 RUSEV 304, Plovdiv, Bulgaria (–) WWE U.S. champion 10 SAMOA JOE 289, American Samoa (–) NXT champion TAG TEAMS 1 BIG E & KOFI KINGSTON & XAVIER WOODS Combined weight: 702 pounds…