Professional Wrestling Discussion

>Watch WWE RAW with /wooo/ in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo and /wooo/alt - http://taima.tv/r/woooalt at 8pm Eastern//1am London. WWE the Bump airs in /wooo/alt from 6:30pm Eastern//11:30pm London. On tonight's RAW:
> Apollo Crews to defend his Championship against an opponent of his choosing on RAW

>Rey Mysterio to "finish his career" on WWE RAW

>Two Champions are set to collide on RAW this week

>Seth Rollins and Aleister Black will battle on RAW this week

>A bowling contest on RAW

>Danny Havoc, best remembered for his runs in both Combat Zone Wrestling and Game Changer Wrestling, has passed away.

>GCW posted the following tonight on their Twitter page: “With a broken heart, the GCW family mourns the loss of Grant Berkland aka Danny Havoc. Danny was an incredibly talented, intelligent, caring & genuine person. He was also an elite performer that entertained a generation of fans & inspired a generation of aspiring performers.”

>“Like those that passed before him,” they continued, “his legacy is secured by the memories that he bestowed upon us both as a wrestler and as a friend. He will not be forgotten. Rest in Peace, Grant.”

>CZW on Twitter wrote the following: “This cuts too deep. Grant "Danny Havoc" Berkland. He was an inspiration to so many and a friend to all and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We can take a small comfort in knowing the entire wrestling community are sharing the same grief right now.”

>Watch /ECW/tube with /wooo/ in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo at 4pm Eastern//9pm London
>Watch MLW Anthology , also in /wooo/tube at 7pm Eastern//Midnight as the lead into RAW. On tonight's Anthology:

• Student vs Teacher: Low Ki vs. Homicide
  
• World Heavyweight Title Fight: Low Ki vs. Shane Strickland (c)
  

>Armando Alejandro Montalvo was involved in a show cause hearing with a WWE lawyer and an Orange County, Florida judge in Orlando, FL earlier this morning.

>As noted last week, WWE recently filed to take Montalvo back to court due to incidents in May at the WWE Performance Center. Montalvo has been on WWE’s radar since being shot by an Orange County sheriff’s deputy back in in 2015. WWE took Montalvo back to civil court over how they allege that he has ignored a judge’s injunction from March 22, 2019. You can read about Montalvo’s history with WWE and what happened at the incidents in May, with statements from members of WWE’s security team, by clicking here.

>Today’s hearing was held by phone call due to courthouse restrictions due to COVID-19. Montalvo, representing himself, phoned in from the parking deck of the courthouse after driving down to file his own motion on the morning of the hearing. Montalvo also livestreamed his entire courthouse visit on Facebook, and the attorney for WWE made it clear that they knew he was livestreaming. You can see video from this morning at the end of this post.

>WWE’s lawyer told the judge that the company is tired of spending money and investing resources into keeping Montalvo off their properties and from harassing their employees. Montalvo argued that he has the right to walk where he wants to in the city of Orlando, and wherever else he might be. As far as his behavior, he said yelling outside of the WWE buildings is no different than any other wrestling fan who voices their opinions.

>At one point the judge asked Montalvo if he would agree to stay 1,000 feet from WWE property, but Montalvo would not agree to that. He mentioned wanting to face Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon in court, and possibly getting a match with CM Punk or getting the chance to wash the hair of “the Divas” if a potential agreement was reached. Montalvo made several bizarre statements during the hearing, and was reprimanded by the judge at one point after addressing her as “babygirl” several times. He mentioned several times how he “is the business” and offers the WWE Universe a product that is much better than the one WWE produces right now.

>The judge ended up announcing that she will be scheduling an evidentiary hearing so Montalvo and WWE’s attorney can present evidence after the judge determined that WWE’s attorney wants the court to punish Montalvo for going against the injunction. The WWE lawyer plans to show footage of his recent antics outside of the Performance Center, which some can be viewed in the post linked above. WWE’s lawyer also noted that they want to come to a conclusion in the case, so they’re not back in court with Montalvo in a few years, fighting the same case as they are now.

>The judge did not set a date for the evidentiary hearing, but said it would be soon. The hearing will take place some time after next Monday as that is when the Orange County courts open back up for in-person hearings as they have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Montalvo argued that he has the right to face his accusers in person, and the judge apparently acknowledged that as she agreed to hold the evidentiary hearing in person when the courts open back up, not over the phone. Montalvo mentioned wanting to subpoena Triple H and the McMahon family, but it remains to be seen if that will be allowed. The judge and WWE’s lawyer did not respond to that request.

> The state of emergency that Tokyo has been under ended this past week and this may open the door for more live wrestling. A number of promotions, really just about everyone but New Japan, has been doing empty arena shows but not on any kind of a regular basis and most groups have been running with limited matches and talent. Stage One of reopening will be through 6/18. The second stage right now is expected to be 6/19 to 7/9 and the third stage would start, hopefully on 7/10. The first stage is trying to get everyone back to work in their home areas but they want to limit traveling in and out of Tokyo and Hokkaido, the worst hit places, unless necessary.

> Starting on 6/19, they will open arenas and allow empty arena and empty stadium sports events. Technically, as noted most wrestling companies have done this in limited amounts, but it was frowned upon and New Japan wasn’t going to go against governmental recommendations. Stardom was planning to run some empty arena shows soon but that may be delayed due to the death of Hana Kimura. At press time no decision has been made as to when the next show will take place. The government is also looking at relaxing restrictions for night clubs during this period.

> In the third stage, the idea is for things to get back to normal. New Japan President Harold Meij a few weeks ago when talking about restarting mentioned things like empty arena shows at first and shows with half capacity. At this point the one thing is that all talent coming into the country would have to go into quarantine for two weeks after arriving in Japan before they would be allowed to start wrestling. The company will have to follow the protocol that is listed for all sports as pro wrestling is considered a sport in Japan. The office was in heavy mourning over the death of Hana Kimura, as was the entire Japanese pro wrestling industry.

> With the 5/23 AEW Double or Nothing shows, we’ve learned that the current conditions may be negative for television ratings, but in no way are they negative for PPVs.

> Two weeks after UFC did a shockingly high number for UFC 249, AEW followed suit with what, at least at this point, looks to be the most-purchased PPV show in company history.

> Streaming numbers from B/R Live in the U.S. and FITE for international markets both ended up more than 10 percent up from the 2/29 Revolution show and may end up closer to 15 percent up, which was tracking to be the second highest number in company history, behind only the first Double or Nothing show, at about 100,000 to 110,000 buys. The cable buys for Revolution are still only estimated until final numbers are to come in at some point in the next few weeks.

> Due to the holidays, we haven’t heard any reliable early estimates on PPV, so if for whatever reason those numbers don’t have a similar increase, it could fall short of the record set for the first Double or Nothing show (Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho) from last year’s Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas.

> If cable holds up similarly, that would indicate 115,000 to 120,000 buys, which would equal to or slightly beat the final numbers of the first Double or Nothing. We were told the mix of countries as compared to last year are different, presumably U.K. well down without ITV Box Office, but the totals should end up similar, which would be closer to the latter final number. PPV is easier to get immediate somewhat accurate indications because streaming numbers from FITE and B/R are accessible by the company immediately, and the only questions left is late buys, most of which would already be purchased by this time.

> Traditional cable buys are harder, and take three months to get an accurate number although estimates are usually there within a few days. There’s also the aspect that streaming buys as a general rule over the past year are increasing at a higher level than cable buys, which are decreasing. So streaming buys both in the U.S. and overseas being the biggest in company history does not necessarily …

>Joshi Tube airs on Saturdays at 4pm EDT / 9pm BST in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo and is a great way to discover what joshi is all about. People in the chat will be able to answer questions as you ask them, as we do on this thread.
>But if you're ever in the mood to watch joshi outside of Joshi Tube, there is joshi wrestling channel for streaming live events such as TJPW and Stardom - http://taima.tv/r/joshi. Furthermore, there is also a non-joshi women's wrestling channel - http://taima.tv/r/wooomens

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