News on Zoltan, RYSE and WWE
Plenty of pro wrestling topics this week, so let蘑菇视频 jump right in.
Fund raiser show for Zoltan
This coming Sunday, the KSWA will hold a benefit show for Ken Jugan, who has wrestled for over 40 years.
A staple in the area who wrestled TV matches for WWE in the 1980蘑菇视频 and even faced Andre the Giant, Zoltan is in his second battle with cancer.
While the word 鈥渓egend鈥� is thrown around way too much, if you asked everyone who is anyone that is involved with the Pittsburgh wrestling scene to describe Zoltan, legend would be the word used most to define him.
KSWA has lined a solid card for the event.
Thus far, seven matches have been announced for the event which takes place at the Syira Shriners Pavilion in Cheswick.
The address is 1877 Shriners Way.
Along with the scheduled matches, at least 15 more wrestling personalities will take part, including friends of Zoltan dating back decades.
Announced matches include Dennis Gregory vs. Dynamite Dean, T.C. Reynolds vs. King Kaluha, Justin Sane vs. Jake Garrett, Chris LeRUsso vs. Tanner Reynolds vs. Beastman in a triple threat match, Lou Marconi and Frank Staletto w/Norm Connors vs. Nasty Nick Crane and Sniper, and the team of Shawn Blanchard and Lou Martin takes on Anthony Alexander and Kris Kash.
Among the others who will appear are wrestling legend Dominic DeNucci, Mayor Mystery, T. Rantula, Cody Michaels, Preston Steele, Bubba the Bulldog from The Star 100.7, 鈥淭rapper鈥� Tom Leturgy, Bobby Williams, Adam Jugan and more.
For ticket and event information, call 412-726-1762, email lordzoltanbenefit@gmail.com, or check out the event page on Facebook by searching 鈥淟ive Pro Wrestling Benefit Event for Lord Zoltan Ken Jugan.鈥�
RYSE back to Lemont Furnace
Also Saturday night, RYSE returns to The Stronghold Arena when it presents RYSE: Conrad v. Direction.
RYSE Grand campion Matt Conrad defends the title against Derek Direction in the main event.
Six matches have been announced thus far and for more information, go to www.rysewrestling.com.
The Stronghold Arena is located at 1952 University Dr. in Lemont Furnace.
WWE蘑菇视频 huge announcement
For those who missed Raw last Monday and have not heard, Stephanie McMahon announced on Raw that WWE will hold an all-women蘑菇视频 PPV on Oct. 28 titled Evolution.
This was mentioned in last week蘑菇视频 column, and the move continues the evolution of women蘑菇视频 wrestling in WWE.
Long gone are the days when women were used in the company as simply eye candy.
While the women蘑菇视频 division has grown a big stagnant, look for things to pick up heading into the PPV.
WWE releases record Q2 numbers
WWE released its second quarter earnings, and the numbers were so impressive that WWE蘑菇视频 stock rose throughout the day.
Revenues raised 31% to $281.6 million, and that is the highest quarterly revenue in WWE history.
Operating income nearly doubled to $21.2 million from $10.7 million in the prior year quarter and the adjusted OIBDA1 increased a whopping 79% to $43.5 million.
Numbers for the WWE Network rose 10% to 1.80 million paid subscribers and digital engagements continued to grow through the first six months of the year with video views up 58% to 14.4 million and hours consumed up 71% to 509 million across digital and social media platforms.
Countdown to Smackdown 1,000
The 1000th episode of Smackdown will air on Oct. 16, and WWE is already looking to make the show a huge event.
Ironically, WWE does not have a domestic PPV scheduled that month, so could it use this show as a 鈥淧PV鈥� event?
The Super Show-Down on Oct. 6 will take place in Melbourne, Australia but the next domestic WWE PPV蘑菇视频 after the trip overseas are the NXT Takeover: War Games II and Survivor Series which take place in Los Angeles on Nov. 17 and 18, respectively.
For those curious, Raw 1000 took place on July 23, 2012 and the main event was a WWE championship match between John Cena and C.M. Punk.
The match ended with a DQ and run-ins by The Big Show and The Rock.
On this date:
In 1986, Dusty Rhodes defeated Ric Flair to begin his third, and last, NWA heavyweight championship reign at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.
Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to me @BillHughes_III.