In the illustrious words of the incredible Rick Knox “Crazy good week for wrestling, [nice] after last week being so sad. Kevin Owens debuts on RAW, will face John Cena in PPV match! Much anticipated Lucha Underground Trios Ladder Match airs on TV. Young Bucks do an interview with freakin Rolling Stone Magazine,
Samoa Joe debuts at NXT, stares down Kevin Owens… NXT tears it up in general, AAA World Cup of Lucha this weekend, and Sami Zayn wears Rick Knox shirt on NXT special!” If you want to pay your respects to Joe Schmo, please read on. Samoa Joe debuted on NXT, finally one of OUR guys to get excited about, are you going to check out the Lucha World Cup? 40 Hours of wrestling for $2 a month, just another reason to sign up for UWN and all the shows this weekend.
RIP Joe Schmo
Like many, we are still mourning our friend Joseph Franciosi, who passed just seven days ago. His untimely passing has been hard on many of those involved in the wrestling scene here in Southern California, but none as much as his family, who he loved very much. A friend of the family has set up a gofundme account to help with Joe’s final expenses. If you can donate anything, it would certainly help the family who’s already had to deal with so much grief. Next Friday (May 29th) the friends and family of Joe Schmo are getting together to pay respects to and celebrate the life of Joseph Franciosi. Services are being held at Beatitudes of Our Lord Church at 13013 S. Santa Gertrudes Avenue in La Mirada at 10:30AM. There will also be a lunch afterward at the Westridge Golf Club at 1400 S. La Habra Hills Dr., La Habra CA.
Joe Is Gonna Kill You… NXT
Samoa Joe is one of ours. Although there were huge senses of pride for the SoCal Fans seeing Daniel Bryan win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, it didn’t feel like it was ours. From his days in Reseda with PWG or working the CWFH TV Tapings, likewise with CM Punk, or Cesaro… we were all blessed to see their developments, but these guys were fairly established before they even got to SoCal. These were internet darlings that SoCal made the correct decision to bring in. But Samoa Joe is “Our Guy.” Joe is from Huntington Beach. Broke in with Cincinnati Red and Johnny Hemp is UIWA. Became the IT guy for UPW and started to tour ZERO1. Joe became a big thing, all on Our watch. When Joe became the IT guy for ROH, Southern California fans rejoiced. When he defended the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Toki Makabe for NJPW USA TV taping right here in Southern California, I know I wasn’t the only one who popped. Seeing Joe return to the EPIC Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla events over the years was always satisfying, because they always felt like homecoming. Needless to say when Joe became the TNA X-Division Champion we all had that sense of pride, because that was OUR Guy and even more so when he finally became TNA Champion. I know I wasn’t the only one who popped when Joe returned to Southern California a few years back to wrestle Willie Mack at the Championship Wrestling from Hollywood Open Door Challenge.
Last Night, Samoa Joe made his in-ring debut against Scott Dawson at the NXT TV Taping. This of course is coming off the heels of the previous night’s debut at NXT during the NXT Take Over, essentially preventing Kevin Owens from continuing his assault on Sami Zayan. According to PWInsider.com as the show went off the air, the WWE (is it still called shopzone) placed the first Samoa Joe T-Shirt online for sale. As of this morning, sizes medium, large, extra large, and 2XL were all no longer available for purchase. Clearly I’m the only one who is excited about this. However, don’t hold your breath waiting for Joe to headline Wrestlemania. Because as exciting as all of this has been… also according to PWInsider, Joe’s deal isn’t exclusive. What does that mean? Well, Joe still can work in places outside of the WWE. PWInsider is hearing that Joe will, for the time being, continue to work existing and future independent dates. “So, if he’s already advertised somewhere, chances are he will be there unless WWE NXT requires him. One would assume NXT gets first priority, as they should.” To that, Joe is working this weekend in Cleveland as part of AIW’s two-day “JT Lightning Invitational Tournament.” Could we see Joe back in SoCal? SoCal Promoters, time to email Joe and find out. I’d love to see another moment like this one. But who knows… maybe in a few years (perhaps after the new football stadium is built, NFL is expected to have the 2018 Superbowl in Los Angeles) maybe Samoa Joe will wrestle for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in his home state.
Lucha World Cup
AAA is hosting a very interesting show this weekend that I think a lot of SoCal Fans would be interested in. The Inaugural Lucha Libre World Cup will air live on Internet Pay Per View from Mexico City at 3PM Pacific on Sunday. The World Cup Teams will be comprised of three man teams (trios). Representing Pro Wrestling NOAH, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor, TNA Wrestling, and Lucha Underground/AAA. For English speakers, Matt Striker and Vampiro will call the action. The teams are Dream Team (Alberto El Patrón, Myzteziz aka Sin Cara/Mistico, & Rey Mysterio Jr.), Team Mexico No. 1 (El Hijo del Fantasma, El Texano Jr. & Psycho Clown), Team MexLeyendas (Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr. & Solar I), Team Rest of the World (Drew Galloway, Angélico & El Mesías aka Ricky Banderas/Judas Mesias/Mil Muertes), Team TNA/Lucha Underground (Matt Hardy, Mr. Anderson & Johnny Mundo, formerly John Morrison) Team ROH/Lucha Underground, (Moose, ACH & Brian Cage), Team Pro Wrestling NOAH (Taiji Ishimori, Yoshihiro Takayama & Atsushi Kotoge) and Team AJPW (Kenzo Suzuki, Tiger Mask III (Koji Kanemoto) & Masamune). You can order the event by clicking here.
United Wrestling Network
Did you ever see AJ Styles vs. Trent Barretta on June 14th of last year? What about X-Pac and Daniel Bryan in Australia? Or how about Lucha Underground’s Brain Cage and TNA’s Eli Drake (Shaun Ricker) do battle against Vermin’s Yuma and Kevin Martenson and Los Luchas? Well those matches with just under 40 hours of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood programming are what you get when you sign up for the United Wrestling Network, powered by Patreon. Weekly emails are sent with latest episodes and occasional from the vault matches you can’t find on youtube, or anywhere else. $2 is all it takes to open the door all of this wrestling. The latest updated featured matches from the episode that aired on May 17th; Non-Title Match Hollywood Heritage Tag Team Champions Joey Ryan & Ryan Taylor vs. Leo Blaze & Cedric King, Othello vs. Sergio Vega, “Pretty” Peter Avalon vs. Jared Vargas, and in the Main Event CWFH Television Title Match (Champion) Kevin Martenson vs. Jervis Cottonbelly. If you’re out of the markets of KDOC TV and YooToo America or just don’t have a DVR, this is the best way to stay up to date with CWFH. Episodes start as far back as July and are being updated all the time with the shows before they air on KDOC or YouToo.
Upcoming Events in SoCal
PWG “DDT Tag Team Tournament 2015? in Reseda, TONIGHT @ 8:00 PM
AWS & OMB Wrestling Super Show in Canoga Park, TONIGHT @ 8:00 PM
Knokx Pro in Sun Valley, Saturday @ 6:00 PM
UEW “Explicit Endeavors” in Los Angeles, Saturday @ 6:00 PM
MWF Lucha Libre in Los Angeles, Saturday @ 8:00 PM
CWFH TV Taping in Port Hueneme, Sunday @ 3:00 PM
The views and opinions expressed in Jay Cal’s View are those solely of the author. These views do not necessarily reflect the views of the website. As always please Jay Cal with any questions, comments, or concern.