In today’s Southern California pro-wrestling news update we have the latest on Maverick Pro, Bar Wrestling, PCW Ultra, WWE, CWFH, FIST, Lucha Underground, and more. Plus a listing of this week’s wrestling and MMA events in Southern California.
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Maverick Pro cancelled their June 23, 2018 event in North Hollywood yesterday citing a “personal family matter.” The show, which was titled Heatwave 2018 in homage to the only ECW event to take place in Southern California, was set to feature several former ECW wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Sabu, and Justin Credible. Earlier there had been an issue with the first venue they were planning to hold the event, as the original venue, CML Studios, was in Glendale and pro-wrestling is banned there, forcing them to change venues to X-Pole in North Hollywood. Aside from the venue change there had been no other indications there would be any issues with the event until this week.
Since the cancelation there has been speculation by fans and people within the wrestling industry that the show was actually canceled due to money issues, and while that is certainly possible, several wrestlers have advised me they had been paid in advance and the airline tickets had been purchased. Two wrestlers who were not paid in advance told me that Anthony Maxx, the owner of Maverick Pro, told them they would still be paid for the event and would be paid this weekend. Sabu was already on his flight when the show cancelation was announced, as he was booked for last night’s FIST Combat show in La Mesa, however the flight was covered by Maverick Pro. AWS, Ground Zero, etc. ring announcer Joshua Shibata was with Maverick Pro’s owner when the venue was secured and paid for (though we have learned that X-Pole did refund the venue fee after the cancelation).
They have begun refunding tickets and when I asked for more information they advised they were hoping to reschedule the event for a later date, possibly October. As of now all of their upcoming announced events are still scheduled to go on as planned. Heatwave 2018 was their last scheduled show in the Southern California area before running three events in the Las Vegas area over the next few months.
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Bar Wrestling has announced their roster for their July 14 show in Baldwin Park titled Pinkerton. Scheduled to appear are AR Fox, Brody King, Colt Cabana, Eli Drake, Jeff Cobb, Joey Ryan, Kiera Hogan, Kikutaro, The Killer Baes, Killer Kross, Luchasaurus, Peter Avalon, Priscilla Kelly, Reno Scum, RockNES Monsters, Scorpio Sky, Shane Strickland, Super Panda, and Watts. This will be the Southern California debut for Kiera Hogan.
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PCW Ultra is promising six matches on their July 27 event in Wilmington that have never been done before. Announced so far is Shane Strickland defending the PCW Ultra Light Heavyweight Title versus Flip Gordon and Brody King versus Matt Riddle.
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Monday Night Raw in San Diego on June 25 will have Seth Rollins getting his rematch against Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Intercontinental Title that Ziggler won on the June 18 Raw.
Smackdown and 205 Live will be in Ontario on June 26. No matches have been announced for Smackdown yet. 205 Live will see Lio Rush make his main roster debut and there will be an elimination match with Jack Gallagher, Brian Kendrick, and Drew Gulak against Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, and Kalisto.
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Actor and former WCW World Champion David Arquette is scheduled to wrestle against RJ City at the July 15, 2018 Championship Wrestling from Hollywood taping in Port Hueneme.
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FIST Combat announced two cage matches for their July 19 show at Jolt’n Joes in La Mesa. Dirty Ron McDonald will be defending the Get FIST’d title versus Ruby Raze and Douglas James will be defending the FIST Heavyweight Championship in a three-way against Eli Everfly and Royce Issacs.
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This week’s second episode of season four of Lucha Underground had 96,000 viewers for the 8:00 p.m. showing. This is down about 30% from the 143,000 viewers last week for the season premiere.
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Rebel has been added to the October 20, 2018 AWS event in South Gate.
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This week’s events:
6/22:
Millennium Pro Wrestling in Moorpark, CA
Micro Championship Wrestling in Pasadena, CA
6/23:
Fantastic Lucha Libre in Santa Ana, CA
Micro Championship Wrestling in Agoura Hills, CA
6/24:
Championship Wrestling From Hollywood TV Taping in Pt. Hueneme, CA (Free Event)
Bumps and Brewses in Los Angeles, CA
WWE Live SummerSlam Heatwave Tour in Anaheim, CA
Micro Championship Wrestling in Santa Clarita, CA
6/25:
WWE Monday Night Raw in San Diego, CA
WWE Live SummerSlam Heatwave Tour in Bakersfield, CA
6/26:
PCW ULTRA NEWS: Tessa Blanchard (c) will defend her ULTRA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP against Britt Baker.
Also scheduled to appear: JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS – PENTA EL ZERO M (c) – WARBEAST (c) – SAMI CALLIHAN – DRAGON LEE – HAMMERSTONE – OVE – ACH – RICK SWANN – TIMOTHY THATCHER – JAKE ATLAS – MATT CROSS ~ Tickets available at PCWULTRA.com