SoCal News & Notes 11/08/2018

In today’s update we have the latest on Bar Wrestling, The Young Bucks, NXT, Lucha Underground, NJPW, Enzo Amore, and more. Plus a listing of all of this weekend’s Southern California pro-wrestling events. Click for today’s update.

Bar Wrestling has announced four matches for their November 15 event in Baldwin Park titled Testlemania. The show will feature Nick Gage’s Southern California debut when he faces Willie Mack. Originally the match was going to be Gage versus Brian Cage, but Cage was unable to make the show.

Also announced are Violence Unlimited (Brody King and Tyler Bateman) and Ethan Page taking on Marko Stunt and DoomFly (Eli Everfly and Delilah Doom), Britt Baker versus Penelope Ford, and  Luchasaurus versus Façade.

Joey Ryan, RockNES Monsters (Yuma and Kevin Martenson), and PPRay (Peter Avalon and Ray Rosas) are also on the show’s poster, but their matches have not been announced. Scorpio Sky was listed on the event poster as well, but is no longer scheduled to be there.

Proceeds from the show are going to be donated to the men’s health organization The Movember Foundation. Tickets are on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets.

The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) will be doing a signing at Dave & Busters in Ontario on November 15 from 6-9:00 p.m. to promote the wide release of their children’s book, Young Bucks Stand Tall. Tickets for the signing are available on Eventbrite for $30.00 and include a copy of the book.

Young Bucks Stand Tall will also be available on Amazon starting tomorrow in both hardcover and for Kindle. Check the Amazon listing for current pricing.

An NXT Women’s Championship match has been added to NXT Takeover: Wargames on November 17 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Shayna Baszler will defend her title against Kairi Sane in a two-out-of-three falls match.

The season (and possibly the series) finale of Lucha Underground yesterday only had 60,000 viewers. This was the second lowest rated episode of the season, which is a really bad sign as it was Ultima Lucha, which is presented as the promotion’s biggest show of the season.

Season four ended up averaging about 96,400 viewers per episode, which is only about a 6.5% drop from last season. The second half of season four only averaged about 78,000 viewers per episode and was trending down.

Ratings aren’t really that important of a metric in the television industry, so the numbers may not necessarily be a problem to the network, but they do show a trend as far as interest in the product goes.

Lucha Underground Executive Producer Eric Van Wagenen was on the Masks, Mats & Mayhem podcast and said he “didn’t know anything about season five.” He also said “nobody is saying it’s dead, but there is just not a huge hustle to get it on the air right now.” Van Wagenen also mentioned he didn’t think they’d be willing to do another season on the small budget they had for season four.

Even if the show is over, parts of Lucha Underground will live on. You can see the influence of the promotion in vignettes in other promotions such as Impact and WWE. More directly the character of Kobra Moon will be appearing on WOW-Women of Wrestling on AXS next year.

Current PWG World Champion Jeff Cobb will be taking part in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s World Tag League again this year, once again teaming with Michael Elgin. The World Tag League starts on November 17 and runs until December 9 with the top teams in each block facing off in Iwate.

The former Enzo Amore will be doing a performance and meet & greet at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Hollywood on November 19 at 10:00 p.m.

Douglas James dislocated his hip during his match with Luchasaurus at the November 1 Bar Wrestling show in Baldwin Park. He had surgery the next morning and spent the next few days in the hospital but is out now. The recovery time isn’t yet known, but he wont be wrestling again this year.

Sage Sin defeated Ray Rosas in what is likely her last match, at least for the time being, in the main event of MPW’s November 2 show in Moorpark. She choose that match to be her last as Rosas was her trainer and MPW is where she had her first match. She wont be wrestling as her and her husband are planning on starting a family.

This week’s Southern California pro-wrestling events:

11/9:

Lucha Wrestling Puroresu in Huntington Park, CA

*Updated* Millennium Pro Wrestling in Moorpark, CA – Canceled due wildfires in area

11/10:

NJPW presents Lion’s Break: Project 1 in Anaheim, CA

About the Author

Steve Bryant
Fan of Godzilla.