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sabato 31 gennaio 2015

CM Punk First Opponent in UFC Update!



In an interview with ESPN on C.M. Punk’s first opponent, Lorenzo Fertitta said: “I think it has to be somebody with some level of credentials. It’s not just going to be some guy off the street. It’s going to be somebody who is a professional mixed martial artist–certainly somebody who the MMA media will recognize and know.” That’s weird because Punk’s first opponent should be someone with three or less fights and unless it’s an NCAA champ starting out type of guy, or a celebrity, who would be readily known. The guys like the Green Power Ranger or Jose Canseco are far too big to make 185 (or 170, as I’m not sure 170 wouldn’t be Punk’s optimum weight class).

Fertitta did say the first opponent would most likely be someone not currently on the UFC roster. He said that they’ll leave it to Joe Silva to bring two or three names to the table and they’ll decide from there. Punk said that he expected his first fight to be a young kid with a similar level of experience as himself. “We knew there was going to be backlash,” said Fertitta. “At the end of the day, we did our research and we talked to the people he’s trained with. We’re going to find out what he can bring to the table. We’re confident he has the skills to fight. We don’t know exactly what
level yet. Sometimes, you’ve got to invest in what we call fighter development. We’ve dong it before and guys have developed into very competitive fighters, and we’ve done it where guys have not.”

Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg Negotiations for UFC Show !!



ESPN reported that Lorenzo Fertitta is back negotiating a Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg fight. Fertitta made it clear in his comments that the fight would have to be at 135 pounds, and that Cyborg would have to prove she could make 135 first. Cyborg had said recently that she had given up on trying to make 135 and pushed for a fight at 140 with Rousey.

Invicta just announced that Cyborg will be fighting on 2/27, so there is a weekend doubleheader with Invicta in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium the night before UFC at the Staples Center in a show where Rousey defends her title against Cat Zingano. It would make all the sense in the world, if Rousey wins, and on paper, Zingano is the toughest opponent Rousey has ever faced, for them to shoot the angle or make the announcement for the match in Los Angeles. Cyborg will defend her Invicta featherweight title against Charmaine Tweet, who is 37 years old and has a 6-4 record. And yes, this is a mismatch. Tweet fought Ronda Rousey on July 17, 2011, in Rousey’s second pro fight, which ended in 49 seconds with an armbar. This is Cyborg’s first fight since July 13, 2013, when she dominated Marloes Coenen due to her power to retain her title, winning via fourth round stoppage. Most of the show features newcomers, since UFC has grabbed most of the top strawweights and bantamweights.

So they are replenishing the strawweight division with Alexa Grasso (6-0) from Mexico vs. Mizuki Inoue (8-3) from Japan, DeAnna Bennett (6-0) vs. Lynn Alvarez (6-3), Jamie Moyle (1-0) vs. J.J. Aldrich (1-0), and Brianna Van Buren (3-1) vs. Amy Montenegro (5-1). They also have Irene Aldana (4-1) vs. Melanie LaCroix (3-2 at bantamweight and Christine Stanley (3-1) vs. Emily Corso (4-0) and Kristi Lopez (2-0) vs. Aspen Ladd (0-0) at flyweight. As far as media publicity goes, and overall interest, it makes sense across the board to run the night before a major UFC show in the same market. Most of the media is already in town and fans that come early have a second show to attend. The negative is that if they run a weekend without a UFC show, UFC can help promote it more, and while UFC will mention it as the second show, most of the UFC promotional work will be geared toward the big show. When UFC ran two straight nights in Las Vegas in July, the second show ended up doing far better as far as a live gate went than such a show would have done on its own. For ratings, it probably wasn’t helped by coming the day after a big PPV.

WWE Tough Enough Update and History !



USA Network’s revival of Tough Enough, which is expected to debut in the spring, is a second attempt to revive a show born on MTV.
What’s notable is that Tough Enough preceded UFC’s Ultimate Fighter, drew far better ratings than Ultimate Fighter, yet Ultimate Fighter will be filming its 21st season and has never been canceled while Tough Enough is starting its sixth season and has been canceled twice.
Tough Enough was brought back in 2011 by the USA Network. Ratings for the show, which aired on Tuesdays, were strong for cable television, but far below what USA had been getting in the time slot, so it wasn’t renewed for a second season. However, USA’s ratings have
declined from that level, so the numbers Tough Enough was doing, while still below the station average, beat what a lot of their prime time programming today does.

Steve Austin was the star of the remake, and he was also scheduled to be the host of the WWE Network version that was to be filmed last summer in Orlando. For what it’s worth, Austin was on Wade Keller’s podcast and said that he had not been contacted for the new show. Since he was the best thing on the show, I would be surprised if they don’t at least make a play for him.
For Ultimate Fighter, it always did better than Spike’s prime time average so was in the safe zone. That wasn’t the case with FX, but FOX always knew from when it signed UFC that it was going to develop its own sports network with UFC as a prime property to build it. So they put Ultimate Fighter on, took the lower ratings for a few years on FX, because it would be valuable to a new network. On FS 1, Ultimate Fighter remains, as it draws far higher ratings than most prime time programming. For Tough Enough’s return, the bar is once again higher.

On the final season, it was a black eye to the show when Andy Leavine won, and then was never seen again. Leavine ended up cut by WWE before being brought to the main roster, and wrestled in Puerto Rico for a long time before getting out of the business.
Of that cast, the favorite to win, Luke Robinson, was injured prior to the finals and did some independent work before retiring to run a personal training business. Jeremiah Riggs, who also made the top three, had a WWE tryout later, but came in with a terrible attitude, wasn’t signed, and did some MMA fights with Bellator.
Ariane Andrew (Cameron) was the only cast member to make the WWE roster, while Matt Capiccioni (Son of Havok) and Ivelisse Velez work for Lucha Underground, and A.J. Kirsch, Ryan Howe, Eric Watts and Martin Casaus still do independent wrestling.
The most notable thing in hindsight was that Austin Aries was one of the final cuts before getting onto the show.

The first season of the show, in 2001, on MTV, was won by Maven Huffman and Nidia Guenard, who both had several years on the main roster. Christopher Nowinski, who eventually made the main roster and is now a concussion expert stemming from his experiences with concussions on the main roster, was also in the finals, as was TNA announcer Josh Lomberger (Josh Matthews). Taylor Matheny, who eventually married Brian Kendrick, never wrestled in WWF, but wrestled for several years, including in Japan. Jessica Kresa, who was in the final cut to get into the house, got huge implants, and had a long run in TNA as ODB and currently works for ROH.
Linda Miles and Jackie Gayda were the winners of the second season in 2002, in what was a very controversial pick. Miles did not do well in the show, but they felt she had a good look and was a Division I basketball player at Rutgers. Gayda, while not a good wrestler in the ring at all, was the star of the show. She had been cut the year before, and came back with new implants and it made all the difference.

Miles went to developmental, where she ranked near the bottom when it came to evaluations as part of one of WWE’s funniest stories of that time. They had the coaches evaluate and rank
those under contract 1-to-20 based on how ready they were for the main roster. She then got implants and was brought to the main roster. The three who ranked the lowest by the coaches, Miles being one of them, were the next three called up. I believe all three quickly flopped on the main roster. She had a short run on the main roster as Shaniqua, the manager of the Basham Brothers tag team, but was cut due to attitude issues of not wanting to train on the road with wrestlers who wanted her to get there early and work out. Gayda lasted a few years, and ended up marrying Charlie Haas. The two were cut on the same day, and Gayda had a run in TNA and eventually became a fitness model and personal trainer.

Losers fared better, including Kenny Layne (Kenny King in TNA) and Matt Morgan (who worked in both WWE and TNA).
Ironically, of the 25 who didn’t make the top 12, they fared far better than those picked. Shad Gaspard, who at the time was an aspiring MMA fighter, would have made the final cast and with his size and look, probably would have won if he could have wrestled, but failed a drug test and was replaced at the last minute. John Hennigan (Johnny Mundo/John Morrison), who ended up in the third season, was cut even though he was the best athlete in the cast, with the feeling among judges that he was there to be a TV star and discovered and didn’t have the heart to be a wrestler. Shelly Martinez (Ariel in WWE/Salinas in TNA) was cut, and ended up getting huge implants and found her way back in. Kia Stevens (Amazing Kong), who had already been a star in Japanese wrestling, was cut and told that there was no interest in WWE or American pro wrestling of a woman of her size. Another one who didn’t make the cast was Kim Neilsen, who had also previously been trained by Dusty Rhodes, was later signed in developmental, but never made the main roster. She went to TNA as Desire, and married wrestler Sonny Siaki, and later, after gaining a ton of weight, appeared on the network TV “The Greatest Loser” show. Chad Lail became Gunner on the current TNA roster. Jessie Ward never wrestled after the show, but was hired in production by WWE, and later worked a few years for TNA, and is currently married to ROH wrestler Tommaso Ciampa.

Hennigan and Matt Cappotelli won the third season, in 2003. Cappotelli was part of one of the best remembered moments of the show, when Bob Holly kicked him in the head for real over and over, which confused everyone on the show that was taught to work and not hurt their partner. Cappotelli, who resembled Brian Pillman and was a good college football player, probably would have made it to the main roster, as he was a top star in Ohio Valley Wrestling, but a brain tumor ended his career.
One of the late cuts from the show was Melina Perez, a Southern California model and beauty pageant winner. She met Hennigan and the two became a couple. Perez also got huge implants, and found her way onto the main roster as both a manager and later a wrestler, and was forever immortalized in the 2011 season when Steve Austin looked at Ariane Andrew, who clearly knew nothing about wrestling, and asked her what her favorite wrestling match of all-time was, and Andrew, clearly panicked, said “Melina against Alicia Fox” while Austin looked like his mind was blown.

The two biggest names who got cut from before getting into the house were Daniel Puder, who won season four, who would have made the final cast except he had a legal issue just prior to filming, and Shawn Daivairi, who later had a run with the company.
The final season, in 2004, with the gimmick being of a $1 million Tough Enough, with the idea that it would attract world class athletes, because of the disappointment with the level of athletes in season three, was an all-men’s cast.
Puder won that season, largely based on popularity garnered in an unscripted challenge. He was not going to be picked for the final cast, even though he won every athletic challenge, because of the feeling he didn’t have a personality. He got in because Martin Wright, a bodybuilder, had lied on his application, saying he was 30 when he was really 40, and was caught.
Wright, who showed incredible charisma in his videos, to go along with a competition bodybuilder physique, probably would have won as long as he didn’t get injured, which, given his age, training and other things, was somewhat likely to happen. When it was discovered Wright was 40, when the rules of the competition stated clearly that nobody over the age of 35 could try out, Wright was cut and in the immortal words of Al Snow, was told “You can’t lie in wrestling.”

Puder got into the show as the final guy when in the tryouts at the beach, they found a pretty girl and told him he had to pick up on her. When he was successful at it, and the girl told the camera men she thought he was cute, they figured that he appealed enough to women to give him the final slot.
The first several episodes of the season, which aired live on Smackdown, was built around the idea of the main roster guys bullying the students. The whole thing was a disaster. They wanted Big Show to bully the guys, but the cast had several huge guys, including Justice Smith and Daniel Rodimer, who were not quite his weight, but almost as big and Smith was a tough guy. Show didn’t want to do it and there were complaints because the guys not having been taught to sell, made Show look silly because they popped right up from his body slams.
It got worse when they arranged to embarrass the guys further. The idea was for all of the cast members to have a pasta eating contest, with the idea they’d stuff themselves backstage right before coming out. Next, they were going to have them go into the ring live and do squats thrusts until they dropped. Puder was suspicious, and on purpose, somewhat tanked the eating contest figuring it was going to lead to management making fools of the guys for throwing up on live TV right after. So in the squat thrust competition, Puder didn’t get sick as quick as the rest of them and was having no trouble continuing. Still, while he was clearly the last one standing, when John Laurinaitis from backstage told the referee that the blond guy won, the ref raised the hand of the wrong blond guy, Chris Nawrocki.

Nawrocki’s reward was to do a legitimate shoot wrestling match with Kurt Angle. The idea was Angle would destroy any of the guys, although Puder was a good high school wrestler and trained at AKA in San Jose for MMA (in the small world notice, one of his main training partners at the time was Shinsuke Nakamura). The idea was between the pasta eating contest and the squat thrusts, they’d be so gassed it wouldn’t be a contest, and ready to throw up after Angle got threw with one of them, which is Vince McMahon entertainment. Really, even tanking the eating contest, Puder should have been a sitting duck, but he came into the competition training like a marathon runner so he was relatively fresh.

Angle destroyed Nawrocki, including breaking his ribs and cranking his neck while the people backstage laughed. Angle then asked if anyone else wanted any of him, figuring after that display, everyone would back down. Puder raised his hand.
So they started grappling. Angle was able to take Puder down and Puder immediately locked on a Kimura from the bottom. Angle was probably done but he was on top and referee Jimmy Korderas, quickly realizing the ultimate embarrassment of the situation, counted to three for the pin, even though Puder’s shoulder was up and he actually very clearly raised it at two.
The WWE figured nobody would know, but after it aired on television, the whole story came out, and became gigantic on MMA message boards. WWE after it had aired, later edited the footage but it had already aired on television.

Puder had become a big favorite with people bringing signs in for him at every taping, and since it was a fan voting, it was pretty clear he was going to win. Bill DeMott, one of the coaches, at the last minute pushed for the company to not rely on the voting and pick Mike Mizanin, who was the better wrestler of the two and a huge fan, while Puder was a fighter whose knowledge of wrestling was nil, not knowing anyone on the main roster with the exception of guys the level of Ric Flair and agent Ricky Steamboat. Mizanin in particular hated that they would be in the locker room with all the stars or they’d have stars from the past and Puder didn’t know hardly any of them. Ryan Reeves even went on some wrestling message boards telling people not to vote for Puder, and when they were down to four and asked the other three who shouldn’t win, all three said Puder.

At first they tried to have Bob Holly beat him into quitting on the house shows, and then sent him to developmental, although Holly said he was told by Jimmy Yang that Puder told him he could beat Holly if it was real, and Holly felt he had no respect and beat his chest raw. Puder said he never said anything of the sort. In the Royal Rumble they did an initiation where Holly, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit destroyed him and threw him out with him taking a bump he wasn’t ready to take. Terry Taylor, who worked for TNA at the time, publicly said that was clearly a company ordered “hit.”
Paul Heyman, who ran OVW, loved him and thought he had star potential. But the company, whose $1 million prize package was really a four-year contract at $250,000 per year and only the first year was guaranteed, cut him after one year, which they did have the right to do in the contract, even though they had advertised the winner getting $1 million. Puder was offered the chance to stay at $38,000 per year but had to leave OVW for Deep South, and be taken away from Heyman. He did some pro wrestling, was briefly in ROH and New Japan, and did some MMA fighting and now runs an anti-bullying charity.

Mizanin (The Miz) and Ryan Reeves (Ryback) from that season are now on the WWE roster. Nick Mitchell from that season ended up in the Spirit Squad group that held the tag title. He was also for a long time the live-in boyfriend of Torrie Wilson, and later he also did a few MMA fights. Daniel Rodimer, who the company wanted to win, a 6-foot-5, 280 pound blond who looked like a cross between Dave Draper and Superstar Graham, was signed for developmental. Stephanie McMahon earmarked him to be a headliner, as the third member of the top heel group with Randy Orton and Edge, and to feud with John Cena. But Rodimer, who was not a good worker and lost a lot of his charisma when he cut his blond hair, ended up quitting right before he was going to get his push because he said he was making more money in real estate than wrestling was going to pay.
Justice Smith, who finished third behind Puder and Miz, ended up as a cast member of the 2008 remake of “American Gladiators,” on a cast that also included Matt Morgan, Gina Carano and MMA fighter Erin Toughill. Puder ended up being the last person cut because they thought, at 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds, he was too small. Smith also did some kickboxing for K-1 and was later destroyed in an MMA fight by Shane Carwin.

Wright, despite his age, someone in the company decided he had too much charisma to pass on. He was signed, immediately rubbed people the wrong way by saying how if he’d have been allowed on the season that he would have won, and naturally, was rushed to the main roster after only a few months of training as The Boogeyman.
He was on and off the main roster as a cult gimmick guy, best as a babyface, from 2005 to 2009, but suffered a few injuries and they went about as far with the gimmick as they could, and when he was 45 and still not much of a wrestler, he was cut.
The other most notable late cut from the cast was Drew Hankinson, who is now Doc Gallows in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

UFC-NEW YORK STATE SITUATION UPDATE!!



The UFC’s attempt to get into New York, a battle that exemplifies almost comedic levels of political contradiction, got a surprise help this past week when Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York state assembly since 1993, was arrested and at the very least, is expected to step down from his position.

Silver was the key person blocking the legalization of professional MMA in the state. Lobbying by UFC has led to laws being introduced in both the state senate and assembly annually. Every year it passes the senate, usually by a substantial margin. In recent years, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo has made it clear that he would sign the bill if it reached its desk. But it’s been held up because every year, due to Silver blocking it, the bill has never even been up for a vote in the assembly.

Those in UFC have believed for a couple of years that they have the necessary support to pass the assembly. Silver’s blocking is believed to be because of the work of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, which has caused the strong unions of New York to pressure Silver to keep UFC out. It’s been a political game, stemming from Station Casinos, which are run by Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who together own 81 percent of UFC, not being unionized. The Democratic party made it clear to Silver that he had to step down as speaker.

Silver had attempted to put together a proposal where he would give  up his power temporarily to a five person team but his fellow Democrats rejected the idea. Silver, 70, surrendered to FBI agents on 1/22 after being accused by prosecutors of obtaining nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks dating back to 2000. Silver was, with the exception of Cuomo, the second most powerful Democrat in New York state government. Silver was the subject of a secret grand jury probe that dated back to June 2013. UFC has had a number of dates booked in Madison Square Garden for a debut show, including the 20th anniversary show in 2013. But because they had been unable to get the law passed where professional MMA would be legal, they weren’t able to run the shows.

Most recently, UFC had a March 21, 2015 date in MSG that they had to cancel, which was for a PPV show that was later moved a week up and scheduled for Montreal, and after deciding to instead go to Montreal in April, they moved that show to Dallas. Meanwhile, there are amateur MMA shows in New York state nearly every weekend, which aren’t regulated by the athletic commission and matches aren’t recorded. Fighters who fight amateur can get knocked out, and without regulation, fight again a week, or a few weeks later, and there are all kinds of medical issues with those unregulated shows.

MMA events are broadcast regularly on television, and fighters that come from some of the best known camps in the country, most notably from Serra-Longo and Renzo Gracie, have to go across state lines to fight professionally. UFC even has two champions who live in New York and the company can’t schedule shows in their home state, with Chris Weidman living on Long Island and Jon Jones living upstate in the Rochester area. Lorenzo Fertitta had promised multiple shows per year in the state, including a major PPV in Madison Square Garden and televised shows upstate.

It is not a lock that UFC will be able to get the bill through the assembly because Silver’s replacement will be a pro-union Democrat and the same political battle lines are still in place. But it is belief the odds have increased greatly for what has been the company’s long-awaited goal, as Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta both grew up at a time when Madison Square Garden was still the Mecca for the biggest fights, and thus there is both that romantic goal from childhood as well as the economic goal, since with the exception of high ticket shows in Las Vegas, a debut MSG show would likely do the largest gross gate of anyplace they would run, and the Barclays Center would also want dates.

COMPLETE BROCK LESNAR WWE SCHEDULE TILL WRESTLEMANIA31 !



•WWE World Hvt. champion Brock Lesnar is currently scheduled for about half of the Raw TV tapings leading into WrestleMania 31, where he is scheduled to defend the WWE World Title against Roman Reigns...

•Thursday, Jan. 29: Still advertised for the rescheduled Raw/Smackdown TV event in Hartford, Conn.
•Monday, Feb. 2: Not advertised for Raw in Denver.
•Monday, Feb. 9: Advertised for Raw in Columbus, Ohio.
•Monday, Feb. 16: Not advertised for Raw in Orlando leading into Fast Lane.
•Sunday, Feb. 22: Not yet listed on WWE’s website for the Fast Lane PPV in Memphis, but WWE visually advertised Lesnar for the PPV during a video package on the Royal Rumble broadcast. •Monday, Feb. 23: Advertised for Raw in Nashville, Tenn. the night after the Fast Lane PPV. •Monday, March 2: Not advertised for Raw in Newark, N.J.
•Monday, Mar. 9: Not listed yet on WWE’s website, but the Consol Energy Center announced on Facebook and on their website that Lesnar will be part of the show. [ Thanks to Joe Mientus ] •Monday, Mar. 16: Not advertised for Raw in Des Moines, Iowa.
•Monday, Mar. 23: Advertised for Raw in Los Angeles leading into WrestleMania 31.
•Sunday, Mar. 29: Scheduled to defend the WWE World Title against Roman Reigns at WM31 in Levi’s Stadium.
•Monday, Mar. 30: Advertised for Raw in San Jose, Calif. the night after WM31.

venerdì 2 gennaio 2015

NUMBERS FOR THE LARGEST GATES IN NORTH AMERICA IN 2014 !



$9,800,000* - WWE WrestleMania 4/6 New Orleans Mercedes Benz Superdome, Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista
$6,277,733** - 12/28/13 UFC 168 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate
$4,233,621* - 7/5 UFC 175 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida, Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis
$2,600,000 - 3/15 UFC 171 Dallas American Airlines Center Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler
$2,300,000 - 4/26 UFC 172 Baltimore Arena Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira
$2,262,675 - 9/27 UFC 177 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso, Donald Cerrone vs. Eddie Alvarez
$1,738,959 - 5/24 UFC 173 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena Renan Barao vs. T.J. Dillashaw
$1,651,000 - 2/1 UFC 169 Newark, NJ Prudential Center Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber; Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas
$1,558,870*** - 2/22 UFC 170 Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Events Center Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann
$1,553,738 - 4/19 UFC on FOX Orlando Amway Arena Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne

*Denotes sellout. Announced as $10.9 million but WWE when announcing WrestleMania gates includes ticket service charges which nobody else includes in gates
**Denotes sellout and includes close circuit airings in city
***Denotes sellout, breaks the all-time gate record for a show headlined by a woman’s match as the top bout, breaking the record of $1,350,191 set on February 23, 2013 for the Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche fight in Anaheim.

UFC PPV BUYS NUMBERS(based on December to November) FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS !



              Shows         Buys          Average
2007        10         4,660,000       466,000

2008        13         6,885,000       530,000

2009        13         7,755,000       595,000

2010        15         8,970,000       598,000

2011        15         5,950,000       397,000

2012        13         6,025,000       463,000

2013        13         5,470,000       420,770

2014        12         3,825,000       318,800

The scary part is that the numbers are skewed in a sense, because the UFC 168 show, which took place in late January, is listed for this year. However, that’s also misleading because the New Year’s show is traditionally a big show, and the last New Year’s show was at the end of 2013, and this year’s would be in early 2015, so not including it would be somewhat misleading. But you take that show out of it, and include the 12/6 show, UFC did 12 PPV events and approximately 3,180,000 total buys for a 265,000 average, which would be the lowest number for the promotion since 2005.

CROWDS NUMBERS OF MORE THAN 15,000 FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS !


           2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
WWE   3        4     10      10     11

CMLL  1        2      0       1        2

AAA    1        1      1        0       1

UFC     3        4     12       5       8

NJPW  2         1     1        1        1

PPV BUYS RECORDS ESTIMATED NUMBERS !


1,025,000 - 12/28/13 UFC Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva; Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate
925,000 - 9/13 Golden Boy/Mayweather/Showtime Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana
900,000 - 5/3 Golden Boy/Mayweather/Showtime Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana
750,000 - 5/12 Top Rank/HBO - Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley
545,000 - 7/5 UFC Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida; Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis
420,000 - 4/6 WWE WrestleMania Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton
400,000 - 12/4/12 Top Rank/HBO Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios
350,000 - 4/26 UFC Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira
350,000 - 2/22 UFC Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann
350,000 - 3/8 Golden Boy/HBO Canelo Alvarez vs. Alfredo Angulo
337,000 - 1/26 WWE Royal Rumble Rumble/John Cena vs Randy Orton
300,000 - 3/15 UFC Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler
300,000 - 6/7 Top Rank Miguel Cotto vs. Sergio Martinez
300,000 - 7/13 Golden Boy/Showtime Canelo Alvarez vs. Erislandy Lara
300,000 - 11/22 Top Rank/HBO Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri
230,000 - 2/1 UFC Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber; Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas
215,000 - 5/24 UFC Renan Barao vs. T.J. Dillashaw; Daniel Cormier vs. Dan Henderson
205,000 - 9/27 UFC Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso; Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier; Eddie Alvarez vs. Donald Cerrone
185,000 - 11/15 UFC Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt
180,000 - 10/25 UFC Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes
159,000 - 2/23 WWE Elimination Chamber Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena vs. Sheamus vs. Christian vs. Cesaro
146,000 - 12/15/13 WWE TLC John Cena vs. Randy Orton
125,000 - 8/30 UFC T.J. Dillashaw vs. Joe Soto
115,000 - 6/14 UFC Demetrious Johnson vs. Ali Bagautinov
100,000 - 5/17 Bellator Quinton Jackson vs. King Mo Lawal
63,000 - 8/24 WWE SummerSlam John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
53,000 - 6/29 WWE Money in the Bank John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro vs. Kane vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus
45,000 - 5/4 WWE Extreme Rules Daniel Bryan vs. Kane; The Shield vs. Evolution
33,000 - 11/23 WWE Survivor Series John Cena & Dolph Ziggler & Ryback & Big Show & Erick Rowan vs. Seth Rollins & Kane & Mark Henry & Luke Harper & Rusev
31,000 - 7/20 WWE Battleground John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. Kane vs. Roman Reigns
30,000 - 9/21 WWE Night of Champions Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
29,000 - 6/1 WWE Payback The Shield vs. Evolution
21,000 - 10/26 WWE Hell in a Cell John Cena vs. Randy Orton; Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins

MOST WRESTLING MAIN EVENTS DRAWING MORE THAN 10,000 FANS IN 2014 !



32 - John Cena
17 - Randy Orton
11 - Seth Rollins
10 - Bray Wyatt, Kane
7 - Daniel Bryan, Batista, Luke Harper, Roman Reigns
5 - Dean Ambrose
4 - Erick Rowan, Big Show
3 - Negro Casas, Ronda Rousey, Cesaro, Ultimo Guerrero, Perro Aguayo Jr.

With so few promotions able to draw 10,000 fans to an event, this marks the seventh time, and the sixth straight year, that John Cena has finished first in this category. His other years as the top draw, based on headlining the most shows that did 10,000 fans, were 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
The only wrestlers who have been No. 1 in seven different years in history have been Jim Londos (13), Bruno Sammartino (8), Hulk Hogan (8), Bill Longson (7) and Lou Thesz (7).
Cena was up from most recent years. His 2010 total was 38 shows that drew in excess of 10,000 paid, in 2011 he headlined 33, in 2012 that number was 19 and in 2013 the number was 27.
Cena’s nine years in the top ten tie him with Gene Kiniski, The Sheik, Ray Stevens, and HHH. He still trails Jim Londos and Lou Thesz (who co-hold the record with 21 years as a top ten draw, a longevity record that Cena has almost no chance of ever reaching), Bruno Sammartino, Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Joe Stecher, Dick the Bruiser, Andre the Giant, Argentina Rocca, Killer Kowalski, Bill Longson, Buddy Rogers, Whipper Billy Watson, Yvon Robert and The Crusher.
Cena would be the all-time 11th biggest drawing card in pro wrestling history, based on total longevity and domination of his era at the top, behind Londos, Sammartino, Thesz, Longson, Hogan, Lewis, Rocca, Flair, Rogers and Stecher.
Orton moves to 34th place on the list. Orton would be the third highest ranker in history not to be in the Hall of Fame, behind only Mistico and Dick Shikat. Batista and Kane also move into the top 50 of all-time after this year.

BIGGEST EVENTS AND TOP DRAWS FOR 2014 !



BIGGEST EVENTS AND TOP DRAWS

Period covered based on our awards balloting year of December 1, 2013 to November 30, 2014
LARGEST ATTENDANCE
65,000* - 4/6 WWE WrestleMania New Orleans Mercedes Benz Superdome (Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista)
35,000 - 1/4 New Japan Wrestle Kingdom Tokyo Dome (Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi)
21,000* - 8/24 AAA TripleMania Mexico City Arena Ciudad (Perro Aguayo Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Cibernetico vs. Myzteziz)
21,000* - 11/15 UFC 180 Mexico City Arena Ciudad (Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt)
19,234* - 3/15 UFC 171 Dallas American Airlines Center (Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler) All-time U.S. MMA attendance record
18,000 - 8/10 New Japan G-1 Finals Tokorazawa Seibu Dome (Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada)
17,000* - 9/19 CMLL 81st anniversary show (Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero mask vs. mask) All-time CMLL gate record
17,000* - 4/19 UFC on Fox 11 Orlando Amway Center (Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne)
17,000* - 5/2 ONE FC Manila, Philippines Bibiano Fernandes vs. Masakatsu Ueda
16,127* - 3/22 NCAA Division I tournament finals Oklahoma City Chesapeake Energy Center
15.996* - 12/8/13 NCAA wrestling State College, PA Bryce Jordan Center Penn State vs. Pitt All-time U.S. college dual meet record
15,500* - 8/31 IGF Peace Festival Pyongyang, South Korea Arena (Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jerome LeBanner)
15,175 - 3/21 NCAA Division I tournament semifinals Oklahoma City Chesapeake Energy Arena
15,000* - 5/19 WWE Raw London O2 Arena John Cena vs. Luke Harper
15,000 - 8/8 WWE Sydney Allphones Arena - Roman Reigns vs. Kane Ric Flair referee
15,000* - 8/30 IGF Peace Festival Pyongyang, South Korea Arena (Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Erik Hammer)
*Denotes sellout crowd