POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will be back late tonight with a new Rewind-A-Raw to chat tonight’s show from San Jose, take your feedback and questions, and go over the week ahead with POST Wrestling.
**We had two shows come out over the weekend. The first was a Patreon show for members of the POST Wrestling Café with Wai and I reviewing the New Beginning in Osaka card from Saturday, featuring two great matches. We ran through the whole card and discussed the news that Rey Mysterio will be facing Jushin Thunder Liger at the Strong Style Evolved card next month in Long Beach.
On Saturday night, I was joined by Mike Bohn from MMA Junkie and USA Today for a UFC 221 Post Show. We went through the fights from the card, discussed Yoel Romero’s stoppage win over Luke Rockhold, an entertaining main card, one of the most disturbing fouls in a UFC fight, the bonuses handed out after the card and more notes from the Perth event.
**The latest POST Production video for “Double Double” and above members covers the past week for Wai and I at POST Wrestling, our plans for WrestleMania week in New Orleans, going on vacations, Wai’s trouble with ordering coffee at Starbucks and some added graphical wizardry at the end of the video.
SHOWS THIS WEEK AT POST WRESTLING:
*Monday: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Thursday: Keep it 2000 with Brian Mann & Nate Milton (review of the June 12, 2000, Monday Nitro) w/ Jordan Breen
*Friday: Bonus review of Coliseum Home Video’s “WWF Battle at Royal Albert Hall ’91” (Patreon show)
*Sunday: POST Roundtable #2 w/ John Pollock, Wai Ting, and Damian Abraham
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of Raw will be taking place from the SAP Center in San Jose, California. They have announced the fatal four-way match between Finn Balor, Bray, Wyatt, Matt Hardy, and Apollo Crews for the final spot in the Elimination Chamber Match for February 25th. There will also be a singles match between Sasha Banks and Bayley tonight.
**The SmackDown crew has a house show in Stockton, California tonight with A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn advertised for the main event. The television tapings will be in Bakersfield, California on Tuesday night with Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler taking place on SmackDown. The 205 Live show will feature Mark Andrews vs. Akira Tozawa and Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese, and the Mixed Match Challenge features Rusev and Lana vs. Elias and Bayley.
**The WWE announced today that Lisa Moretti a.k.a. Ivory will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Friday, April 6th in New Orleans, Louisiana. Moretti was one of the names originally reported by Brad Shepard in December for this year’s class, and he also reported Bam Bam Bigelow and Kid Rock.
Moretti began her career by attending a GLOW audition and being chosen for the show and appearing as Tina Ferrari on the series. She was almost part of the GLOW offshoot, Powerful Women of Wrestling, which was started by David McLane after he left GLOW. She did not have much of a presence in the industry throughout the 90’s until being signed by the World Wrestling Federation in 1999. She made her debut during an episode of Raw from the SkyDome in Toronto and was introduced by D-Lo Brown and she became a valet for Brown and Mark Henry. Although the company had resurrected the women’s title the previous year, the status of women’s wrestling was exclusively designed to present the women as sexual objects and the matches were merely the platform to integrate them onto the show with no emphasis on wrestling. Ivory became women’s champion defeating Debra in June 1999 and then went on to a feud that year with the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. This featured Moolah defeating Ivory to become women’s champion in October 1999 when Moolah was 76 years old. Ivory won the title back quickly and then lost it to The Kat during a December 1999 pay-per-view match where the women fought inside of a pool wearing evening gowns. The match is more remembered for The Kat flashing the audience after winning the title. In 2000, Ivory was a member of the Right to Censor group and won the title for the third time in October and would hold the title until WrestleMania X-7 the following April. Ivory’s program at WrestleMania was with Chyna and was set up after the two had a match at the Royal Rumble and they did a big injury angle with Chyna injuring her neck from a handspring back elbow into the corner. The rematch at WrestleMania was essentially a squash victory for Chyna and was a very weak payoff to the feud. Ivory remained on the roster for several more years and would serve as a trainer on Tough Enough and worked as a commentator for several of the smaller television shows before leaving in 2005.
**Corey Graves appeared on Booker T’s radio show/podcast, “Heated Conversations”, this past Saturday to reveal all their interactions last week were a joke and none of it was meant to be taken seriously. During the “reveal”, Graves even noted that he was not aware ahead of time that Booker was going to make the comments but assumed Booker was just joking around. Booker said for the final segment of last week’s show that he and his producer had nothing to talk about and came up with the Graves story. That would lead me to believe that WWE wasn’t aware either with Michael Cole even asking Graves if the issue was legitimate or not.
**Newsweek recently spoke with Impact Wrestling executives Ed Nordholm, Scott D’Amore, and Don Callis on the restructuring of the company in 2018. Nordholm addressed the dismissal of Jeff Jarrett by stating Jarrett: “Was a great assistance to me. Unfortunately, as we got into the summer, I think the stress of trying to [overhaul Impact] clearly was starting to have some impacts on him and his issues to deal with the situation. We had to part ways. I regret that it turned out that way, but I’m grateful for everything he did for me.”
It was mentioned in the piece that they reached out to Jarrett and didn’t respond to their request for comment. Another topic was the amount of talent that has left the company, including Michael Hutter (Ethan Carter III). Hutter spoke to Newsweek for the piece and praised Anthem for their handling of his deal and had nothing but positive things to say. Hutter added that he had six-months remaining on his deal and was allowed out of the deal to pursue other opportunities and has control of his EC 3 persona. Scott D’Amore mentioned they will hold four live events in March with two in California and two in Canada.
The topic of The Hardys and the fight over the Broken Hardy’s intellectual property ownership was addressed. Nordholm reflected on the back-and-forth public issues and stated, “As a fresh person into the wrestling world, a guy from the corporate environment where we don’t play in the social media world, we clearly took on a shitstorm—and I got my head handed to me.”
**The WWE is advertising a tag match with John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. Elias and Bayley for the Madison Square Garden live event on March 16th. The main event is scheduled to be a rematch from the Royal Rumble with Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane.
**Tamina Snuka recently underwent surgery for a right shoulder tear in the supraspinatus, which is a muscle that is part of the rotator cuff. The surgery was first reported by WrestlingINC.com and was performed on January 31st, right after Tamina’s appearance in the women’s Royal Rumble.
**Kenny Omega will be wrestling at the WrestleCon Supershow on Thursday, April 5th during WrestleMania Week in New Orleans and will also be signing at the WrestleCon convention the following day. The group will be announcing Omega’s opponent this Wednesday.
**AAW has announced that Jushin Thunder Liger is going to be working for the promotion on March 16th for their 14th-anniversary event. They are promoting Sami Callihan, Jeff Cobb, and ACH among those working the show as well.
**Kazuchika Okada won his first IWGP heavyweight title on this date in 2012 when he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and ended Tanahashi’s 404-day title reign. Okada was only 24-years old at the time and had just returned from his overseas excursion. It was a heavily debated decision at the time as Tanahashi was having a tremendous run with the title and Okada wasn’t a fraction of the proven commodity he would become. Okada would have an outstanding match with Tetsuya Naito the following month but only kept the title until June when he dropped it back to Tanahashi. It was evident at that point that the two would be the major rivalry within the company and led to Okada winning that year’s G-1 and setting up a third match with Tanahashi for Wrestle Kingdom 7. The feud between Okada and Tanahashi would last four-years and culminate with Okada finally defeating Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, 2016 (Okada had victories over Tanahashi but never at the Dome) and the feud was a major reason for New Japan’s rise in business during that period.
**The Women of Honor tournament brackets have been released by Ring of Honor with the following opening round matches: Kelly Klein vs. Bonesaw Brooks, Mandy Leon vs. Madison Rayne (airing on this week’s episode), HZK vs. Mayu Iwatani, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Holidead, Jenny Rose vs. Kagetsu, Hana Kimura vs. Sumie Sakai, Stacy Shadows vs. Tenille Dashwood, and Brandi Rhodes vs. Karen Q.
**Congratulations to Ethan Page, he and his wife had their first child on Sunday.
**The WWE stock closed at $35.36 on Monday.
TELEVISION REVIEW
Ring of Honor (Feb. 11th)
-This week’s episode featured Dalton Castle’s first ROH title defense as he took on Punishment Martinez in the main event. This was a really good match with Martinez continuing to show a lot, including this incredible dive onto Castle and The Boys on the floor. Castle was lifted for the torture rack and was able to counter with a great looking cradle where he trapped the arms and legs of Martinez to get the pin out of nowhere. Martinez wasn’t hurt by the loss and he’s going to be a key part of the roster for 2018. Castle came off well as champion, which is sometimes a difficult transition but the audience in Nashville was heated for the match and took to Castle as a big deal.
-There was a great backstage segment involving Cody confronting The Young Bucks and was right after last week’s attack by The Kingdom to Cody. He confronted The Bucks and asked why they didn’t come out to save him and the audience was chanting for them, The Bucks said they just arrived at the building and their flight was delayed. It not only addressed the angle last week, but it brought all the Being the Elite issues to speed on ROH television (although if you aren’t watching the series or New Japan, you wouldn’t be aware of what led to this).
-Mandy Leon defeated Madison Rayne in the Women of Honor tournament and there was a video package with both women promoting the match ahead of time.
-Kenny King and Coast to Coast defeated Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser, and Brian Milonas with King pinning Young and setting up a television title rematch (which took place at this past weekend’s tapings in Atlanta). The match started out as Coast to Coast vs. Bruiser and Milonas but ended in a no contest and turned into a six-man tag with Young and King running in.
-Next week’s main event is The Young Bucks and Hangman Page vs. Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky for the ROH six-man tag titles.
AJPW Twilight Blues (Feb. 5th)
-I had a chance to see three of the key matches on the show from Yokohama last week.
-The main event featured Triple Crown champion Joe Doering defeat KAI after the Revolution bomb (spinning powerbomb) in a match that went 14:31. Doering is very effective in the role as dominant foreign champion with the obvious comparison to Stan Hansen. The main event wasn’t the strongest on the show but in terms of a champion presenting himself as such, Doering was very good.
-The AJPW tag titles switched hands with Kento Miyahara and Yoshitatsu defeating Suwama and Shuji Ishikawa. This was a great match and in particular, the closing stretch with the near falls saved until the end and Miyahara continually kicking out. While Miyahara was the star of the match, Yoshitatsu is having a career-saving run with All Japan this year. He more than hung with the talent involved in the match and getting away from the comedy role in New Japan was much needed.
-The other tag title match featured Yuji Nagata and Jun Akiyama winning the vacant All-Asia tag titles by defeating Naoya Nomura and Ryoji Sai. Nagata is 49-years old and Akiyama is 48-years old and this could be a hell of a tag team run the two have in 2018. Nagata is pro wrestling’s Randy Couture and when he is placed into situations that are important, he is always up for it and can hang with anyone. Nagata had this performance on Monday and came back five days later and had a really good match with Katsuya Kitamura. Beyond the ageless wonders, Nomura was very impressive. Nomura was the focus throughout the close of the match, he escaped Akiyama’s King Crab lock and an exploder before falling to Akiyama’s Exploder ’98. The match went 20:15 and I felt both tag matches I saw were well worth seeking out if you missed the show.
UPCOMING SHOWS
*Friday, February 16th – Bellator 194 at 9 pm Eastern (Matt Mitrione vs. Roy Nelson)
*Friday, February 16th – PWG Neon Knights (Chuck Taylor vs. Trent, sold out)
*Saturday, February 17th – AAW (Tetsuya Naito vs. Sami Callihan, sold out)
*Saturday, February 17th – EVOLVE 100 at 6 pm Eastern (Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Austin Theory)
*Sunday, February 18th – Alpha-1 Wrestling at 4 pm (222 Queenston Road in Hamilton, Ontario)
*Sunday, February 18th – EVOLVE 101 at 7 pm Eastern (Keith Lee vs. Tracy Williams)
*Sunday, February 18th – UFC Fight Night (Donald Cerrone vs. Yancy Medeiros)
*Friday, February 23rd – Honor Rising (4:30 am Eastern on New Japan World)
*Saturday, February 24th – Honor Rising (4:30 am Eastern on New Japan World)
*Saturday, February 24th – UFC on FOX (Jeremy Stephens vs. Josh Emmett)
*Sunday, February 25th – Smash Wrestling at 5 pm (Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto)
*Sunday, February 25th – WWE Elimination Chamber
*Friday, March 2nd – Bellator 195 (Darrion Caldwell vs. Leandro Higo)
*Saturday, March 3rd – UFC 222 (Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya)
*Sunday, March 4th – Destiny Wrestling & Border City Wrestling at 7:30 pm (Don Kolov Arena in Mississauga)
*Tuesday, March 6th – NJPW Anniversary card (5 am Eastern on New Japan World)
*Thursday, March 8th – MLW Spring Break
*Friday, March 9th – New Japan Cup Opening Night (4:30 am Eastern on New Japan World)
*Friday, March 9th – ROH 16th Anniversary pay-per-view (Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal)
*Sunday, March 11th – WWE Fast Lane
*Saturday, March 17th – UFC Fight Night (Fabricio Werdum vs. Alexander Volkov)
*Wednesday, March 21st – New Japan Cup Final (2 am Eastern)
*Sunday, March 26th – New Japan Strong Style Evolved
If you are a promoter or fan and want to alert us to an upcoming show, provide results or any other items that are relevant to our news updates, please submit to [email protected]. We are always looking for live reports for any shows.
*****
UFC 221 POST SHOW WITH JOHN POLLOCK & MMA JUNKIE’S MIKE BOHN
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/zjdfy7/UFC-221-POST-SHOW.mp3
*****
NJPW NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA REVIEW WITH JOHN POLLOCK & WAI TING (Patreon Show)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/njpw-new-in-2018-16924204
*****
REWIND-A-WAI – PWG BOLA ’17 – Final Stage (Patreon bonus show)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rewind-wai-pwg-16892002
*****
BWE 2/8/18: Progress Chapter 62, FCP/Attack WrestleHouse, 5 Star
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/8b4p22/180208_BWE.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 2/6/18: Top 10 List, Owens vs. Zayn, 205 Live…Great?
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/rim3z4/160206_RASD.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 2/5/18: Jordan Screws Up Again, Women’s Chamber Participants Announced
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/67bdxd/180205_RAR.mp3
*****
ASK-A-WAI #1: Ask Us Anything (February 2018) – https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/8cm67s/180204_ASK-A-WAI.mp3
*****
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