POST IT NOTES
**This week’s Rewind-A-Raw features Wai Ting and myself reviewing Monday’s Raw from San Jose, the fatal five-way main event and conclusion, Bayley defeating Sasha Banks in San Jose, Braun Strowman playing the double bass, Kurt Angle’s announcement, a Jason Jordan update, and we take your feedback and questions at the end of the show. The show can be downloaded at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/02/13/rewind-a-raw-2-12-18-elimination-chamber-2nd-chance-match-strowman-strums/ and subscribe to POST Wrestling on any podcast app you have.
**We are back late tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown and will be going through all of tonight’s shows from Bakersfield with reviews of SmackDown Live, 205 Live, and the Mixed Match Challenge.
SHOWS THIS WEEK AT POST WRESTLING:
*Tonight: 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
**Monday’s episode of Raw averaged just under 3,100,000 viewers over the course of the three-hour show on the USA Network. The number is slightly above last week’s average. The first hour returned to being the most viewed with an average of 3,262,000 viewers. The second hour received a small increase from the norm with 3,216,000 viewers. The usual third-hour drop went down 11.7% to 2,837,000 viewers with the heavily promoted “second chance” fatal five-way match closing the show.
**Deadspin has dug into the 1993 statutory rape case involving Jerry Lawler with new findings discovered by reporter David Bixenspan. The piece was published on Tuesday after Bixenspan filed for and received 228-pages of documents from the Louisville Metro Police Department, including the police report. He also spoke to retired detective Mike Redmond, who worked on the case.
Lawler was facing charges of statutory rape, sodomy and intimidating a witness in 1993. He was taken off WWF television at the time while the case was ongoing. The charges were eventually dismissed the following year with Lawler accepting a misdemeanor conviction for harassing a witness (listed in the Deadspin piece as someone separate from the two complainants) by phone. The detective that Bixenspan spoke to, Mike Redmond, stated that the girls did not recant their stories, but instead would not testify against Lawler.
In addition to that news, the 228-page report obtained by Bixenspan included a letter written by Jerry Lawler to “Nick and Lisa” (this is presumed to be the two prosecutors working the case, Nick King and Lisa Schweikert). In the letter, Lawler is stating his case and his standing within the community in which these charges are damaging his reputation. In his attempt to discredit the two girls making the claims, Lawler outlines a series of rumours involving them such as one of the complainants having a sexual relationship with the other’s brother, being a smoker and a drinker, being suspended from school, bragging about having multiple sexual partners, claiming to be pregnant, exposing herself publicly and committing lesbian acts in front of witnesses. When describing the second girl in question, Lawler stated that she was “involved in a sexual relationship with a 40-year-old neighbor whom she babysits for and also was caught having sex with a black man”.
POST Wrestling has reached out to Jerry Lawler for a statement regarding the story. We will alert our readers if we receive a response.
**An email distributed by the Prudential Center has led to speculation that the WWE will be changing their pay-per-view format following WrestleMania. The email was sent to those that have purchased tickets to the Backlash event scheduled for Sunday, May 6th at the Prudential Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, indicating that the show will include talent from both Raw and SmackDown Live. The event was originally slated to be a Raw show. Dave Meltzer reported on Monday’s Wrestling Observer Radio that the WWE will be making an announcement shortly regarding the changes to their pay-per-view format.
**WWE television takes place tonight from the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, California. The following matches are scheduled for SmackDown Live, 205 Live, and the Mixed Match Challenge:
*Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin – the winner will be added to the WWE title match at Fast Lane with A.J. Styles, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn
*Rusev and Lana vs. Bayley and Elias in the Mixed Match Challenge
*Akira Tozawa vs. Mark Andrews in the Cruiserweight title tournament
*Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese in the Cruiserweight title tournament
**The men’s Elimination Chamber Match will now feature seven participants with the additions of Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. The fatal five-way match on Raw concluded with both Rollins and Balor pinning Bray Wyatt, ending the show with the question about who won the match. Shortly after the Raw, Kurt Angle announced that both were being added to the match with Roman Reigns, Elias, Braun Strowman, The Miz, and John Cena. This will presumably mean that three people will start the match with The Miz and Elias being the first and final entrants, respectively.
**Ronda Rousey will be making her second WWE appearance at the Elimination Chamber show to sign her Raw contract and likely shoot her WrestleMania angle. Rousey’s appearance is the real main event of the show and should drive a lot of attention to enhance interest in it. The show is taking place at the T-Mobile Arena, which is the same venue that housed Rousey’s last UFC fight where she was stopped by Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December 2016.
**A complicated situation involving the streaming platform Powerbomb.tv has led to one of the founders of the service, Adam Lash, being let go by the company. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Powerbomb with the following statement:
Effective immediately, we have decided to part ways with Adam Lash. The agreements we have with our content providers are non-exclusive and hands-off without interference from http://Powerbomb.tv . To address the questions being sent our way, our decision to terminate our relationship with Adam Lash was entirely due to his repeated unprofessional behavior on social media towards employees, owners and performers. Not one isolated incident.
The source of contention was over the decision made by Powerbomb.tv to stream an IWA Mid-South card this Thursday involving Michael Elgin. On Monday, Lash was very vocal on Twitter regarding his fight to not have Elgin streamed on the platform because of the issues and allegations surrounding him over the past few months. Lash stated that he lost the battle due to Powerbomb not wanting to jeopardize their deal with Smart Mark Video. Lash was informed on Tuesday by Powerbomb owner Gerald Durling that he was being let go. Lash posted the message he received from Durling that read:
Effective immediately, we have decided we must part ways with you, Adam. The agreements we have with our providers are non-exclusive and hands-off without interference from Powerbomb.tv.
Lash had previously worked at Smart Mark Video and co-founded Powerbomb along with Durling. It was announced in October 2017 that the two companies had entered into a multi-year partnership with Smart Mark Video providing new and archived content for the streaming platform service, which includes IWA Mid-South.
**Sonjay Dutt announced on Twitter that Teddy Hart will be working the Impact Wrestling event at WrestleCon on Friday, April 6th in New Orleans, Louisiana. The other names announced by Dutt were Austin Aries, Alberto El Patron, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Eli Drake, Matt Sydal, LAX, Allie, Taya Valkyrie, Trevor Lee, and Caley Konley with more to be announced later. The Impact show will be taking place at The Sugar Mill at 9 pm on the Friday night of WrestleMania weekend.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor have released the cards for the two Honor Rising shows this month. The first night at Korakuen Hall on February 23rd will be headlined by Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Chase Owens vs. Cody, Marty Scurll, and Hangman Page. The second night will feature Omega and Ibushi vs. Cody and Scurll.
**Matt Riddle will face Tom Lawlor in the semi-finals of the MLW world title tournament at their next event on Thursday, March 8th.
**The WWE stock closed at $35.42 on Tuesday and traded as high as $35.61 during the day.
MMA NEWS
**MMA agent Malki Kawa was a guest on “The Luke Thomas Show” on Sirius/XM this week to speak about his client, Jon Jones. Kawa noted that Jones’ hearing with USADA is scheduled for later this month and he is very optimistic that Jones will fight in 2018. Kawa said he feels there is a 95% chance he can return this year and noted, “if USADA is a respectable organization, and I think they are, and they take all the evidence they have compiled, all the interviews they’ve done, all the things they have seen, they know for a fact Jon Jones wasn’t cheating and wasn’t intentionally taking any kind of substance.”
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REWIND-A-RAW 2/12/18: Elimination Chamber 2nd Chance Match, Strowman Strums
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/9cyzec/180213_RAR.mp3
*****
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
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REWIND-A-WAI – PWG BOLA ’17 – Final Stage (Patreon bonus show)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rewind-wai-pwg-16892002
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BWE 2/8/18: Progress Chapter 62, FCP/Attack WrestleHouse, 5 Star
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/8b4p22/180208_BWE.mp3
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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
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