POST IT NOTES
**First off, Wai and I have met so many listeners this weekend and it’s been a highlight of the week to meet so many of you. Please come by and say ‘hello’ if you see us at any of the remaining shows this weekend in New Orleans.
**You can catch up on our WrestleMania Road Trip Diaries if you are a member of the POST Wrestling Café with the following shows:
*Day 1 – A review of Matt Riddle’s Bloodsport and our podcast panel at WaleMania
*Day 2 – A review of Rev Pro, WWN Supershow, and Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2
**The two of us will also be holding a listener meet-and-greet on Sunday at Noon central at the Wayward Owl bar, located at 3940 Thalia Street (about five minutes away from the Mercedes Benz Superdome). We will be meeting right at Noon and hanging out there until around 1:30 pm and we will have POST Wrestling stickers for those that show up.
**Late tonight, Wai Ting and I will have our third WrestleMania Week Road Trip show covering ROH’s Supercard of Honor and the Progress Wrestling show from Saturday. Braden Herrington and Bartender Dave will have a free show covering the NXT Takeover event from New Orleans on the site.
**Obviously, it is a very chaotic week with both Wai and I on the road and we will do our best to get as many updates out as we can in addition to the audio shows we have been doing.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**The big shows tonight include NXT Takeover from the Smoothie King Center and the ROH Supercard of Honor event from the UNO Lakefront Center, which is the biggest show in the promotion’s 16-year history. Below are the matches for the Takeover show:
*Andrade Cien Almas vs. Aleister Black for the NXT title – Almas has had a resurgence over the past year with Zelina Vega added to his presentation and a match-of-the-year contender in January with Johnny Gargano. Many think Black is winning the title and could signal Almas’ exit from NXT if that is the case.
*Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler for the NXT women’s title – It feels like the right time for Baszler to win the title rather than lose a second time and she’s out of the title picture.
*Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano in an Unsanctioned Match – It’s been building since last May and it has enormous expectations. This has the chance to be one of the best matches of the weekend, regardless of promotion.
*Adam Cole vs. EC3 vs. Velveteen Dream vs. Ricochet vs. Lars Sullivan vs. Killian Dane in a ladder match for the North American title – I cannot imagine this being a disappointment with the talent level. It’s a huge proving ground for all six to have a memorable showcase. The winner has to defend the title Sunday morning at Axxess.
*Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly vs. Authors of Pain vs. Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne for the NXT tag title – this could steal the show too. The Authors seem poised for a main roster call up, Strong and Dunne are a tremendous team and with Bobby Fish hurt, I think Strong and Dunne is the way to go.
**Alberto El Patron missed Friday night’s Impact Wrestling vs. Lucha Underground show, where he was scheduled for the main event in a tag match involving Austin Aries, Pentagon Jr., and Rey Fenix. The match was changed into a three-way with Pentagon winning the match. There was no explanation provided for El Patron’s absence and he was in town.
UPDATE: POST Wrestling can confirm that Impact Wrestling has released Alberto and therefore he will not be part of the pay-per-view later this month. We will have more on this news on tonight’s post-show with Wai Ting and I.
**Here is the line up for ROH Supercard of Honor from the UNO Lakefront Center, where the promotion is expecting in excess of 5,000 people and smashing the previous record of 3,500 tickets sold for last year’s Supercard of Honor event with The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys.
*Kenny Omega vs. Cody – One of the best-built matches of the past few years and began last July. This could be the best match of Cody’s career, surpassing his match with Kazuchika Okada last July in Long Beach and the Kota Ibushi match at Wrestle Kingdom. This is a legitimate money-drawing feud and these two have worked very hard to get to this spot tonight.
*Dalton Castle vs. Marty Scurll for the ROH title
*SoCal Uncensored vs. The Young Bucks and Flip Gordon in a ladder match for the ROH six-man tag titles – this will be insane, the last time Daniels had a ladder match, it was one of the greatest performances of his career.
*Women of Honor title final – The winner of Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein and winner of Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood will meet on the main card, the semi-finals are streaming on their pre-show at 6:30 pm central
*Kenny King vs. Silas Young in a Last Man Standing Match for the Television title
*The Briscoe Brothers vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jay Lethal for the ROH tag titles
*Kota Ibushi vs. Hangman Page – a big stage for Page, who is receiving an enormous push with New Japan and ROH.
*Tomohiro Ishii vs. Punishment Martinez
*Jonathan Gresham vs. Chuckie T.
**WWN will be holding their Style Battle card tonight at 8 pm at the Pontchartrain Convention Center with the following card:
*Keith Lee vs. Nick Gage
*Matt Riddle vs. Dave Crist
*Anthony Henry vs. Jason Kincaid
*AR Fox vs. Tracer X – Darby Allin suffered a concussion at the Progress Wrestling card on Friday and is being replaced by Fox
**There is also a House of Hardcore event at The Sugar Mill, which will start one hour after NXT Takeover ends. They have announced The Rock ‘n Roll Express, Austin Aries, Carlito, Billy Gunn, Willie Mack, Super Crazy, Killer Elite Squad, and Tommy Dreamer among those appearing on the show.
**Kaiju Big Battel takes place at 11:55 pm tonight at the Pontchartrain Convention Center after the Style Battle card.
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**Paul Levesque has announced that the WWE will be running another U.K. tournament on June 18th and 19th at Royal Albert Hall in London. The announcement was made at the WWE’s Business Partner Summit on Friday and is the right time the WWE has run Royal Albert Hall since 1991.
**Zack Sabre Jr. dropped both the EVOLVE title (to Matt Riddle) and the British heavyweight title (to Tomohiro Ishii) and is going to be working full-time with New Japan Pro Wrestling. A video was posted and Sabre bid farewell to the WWN Live family, following his win over Munenori Sawa at the WWN Supershow. It would come as no surprise, given New Japan’s elevation of Sabre Jr. over the past month with the New Japan Cup victory and headline Sumo Hall last weekend against Kazuchika Okada.
**Impact announced on the show that Pentagon and Fenix will have a singles match on the “Redemption” pay-per-view on Sunday, April 22nd.
**The WWE has added more names to the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal with the following additions made Saturday: Elias, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, R-Truth, Sin Cara, Apollo, Titus O’Neil, and Mike Kanellis. R-Truth is returning from shoulder surgery and Kanellis hasn’t been on television for months.
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**Some of the best matches I have seen this weekend (no ranked in any order): Matt Riddle vs. Will Ospreay (WWN Supershow), Matt Riddle vs. Minoru Suzuki (Matt Riddle’s Bloodsport), Walter vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Progress Chapter 67), Kota Ibushi, Flip Gordon & Shane Strickland vs. Will Ospreay, Chuckie T. & Rocky Romero (Rev Pro), PCO vs. Walter (Joey Janela’s Spring Break II), Mike Quackenbush vs. David Starr (Joey Janela’s Spring Break II), Will Ospreay and Kay Lee Ray vs. Austin Theory and Jinny (Progress Wrestling Chapter 67), and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Rev Pro).
**Austin Theory won the WWN title from Keith Lee on Saturday and has led to many assuming Lee is finishing up his dates this weekend. It was reported last month by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Lee had an offer presented to him. Lee worked at the Progress Wrestling show on Saturday and has one more match on Saturday against Nick Gage at Style Battle.
**After setting their highest number on POP TV since July 2016, Impact Wrestling saw a major fall this past Thursday from 399,000 viewers down to 294,000. The show went up against a USA Network special on the greatest moments in the history of WrestleMania, which averaged 746,000 viewers. The WWE special went against the 8-9 pm hour of Impact.
**Lucha Underground has released a trailer to promote their upcoming season, which returns on June 13th on the El Rey Network.
