POST IT NOTES
**Today’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with a massive show from Wai Ting and I. At the start of the show, we discuss the SmackDown to Fox story and all the details that are available regarding this big move, we then review Raw and chat the worst segment 2018 has produced with Bobby Lashley’s sisters, Wai Ting reviews the season premiere of Total Bellas, and we take your feedback & questions. The show can be downloaded at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/05/22/rewind-a-raw-5-21-18-lashleys-sisters-fox-wwe-deal-total-bellas/ and subscribe to POST Wrestling on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
**Wai Ting and I will be back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown to chat tonight’s show from Worcester, I’ll have an update on the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and we will take your feedback and questions.
SHOWS THIS WEEK AT POST WRESTLING
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: Keep It 2000 with Brian Mann & Nate Milton (WCW Monday Nitro – July 31st, 2000)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai – ROH Global Wars 2014 (Patreon)
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WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE’s SmackDown & 205 Live tapings take place from Worcester, Massachusetts tonight at the DCU Center. Below is what has been announced for the shows:
*Jeff Hardy vs. Daniel Bryan – the winner will face Samoa Joe in a Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
*Lana vs. Billie Kay in a Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
*Naomi vs. Sonya Deville in a Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
*Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami on 205 Live
**Monday’s episode of Raw saw its lowest viewership of the year on the USA Network as they went against the NBA and NHL playoffs. The show opened with 2,792,000 viewers and remained steady with a small drop down to 2,767,000 in the second hour. They experienced a drop of 11.5% down to 2,447,000 viewers in the third hour, with the show culminating with a singles match between Finn Balor and Braun Strowman. The Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics game began at 8:30 pm Eastern and averaged 7,775,000 viewers on ESPN and the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Washington Capitals games did 2,112,000 viewers on the NBC Sports Network.
**This past Sunday’s season premiere of Total Bellas only averaged 517,000 viewers, which would place it well below all the episodes in season two. The number is a major disappointment given all the attention John Cena and Nikki Bella have garnered over the past month and tons of publicity for the show on NBC’s properties leading into Sunday. The second season averaged 588,000 viewers per episode.
**Following a record high set on Monday with the Fox report, the WWE stock cooled off slightly on Tuesday and closed at $56.87 after opening at $58.52.
**Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported Monday night that the WWE has begun contacting cable providers to alert them to an earlier start time for Money in the Bank and all future pay-per-views. The time change is expected to move the main show up by one-hour with a 7 pm Eastern start and run until at least 11 pm. There would be a larger window for their big events with SummerSlam expected to air from 6-11 pm. It is not known if the kickoff shows would be starting one-hour before the main shows. If so, that would mean pay-per-view events running for 5-6 hours each month. While many fans will groan at the added length of shows, a big metric the company is pushing is “hours of content consumed” and by taking your monthly viewers and increasing that number, it’s easier to add hours of content that the same people will continue to watch rather than relying on new subscribers to add to the total.
**Mauro Ranallo appeared in-studio on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to promote his upcoming documentary, “Bipolar Rock ‘N Roller”, which debuts on Showtime this Friday night at 9 pm Eastern. The interview with Helwani is the most open I have ever heard Ranallo in an interview, explaining in detail his struggles with bipolar disorder, how close he has come to suicide and the ongoing issues he struggles with daily. This documentary is going to open a lot of eyes to the immense pain that people that are bipolar go through as it’s one thing to outline their problems and another to see it on camera. In the interview, he briefly addressed his hiatus from the WWE in 2017 citing the road schedule killing him and having a breakdown at O’Hare airport and stating he couldn’t do this any longer. He is much happier with his current schedule of one trip per month to Orlando for NXT tapings with five TakeOver specials. He is also the voice of Bellator MMA and Showtime Championship Boxing and will be in London, England this Friday for Bellator 200 when the documentary is airing in the U.S. and Canada.
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**I’ll be going through the highlights of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament tonight on Rewind-A-SmackDown and recommend matches from the first four shows if you are catching up. Today’s show at Korakuen Hall was a deep show with all four tournament matches delivering in a different way. The highlight was Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado in the main event, which Desperado won with the Pinche Loco in front of a hot crowd. Early on, Takahashi, Will Ospreay, Sho Tanaka, and Dragon Lee have been the standouts for me. Tanaka had another strong match today with Chris Sabin and for Sabin, this match was better than his match with KUSHIDA over the weekend. Tanaka is having a breakthrough tournament as the potential has always been there and now he’s delivering two matches in. Below are the updated point totals after four days:
BLOCK A: Taiji Ishimori (4), Tiger Mask (4), Flip Gordon (2), Will Ospreay (2), ACH (2), YOH (2), Bushi (0), Yoshinobu Kanemaru (0)
BLOCK B: Dragon Lee (4), El Desperado (4), Chris Sabin (2), SHO (2), KUSHIDA (2), Hiromu Takahashi (2), Marty Scurll (0), Ryusuke Taguchi (0)
**A taped promo from Chris Jericho ran during Tuesday’s Best of the Super Juniors card at Korakuen Hall. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi defeated Tiger Mask & Toa Henare are were celebrating in the ring when the lights went out and Jericho appeared on the screen. Jericho compared Naito to a turtle and said, “I’m going to fuck you up. I’m not tranquilo, I’m fucking crazy”. He proceeded to call Naito “a piece of shit” and seen people come-and-go like Naito but he’s still here and Naito doesn’t know what it’s like to be in the main event and he will be known as the man that Jericho made famous and will take his Intercontinental title. He ended the promo by calling him “Fuck Face”.
**Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal was officially added to the Money in the Bank show on June 17th in Rosemont, Illinois. Natalya also qualified for the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match joining Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Alexa Bliss.
**North Carolina independent wrestler Victor Andrews played “Jessica”, one of Bobby Lashley’s sisters on the Raw segment Monday night.
**The Best of the Super Juniors tournament has Wednesday off and return Thursday with a card from the Ukaru Chan Arena and features the following B Block tournament matches:
*Tiger Mask vs. Bushi
*ACH vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Taiji Ishimori vs. Flip Gordon
*Will Ospreay vs. YOH
**Next week’s episode of Raw from Richmond, Virginia will feature an Intercontinental title match between Seth Rollins and Jinder Mahal and a Gauntlet Match involving Sasha Banks, Bayley, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Dana Brooke, Ruby Riott, and Mickie James for the final spot in the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
**A match between Fred Yehi and Sammy Guevera has been added to the MLW television tapings on Thursday, June 7th, at the Gilt Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
**Bryan Danielson turns 37 years old today.
**Today would have been Brian Pillman’s 56th birthday. If you haven’t had the chance, I highly recommend the recent “Crazy Like a Fox” book that was written by Liam O’Rourke covering Pillman’s life so thoroughly. We had an interview with O’Rourke earlier this year as he discussed the process of putting the book together and the great reception the book has received.
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*****
REWIND-A-RAW 5/21/18: Lashley’s Sisters, Fox-WWE Deal, Total Bellas season premiere
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/xyjt2z/180521_RAR.mp3
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW – Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/18878778/
*****
upNXT 5/17/18: “Oney” Brits Allowed
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/i34qra/upNXT-MAY17-2018.mp3
*****
BWE 5/16/18: WWE UK, SSS16, Epic Encounter, Wrestle Queendom, World of Sport
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/xrp7k4/180516_BWE.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 5/15/18: Styles vs. Nakamura, Royal ‘Mellabration
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/gexuce/180515_RASD.mp3
*****
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