POST IT NOTES
**We have Rewind-A-SmackDown up on the site with Wai Ting and I reviewing Tuesday night’s episode from Evansville, Indiana. The show featured the announcement of the WWE title match for SummerSlam, a non-title match between Carmella and Becky Lynch, James Ellsworth being written off, a show-closing segment involving The Miz laying out Daniel Bryan, and a great promo from Randy Orton to kick 0ff the show. We also took your feedback & questions and I recapped my 1994 Baseball Mogul season with the Toronto Blue Jays. You can download the show at the link above, subscribe to POST Wrestling on iTunes or any podcast app and we always appreciate your feedback to the shows.
**Later today, we will have a new edition of the British Wrestling Experience posted. You can subscribe to their free feed with information available in the ‘Subscribe’ section of the site.
**Wai Ting and I return on Thursday with another G1 podcast for members of the POST Wrestling Café. There will be G1 shows Thursday through Saturday. The Thursday & Saturday shows will be exclusive to members of the POST Wrestling Café and Friday’s show will be free. If you sign up for the Café for at least $6 (U.S.) per month, it grants you access to the G1 shows, our entire archive of shows, including every Rewind-A-Wai.
**On Friday, for ‘Double Double’ and above members of the Café, we will have a POST Production video, reviewing the new album from Elias.
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SCHEDULE THIS WEEK AT POST WRESTLING
*Today: The British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: G1 Climax Day 8 (Patreon)
*Friday: Ask-A-Wai (Patreon)
*Friday: G1 Climax Day 9 (Special free show)
*Saturday: EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion – 1994 Tokyo Dome cards with Chris Charlton & guest Pat Laprade, plus Dann & Emily Read from Pro Wrestling EVE the All Japan Women’s Big Egg Wrestling Universe card from the same year
*Saturday: G1 Climax Day 10 (Patreon)
*Saturday: Bonus World of Sport on ITV review with the British Wrestling Experience crew
WRESTLING NEWS
**Several matches were made official on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown, including the WWE title match set between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. The angle was set up well with Styles blindsided while watching the screen during James Ellsworth’s removal from the building and Joe choked him out with the Coquina clutch before signing the contract. The attention to detail was a nice touch as the following segment featured Paige confronting Joe and establishing that he was the #1 contender, whose name was on the contract and not as though he stormed the ring and just signed a random contract to steal the match. It was a small thing but made it more believable with one small detail in the segment from Paige. It’s also a fresh match, Joe had been red hot on SmackDown up until the last month where he didn’t have a program for Extreme Rules. The two did have singles matches on the recent house shows in Tokyo and Taipei with Joe subbing for Shinsuke Nakamura. Here is the updated card for SummerSlam on Sunday, August 19th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn:
*Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal title
*AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe for the WWE title
*Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey for the Raw women’s title
*Carmella vs. Becky Lynch for the SmackDown women’s title
*Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental title
*Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens for the Money in the Bank briefcase
*The Bludgeon Brothers vs. Tournament winners for the SmackDown tag titles
On the SmackDown side, they are also heavily teasing The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan for the show, along with a possible three-way match with Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton & Jeff Hardy for the United States title.
**With the WWE’s stock at record-setting levels, several directors & officers within the company have sold major amounts of stock just ahead of Thursday’s second-quarter report. Here is a recap of the stock sold this past week:
*Kevin Dunn, Executive Producer & Chief of Global Television Production, sold 122,926 of Class A common stock for $10,193,023
*Michelle Wilson, co-president of WWE, sold 121,181 shares of Class A common stock for $10,048.328
*George Barrios, co-president of WWE, sold 120,546 for $9,988,211
*Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Chief Brand Officer, sold 17,373 of Class A common stock for $1,440,569
*Paul Levesque, EVP of Talent Live Events & Creative, sold 17,272 shares of Class A common stock for $1,432,194
*Michael Luisi, President of WWE Studios, sold 16,579 shares of Class A common stock for $1,374,730
*Mark Kowal, a Senior Vice President & Controller sold 4,913 shares of Class A common stock for $407,385
**An interesting comparison is that if Vince McMahon had waited to sell his 3,340,000 shares of stock this past December until now, that stock would have been worth $276,952,800 based on the stock price the company officials sold at this week. The amount McMahon sold his stock for this past December was believed to be just under $100 million.
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**The G1 Climax resumes Thursday with a card at 5:30 am Eastern from Niigata and streaming on New Japan World with the following lineup:
*Sanada (2-1) vs. Kota Ibushi (2-1)
*Kenny Omega (3-0) vs. Juice Robinson (0-3)
*Tomohiro Ishii (2-1) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (1-2)
*Tetsuya Naito (2-1) vs. Tama Tonga (1-2)
*Toru Yano (1-2) vs. Hirooki Goto (1-2)
*Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Yoshi-Hashi & SHO
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare
*Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Jay White & YOH
*Hangman Page & Chase Owens vs. EVIL & Bushi
*Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado vs. Michael Elgin & Ren Narita
The A Block tournament resumes on Friday with a show in Shizuoka and will feature Kazuchika Okada vs. Yoshi-Hashi in the main event. The other A Block matches on Friday include Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe, Jay White vs. Bad Luck Fale, Hangman Page vs. EVIL, and Minoru Suzuki vs. Michael Elgin.
**We received feedback on the first ‘World of Sport’ episode that is scheduled to premiere this Saturday on ITV in the UK. I was told the production was very good throughout the show and the main event between Will Ospreay and Davey Boy Smith Jr. sounded like a very good match. One other note is that SoCal Val is doing commentary and was told she did a very good job on the first episode. The British Wrestling Experience will have a special review of the WOS debut this weekend on the site.
**Following Tuesday night’s Impact Wrestling tapings in Toronto, they were filming an outdoor street fight segment involving LAX and The OGz for a future airing.
**The WWE has released four additional participants for the Mae Young Classic with the announcement that Zeuxis, Isla Dawn, Lacey Lane, and Karen Q will be part of the tournament.
*Zeuxis is 29 years old, has been wrestling for over 10 years and spent her career working for CMLL before departing earlier this year. She had just appeared for AAA this past week. She defeated Princesa Sugehit at last year’s CMLL Anniversary card and unmasked her. Zeuxis also held the Mexican National Women’s title for over two-years, defeating Estrellita in January 2015 and dropping it to Sugehit in February 2017.
*Isla Dawn is 24 years old and originally from Scotland. She has been wrestling for 4 ½ years and was just featured on the WWE’s UK events at Royal Albert Hall.
*Lacey Lane is 20 years old and was signed to a WWE developmental deal when she was 18 following a tryout. She was trained at the Team 3-D Academy in Florida and was a Division II basketball player. She previously wrestled for The Crash in Mexico and won their women’s title this past January and lost it to Tessa Blanchard earlier this month. (CORRECTION: Lane was offered a deal in 2017 but was rescinded after they discovered she had arthritis in her knee. Lane only recently signed with the company).
*Karen Q has been wrestling for almost four years and has been featured on Ring of Honor programming for the past year as part of the development of the Women of Honor division and lost to Brandi Rhodes in the inaugural title tournament. She was a gymnast and volleyball player prior to entering professional wrestling.
**Tonight’s episode of NXT features the NXT title match between Aleister Black and Tommaso Ciampa, which was taped last week at Full Sail University.
**Lucha Underground at 8 pm Eastern tonight on the El Rey Network features the Gift of the Gods Match with The Mack vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Son of Havoc vs. Ivelisse vs. King Cuerno vs. Dezmond X. There was a battle royal involving the seven medallion winners last week where the winner was able to eliminate one of the losers from tonight’s match with The Mack winning choosing Mil Muertes.
**Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has released the lineups for the first two nights of the Battle of Los Angeles tournament for September 14th – 16th in Los Angeles at The Globe Theatre, as well as a title match for the final night:
Night 1:
*Adam Brooks vs. Rey Horus
*Flamita vs. Puma King
*Joey Janela vs. David Starr
*Bandido vs. T-Hawk
*CIMA vs. Jody Fleisch
*Brody King vs. PCO
*Ilja Dragunov & Shingo Takagi vs. WALTER & Timothy Thatcher
Night 2:
*Chris Brookes vs. Trevor Lee
*Robbie Eagles vs. DJ Z
*Jeff Cobb vs. Darby Allin
*Ilja Dragunov vs. Jonah Rock
*Shingo Takagi vs. Travis Banks
*WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher
*Bandido & Flamita & Rey Horus vs. CIMA & Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier
Night 3:
*Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier vs. Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix for the PWG tag titles
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**Following the tragic shooting this past Sunday on The Danforth in Toronto, Greektown Wrestling running a benefit show on Thursday, August 9th. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the victims of the shooting. It will take place at Legends Sports Lounge at 774 Danforth Avenue at 8 pm with tickets priced at $10 available through Eventbrite.
**The SmackDown tag tournament continues next Tuesday from Tampa, Florida with The Usos taking on Sheamus & Cesaro and the winners will face New Day in the final.
**This Friday’s two-hour MLW special on beIN Sports will feature Tony Schiavone and Matt Striker calling the show at 8 pm Eastern. The event will feature matches from last week’s Battle Riot event that was filmed in Queens, New York. The show will feature the 40-man Battle Riot Battle Royal, Joey Ryan vs. MJF to crown the first middleweight champion, and Myron Reed taking on Kotto Brazil.
**Wrestling historian Pat Laprade has a piece on the passing of Jackie Wiecz (Jacques Magnin) on the TVA Sports website.
**One of our POST Wrestling Forum members, “Goose”, has chronicled the history of this year’s feud between Sasha Banks and Bayley dating back to January.
**Ring of Honor is running a promotion where anyone that signs up for the Honor Club streaming service before August 1st, will receive a personalized pre-sale code that is valid for one pre-sale purchase of tickets to the G1 Supercard event at Madison Square Garden. The code will be sent out to the email you sign up for the service with and will be valid for one purchase of up to eight tickets. The Honor Club pre-sale will be on Wednesday, August 8th at 10 am Eastern on Ticketmaster and the public on-sale will be Friday, August 10th at 10 am.
**Alpha-1 Wrestling is running two cards in Hamilton this Friday and Sunday. Friday’s show at the Hamilton Convention Centre (admission is free if you’re attending Con Bravo) features Justin Sane vs. Rickey Shane Page and Josh Alexander vs. Kody Lane at 7 pm. On Sunday, the promotion is running “The Purge III” card at 222 Queenston Road in Hamilton at 4 pm with Joey Ryan, Josh Alexander, Ethan Page, Austin Theory, Rickey Shane Page, Zachary Wentz, and Kobe Durst announced for the card. Information for both events is at http://www.alpha-1wrestling.com/events.
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TELEVISION REVIEW
Ring of Honor (July 22nd)
-This week’s episode featured the title change with Jay Lethal defeating champion Dalton Castle, Cody and Matt Taven in a fatal four-way match. The match was set up at the start of the show with Lethal, Taven, and Cody all making their case for the next title shot at Castle. Castle was out last and described his injuries but that he was willing to face the three of them tonight. The match climaxed with numerous false finishes and it felt like a legitimate surprise to the crowd that Lethal won after hitting the Lethal Injection onto Castle. It was suggested that Castle would be taking time off, although he has still been wrestling since dropping the title, including at the last PWG show in Los Angeles.
-There was a second title match with Sumie Sakai defeating Hazuki of Oedo Tai in Stardom. Kagestu was in Hazuki’s corner and ran into the ring, missing Sakai with a head kick and hitting her stablemate. Sakai hit the Smash Mouth swinging neck breaker for the win in a very good match and one of Sakai’s best matches since winning the title. The addition of the Stardom women has helped the Women of Honor division a lot over the past month.
-The show was heavy on wrestling with the two title matches but both matches were well worth checking out.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC has opted not to wait for interim champion Colby Covington to recover from nasal surgery and has booked a welterweight title fight for the UFC 228 pay-per-view. The UFC announced Tuesday that welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will defend against Darren Till in the main event of the September 8th card in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center. The company was unwilling to wait for Covington’s recovery and are bypassing the grudge that had been brewing between Woodley and Covington. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bout to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto and added that Covington would be stripped of the interim championship the moment the fight begins between Woodley and Till. The UFC 228 card will also feature Nicco Montano’s first defense of the women’s flyweight title when she meets Valentina Shevchenko. Montano became the inaugural champion by winning the Ultimate Fighter tournament last year and defeating late replacement Roxanne Modafferi in the finals in December.
After fighting four times within 12 months, Woodley has not fought since UFC 214 in July 2017 where he defeated Demian Maia by unanimous decision and suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder during the fight. Woodley won the title from Robbie Lawler in July 2016 and fought Stephen Thompson twice in the space between the Lawler and Maia fights. The 25-year old Till is undefeated in his pro career with a 17-0-1 record and won his last four fights in the UFC. He is coming off wins over Donald Cerrone and Stephen Thompson. His win over Thompson was a catchweight bout with Thompson missing weight by three pounds and was the second time in his career that he missed the welterweight limit.
**The storybook ending for Nick Newell did not play out on Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. In the most intriguing bout of the season, Nick Newell lost by a clear unanimous decision to Team Alpha Male fighter Alex Munoz. Munoz dominated the fight with his wrestling and control of Newell on the ground. There were several moments for Newell, including a series of strikes being landed in the opening round and guillotine attempt that Munoz escaped. I scored all three rounds for Munoz, who improved to 5-0 in his career. Here are the full results from the show on Tuesday:
*Chase Hooper def. Canaan Kawaihae by unanimous decision (29-26, 29-26, 28-26) – This fight was very sloppy at times, but Hooper showed a lot of resolve after being dominated in the first round and coming back to 10-8 rounds in the second and third. I had it 28-26 for Hooper with a 10-8 for Kawaihae in the first round. Hooper is only 18 years old and was signed to a developmental contract, which is the best option for him, he should not be fighting UFC competition this early in his career and has plenty of growth ahead of him.
*Jeff Hughes def. Josh Appelt by TKO at 4:26 of Round 1 – Hughes is the current LFA heavyweight champion and appears that title will be vacated with Hughes being given a contract after the fight.
*Sodiq Yusuff def. Mike Davis by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Yusuff was also awarded a contract
*Jim Crute def. Chris Birchler by TKO at 4:23 of Round 1 – Crute received a contract.
*Alex Munoz def. Nick Newell by unanimous decision (30-27 all) – Yes, the fight that easily got the most attention and Munoz did not receive a contract. It wasn’t as though Munoz’s performance was outstanding and if you watch the show, you know what the criteria are for the contract and it is typically quick finishes or a performance that is so strong that they warrant a deal.
The season will feature two more episodes over the next two weeks. The final episode on August 7th will feature Greg Hardy’s second fight of the season as he takes on Tebaris Gordon.
**This past Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card from Hamburg, Germany averaged 492,000 viewers on FS 1 for the main card that ran at 2 pm Eastern. The card was headlined by Anthony Smith stopping Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the opening round of their light heavyweight bout. The main card saw five of the six fights go to a decision. The preliminary card at Noon averaged 271,000 viewers and the post-show had 156,000 viewers.
**Fox held a special welcoming party for Daniel Cormier on Wednesday in honor of Cormier becoming the double champion earlier this month at UFC 226 after defeating Stipe Miocic.
**The UFC has announced a lightweight fight between Jim Miller and Alex White for the UFC 228 card on September 8th in Dallas, Texas. This will be Miller’s 30th fight in the UFC as he attempts to end a four-fight losing streak that dates to February 2017. His last victory came at UFC 205 in November 2016 over Thiago Alves. White has posted a record of 3-4 since joining the UFC in 2014 and is coming off a unanimous decision loss to James Krause in January. The promotion has also announced a strawweight fight between former champion Carla Esparza and Tatiana Suarez, and a bantamweight fight between Aljamain Sterling and Cody Stamann.
**The UFC has announced that CB Dollaway will meet Omari Akhmedov on Saturday, September 15th in Moscow, Russia. Dollaway was victorious in his last two fights with a decision win over Ed Herman in July 2017 and last fought Hector Lombard at UFC 222 this past February and was awarded the fight by disqualification after it was ruled that Lombard connected with illegal strikes. Akhmedov had been fighting at welterweight and returned to the middleweight division this past December and fought Marvin Vettori to a draw at UFC 219.
**UFC welterweight Santiago Ponzinibbio has signed with First Round Management, which is run by sports agent Malki Kawa.
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*****
G1 REVIEWS
Day 1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20075340
Day 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20089267
Day 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20108958
Day 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20175404
Day 5: https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/07/20/g1-climax-28-review-july-20-okada-vs-page-free-preview/ (free preview)
Day 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20216801 (Wai Ting & WH Park)
Day 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20239930
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 7/24/18: Styles vs. Joe announced, Miz & Mrs. Premiere Party
John Pollock & Wai Ting review another strong edition of SmackDown, discuss the new SummerSlam matches, the show-closing Miz segment with Daniel Bryan and Pollock reviews his 1994 Baseball Mogul season.
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/88evsb/180724_RASD.mp3
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 7/24/18: Total Bellas, Being the Elite 112, Contest Winner
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20282791/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/23/18: ‘Evolution’ PPV announced, Reigns vs. Lashley
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Cincinnati, the announcement of the all women’s PPV, Roman Reigns beats Bobby Lashley, SummerSlam card, Matt Riddle off of BOLA & more
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/ne8x2g/180723_RAR.mp3
*****
IMPACT WRESTLING ‘SLAMMIVERSARY’ REVIEW
John Pollock is joined by Nate Milton review Sunday’s card from Toronto and we also get a live report from Wai Ting, who attended the card at the Rebel Entertainment Complex
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/2p4eyg/POST-Impact-Slammiversary-2018.mp3
*****
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 1993 W/ MATT CHARLTON
Chris Charlton is joined by his brother to chat about the major Tokyo Dome moments from 1993, Matt’s artwork for the book and the process of developing the images
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/zx6m4q/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1993_w__Matt_Charlton.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #15: WCW Monday Nitro #100 (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the 100th episode of WCW Monday Nitro from August 4th, 1997, featuring Lex Luger defeating Hollywood Hogan for the WCW title and the final Nitro before ‘Road Wild’
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20187310/
*****
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