Cedric Alexander and Tye Dillinger apologize for old tweets

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We have this week’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown posted on the site with Wai Ting & I reviewing a strong edition of the show with the return of Charlotte, a great promo from Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan challenges The Miz, the show long story involving Becky Lynch & more. On the show, we also did a new feature going through the major news stories of the day from my daily update with reaction and discussion to the key headlines from Tuesday. You can download the show on the site or subscribe to POST Wrestling on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Wai Ting and I are back Thursday with another G1 Climax podcast for members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will be reviewing tomorrow’s show from Fukuoka, featuring Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. EVIL as the top two matches. The G1 shows continue Saturday with Wai Ting & WH Park and on Sunday with Wai and Fraser Marriott, who lives in Japan and has attended every G1 card this summer.

A new edition of upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will be released on Thursday with a review of NXT and their move.

On Friday, it is the return of Rewind-A-Wai with Wai & I reviewing the “Being the Elite” series, as chosen by our Espresso Executive Producer Mitch Gelkopf. We will be discussing the success of the video series, episodes, and characters that have stood out, how it has grown the characters involved and we will take your feedback. You can post feedback and questions for this show on the POST Wrestling Forum.

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WRESTLING NEWS

**Cedric Alexander and Tye Dillinger have both come out and apologized for tweets they sent out years ago, which were recently uncovered. The two individually tweeted jokes about rape with Dillinger’s in 2011 and Alexander in 2012. Alexander sent out the following statement after his tweets resurfaced:

Six years ago I found “humor” in bad jokes. At the time it was a harmless joke between friends. In those 6 years I’ve become a father, husband & grown into a much different man. I have offended and hurt many with my past and for that I am deeply sorry & apologize for my actions.

Below is Dillinger’s apology for his own joke that was made in poor taste:

I have no excuse for my old tweets. I was a different person six years ago, and I’m beyond ashamed at what I considered “humor”. I’m so damn embarrassed and I’m truly sorry to anyone I’ve offended.

The WWE has not commented on either individual. The jokes were very tasteless and obviously, the subject of rape should never be joked about or to be made light of. The tweets were made years ago, and I feel the apologies for the jokes should be enough. That said, you cannot predict how the WWE will react to a story like this when the empowerment of women is such a major part of the promotion’s present image. This should also be a lesson for aspiring performers of properly using online media and understanding that what you send out to the world could have detrimental effects on your career years down the road.

**The WWE has announced three more names for this month’s Mae Young Classic tournament:
*Hiroyo Matsumoto – Matsumoto is 32 years old and has been wrestling since 2006. She began gaining notoriety with her work in Ice Ribbon, Oz Academy, Sendai Girls, and later Stardom. While in Oz Academy, she formed teams with Aja Kong and Tomoka Nakagawa, she also won the promotion’s Openweight championship in November 2016 and held it for almost one year.
*Aerial Monroe – She began wrestling in November 2015 and appeared on Raw two months later for a squash match against Nia Jax. She has wrestled for SHINE and SHIMMER over the past year, and also wrestled on an MLW card this past April, losing to Santana Garrett.
*Vanessa Kraven – Kraven is 36 years old and a native of Montreal, Quebec. She traveled to Toronto to train under Ron Hutchison at the same gym where Edge, Christian, and Trish Stratus were trained. Of the women in the tournament, she is among the most experienced having been a staple of the Canadian independent scene since debuting in 2004, has toured Japan and began with SHIMMER in 2014. While in SHIMMER, she won the promotion’s tag titles along with Tessa Blanchard in November 2016 and held the titles for one year.

**Charlotte Flair returned on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown from Miami, Florida and has been added to the women’s title match at SummerSlam. I liked the story a lot on the show, which began with a tremendous babyface interview with Becky Lynch, describing her climb back to the championship picture and not having a title shot since WrestleMania 33 in 2017. They have something special in Becky Lynch, who could be the breakout babyface female star that they had with Bayley in NXT but has been lost on the main roster. The interview featured an interruption by Carmella and later an attack, which prompted Charlotte’s return to save Becky and in turn was placed in a match with Carmella, which gave you entry into the title match. Instead of hitting you over the head, it was implied that Becky has finally received her title shot and her best friend has swooped in to create a major obstacle for her. What I was liked the most, was Becky’s description of how long it took her to get a title shot since April 2017, and then her best friend shows up and gets a title shot after one match with Carmella. I liked the idea of a straight singles match for SummerSlam, but the storytelling was very good involving Charlotte and the closing shot of Becky watching the monitor as her disappointment turned to anger over Charlotte. That said, I feel if turning Becky is the option, it’s a bad move as she has a unique charisma as a babyface that totally connects with the audience and should be a babyface if she ends up feuding with Charlotte.

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**There were a lot of eliminations from the B Block after Wednesday’s G1 card. Kenny Omega remains unbeaten in the tournament after pinning Zack Sabre Jr. and moving up to 12 points and a 6-0 record. Omega, Tetsuya Naito, and Kota Ibushi are the only ones alive in the B Block. Zack Sabre Jr., Tomohiro Ishii, Sanada and Hirooki Goto were eliminated after today’s show and join Tama Tonga, Toru Yano and Juice Robinson in those that are out. The big matches for the B Block this weekend are Saturday in Osaka with Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito and Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii.

For Ibushi to be alive going into the final B Block night against Omega, Ibushi needs at least two more wins and Omega needs to lose at least one match. It would seem likely that Ibushi beats Naito on Saturday, and I would have Ishii beat Omega to set a title match for King of Pro Wrestling. Omega should only lose to Ishii before the Ibushi match, as I wouldn’t waste a loss of his on Toru Yano, which doesn’t hurt Omega but doesn’t create a match you can headline with. If Naito beats Ibushi, Ibushi would have to win his remaining two matches and you could have a scenario where Naito & Omega have 12 points on the final night, Ibushi has 10, but if he beats Omega he would win the tiebreaker with wins over Naito and Omega and they all finish with 12 points. That latter scenario would also require Omega to lose to Ishii and Yano before the Ibushi match.

On the A Block side, only Togi Makabe, Hangman Page, and Yoshi-Hashi have been eliminated. Michael Elgin is technically alive but only by a thread and will likely be eliminated next. The top mix is wide open with Hiroshi Tanahashi on top with 10, and then a big logjam with EVIL, Kazuchika Okada, Minoru Suzuki, and Jay White with eight points each. Here are the matches for Thursday’s A Block card in Fukuoka:
*Kazuchika Okada (4-2) vs. Minoru Suzuki (4-2)
*Hiroshi Tanahashi (5-1) vs. EVIL (4-2)
*Jay White (4-2) vs. Yoshi-Hashi (1-5)
*Hangman Page (2-4) vs. Togi Makabe (2-4)
*Michael Elgin (2-4) vs. Bad Luck Fale (3-3)
*Tetsuya Naito & Sanada vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro
*Kenny Omega & Chase Owens vs. Tomohiro Ishii & SHO
*Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay
*Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Guerrillas of Destiny
*Toru Yano & Gedo vs. Toa Henare & Ren Narita

**The Knox County General Election in Tennessee is on Thursday where the vacant mayoral seat will be decided between Republican candidate Glenn Jacobs and his Democratic opponent, Linda Haney. Jacobs secured the Republican nomination after winning the primary this past May.

**Ring of Honor has announced a big 10-man tag for the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view on Friday, September 28^th in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena. The match will feature CHAOS members Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Trent Berretta, & Chuckie T. taking on Cody, Marty Scurll, Hangman Page & The Young Bucks. ROH has also announced that Jushin Thunder Liger will be on the Death Before Dishonor card.

The announcements were made with tickets going on sale this week for the event. The September pay-per-view coincides with New Japan’s return to Long Beach on Sunday, September 30^th two days after the Ring of Honor pay-per-view.

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**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s edition of NXT at 8 pm Eastern:
*EC3 vs. Kona Reeves
*Shayna Baszler vs. Candice LeRae
*The Mighty vs. Heavy Machinery
*Tyler Bate & Trent Seven. State Line

**The New Day will take on Sheamus & Cesaro next Tuesday in the final of the SmackDown tag tournament with the winning team challenging The Bludgeon Brothers for the tag titles at SummerSlam.

**NXT has announced upcoming live events for September 6^th in Buffalo, September 7^th in Pittsburgh, September 8^th in Warren, Ohio, and September 9^th in Detroit. Tickets for all four go on sale this Friday at 10 am Eastern.

**Below is Ronda Rousey’s appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night:

**The WWE has put together a video on the passing of Nikolai Volkoff (Josip Peruzović):

MMA NEWS

**Tuesday night’s episode of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series was the second-to-last episode this season and below are the results:
*Juan Adams def. Shawn Teed by TKO at 4:17 of Round 1 –Adams is a huge heavyweight that weighed in at 266 pounds. He is very green but has a ton of size and could mature into a quality heavyweight. He landed a flurry of punches on Teed right away, eventually, Adams got him down and mounted the back and finished him with ground and pound. Adams has only had four professional fights, so you could argue he should gain experience elsewhere, but he showed lots of potential.
*Jordan Griffin def. Maurice Mitchell by rear-naked choke at 3:57 of Round 1 –Both landed good shots early on as they were measuring the other. Griffin escaped a choke by kicking off the fence and then stunned Mitchell with a left hook, took his back and got the choke. Dana White wasn’t going to offer him a contract, but when he saw the highlights in the boardroom as he was deciding, he made the decision on the spot with interviewer Laura Sanko that he was offering him a contract too, and surprised matchmaker Sean Shelby.
*Ian Heinisch def. Justin Sumter by KO at 3:37 of Round 1 –Heinisch looked great and came off the best of the fighters on this card. Heinisch revered off his back to get into Sumter’s guard and landed strikes from that position and knocked him out with a series of big elbows. He said he wants to fight all the middleweights the UFC has signed from this show.
*Dontale Mayes def. Michael Sipe by TKO at 4:49 of Round 2 –Neither looked ready for the UFC and Mayes was the only winner not awarded a contract. Mayes tired as the fight wore on. The first round was marred by numerous clashing of heads when they would engage. Mayes was cut over the left eye and later opened up a massive cut over the left eye of Sipe. Sipe was hit with a left uppercut in the second, Mayes followed with hammer fists and stopped him with ground and pound.
*Roosevelt Roberts def. Garrett Gross by rear-naked choke at 2:13 of Round 2 –Roberts dominated this fight with top control with constant attempts at submissions. In the second round, he secured a takedown and worked on top, getting to mount and then landing big strikes on top before snatching the back for a rear-naked choke submission victory.

The contracts were awarded to Roosevelt Roberts, Ian Heinisch, Jordan Griffin, and Juan Adams.

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**Dave Meltzer at MMA Fighting has an extensive breakdown of this past Saturday’s viewership for the UFC card on Fox from Calgary. The card did the lowest rating in the history of the UFC on FOX cards with a 1.04 rating and viewership of 1,678,000 viewers. The card was headlined by a huge rematch between Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez, which was a great fight and averaged 2,338,000 viewers for the main event. The card also featured former champions Jose Aldo and Joanna Jedrzejczyk fighting on Fox for the first time. The preliminary card on Fox from 6-8 pm Eastern averaged 939,000 viewers and was headlined by Jordan Mein fighting Alex Morono. The final UFC on FOX card takes place on Saturday, December 15^th, right before the UFC’s deal on Fox expires at the conclusion of 2018.

**The UFC 227 card has lost a fight with the removal of Bethe Correia and Irena Aldana, who were scheduled to fight on the televised prelims. Correia has released a statement and indicated it was an issue regarding eye surgery she had in October 2017. Correia stated it was the California State Athletic Commission that made the call, however, CSAC executive officer Andy Foster has denied this to MMA Fighting and stated it was the UFC’s call to remove her, which the UFC has since confirmed.

**The PFL returns Thursday night with a card from Uniondale, New York at the Nassau Coliseum with the main card airing on NBC SN and the prelims on Facebook Live. Below is the card for Thursday’s show:

MAIN CARD (9 pm Eastern on NBC SN)
*Jason High vs. Natan Schulte
*Brandon Halsey vs. Vinny Magalhaes
*Will Brooks vs. Robert Watley
*Rakim Cleveland vs. Maxim Grishin
*Rashid Magomedov vs. Luiz Firmino

PRELIMINARY CARD (7 pm on Facebook Live)
*Yuki Kawana vs. Chris Wade
*Dan Spohn vs. Artur Alibulatov
*Thiago Tavares vs. Arthur Estrazulas

**UFC welterweight Kamaru Usman appeared on “The Ariel Helwani MMA Show” on ESPN this past Monday and stated that a bout agreement has been offered for Usman to fight Colby Covington on November 30^th on the TUF Finale. Usman stated in the interview that he has signed the agreement and are awaiting Covington’s acceptance of the fight. Covington was targeted to fight Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title on September 8^th, but Covington was unable to take the fight so close after nasal surgery. Woodley will now be fighting Darren Till on that date and has left Covington without a fight.

**It was first reported by ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison will have her second pro fight with the PFL on Thursday, August 16^th. Harrison will be fighting Jozette Cotton, who is 8-1 at the PFL’s card in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Harrison made her pro debut in June, submitting Brittney Elkin in the first round.

**Here is Episode 2 of this week’s UFC Embedded series ahead of UFC 227 in Los Angeles:

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*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 7/31/18: Charlotte added to SummerSlam title match, Daniel Bryan challenges The Miz
John Pollock & Wai Ting review a strong edition of SmackDown from Tampa with the return of Charlotte, a great Samoa Joe promo, the build for SummerSlam continues and John & Wai go through the major news stories from the day.
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/hgy832/REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN-JULY-31-2018.mp3
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 7/31/18: Total Bellas Season Finale, Impact Wrestling & Being the Elite Ep. 113
It’s more from John & Wai with our weekly Patreon bonus with added reviews of the season finale of Total Bellas, the Impact episode following Slammiversary, the latest Being the Elite with a six-man dream match added to ‘All In’
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20429617
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/30/18: Brock Lesnar hates WWE, Rousey’s first Raw match announced, Bobby Lashley sings
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Miami, the quest to have Roman Reigns cheered is achieved, Lesnar & Heyman split, Rousey’s first match on TV set for next week, Lashley sings & Wai’s nephew reviews Balor vs. Corbin
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/pemmfq/REWIND-A-RAW-JULY-30-2018.mp3
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE – World of Sport Ep. 1 review
Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno present a special edition of the show, reviewing the premiere episode of World of Sport on ITV, what worked and what didn’t work, as their ten-week run on ITV kicks off.
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/rmp6nr/BWE_WOS_Special_Final.mp3
*****
EGGSHELL PODCAST COMPANION – 1994
Chris Charlton welcomes wrestling historian Pat Laprade, as well as Dann & Emily Read of Pro Wrestling EVE to discuss the Tokyo Dome events of 1994, including the Big Egg Universe card from November ’94.
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/zzisjw/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1994_w__Pat_Laprade_Pro_Wrestling_EVE.mp3
*****
ASK-A-WAI (July 2018)
John Pollock & Wai Ting spend over two hours answering your questions with Likely / Unlikely scenarios, Impact promoting their GWN app and running on Twitch, future stars in WWE, New Japan talent that could work in WWE one day, the memorably G1 event from 2013 & tons more.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20354619
*****

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POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE – Cedric Alexander and Tye Dillinger apologize for old tweets

A series of old tweets from Cedric Alexander & Tye Dillinger have surfaced with both issuing apologies, three more names have been added to the Mae Young Classic, B Block scenarios for the G1 Climax, 10-man at ROH's September PPV, UFC 227 loses a fight, DWTNCS report & more.