POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE – Television viewership for Raw, SD Live, Miz & Mrs and Lucha Underground

POST IT NOTES

**Braden Herrington & Davie Portman have a new upNXT posted on the site with a review of Davie’s trip to Brooklyn for TakeOver, SummerSlam & Raw. Plus, the two go through this week’s episode featuring Pete Dunne vs. Zack Gibson and Bianca Belair vs. Deonna Purrazzo as well as taking your feedback. Subscribe to the upNXT RSS feed.

**For “Double Double” & above members of the POST Wrestling Cafe, we have a new POST Production video where I provide an instructional for Baseball Mogul.

**The latest edition of the British Wrestling Experience is up on the site with Martin Bushby & Benno covering all the latest news in the British wrestling scene. The two go over this past weekend’s Revolution Pro Summer Sizzler card that was headlined by Walter vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Rev Pro eyeing a possible broadcast outlet, and other notes on the promotion. Martin also had a chance to speak with UK writer and historian John Lister on the passing of Doc Dean as Lister was one of the last people to interview Dean. The show can be heard at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/08/22/bwe-8-22-18-revolution-pro-summer-sizzler-world-of-sport-doc-dean-nxt-uk/ and by subscribing to the British Wrestling Experience RSS feed.

**Wai Ting and I will continue our Marvel Cinematic Universe reviews on Friday at the POST Wrestling Café. We are starting at the beginning from this point on, by reviewing the 2008 film “Ironman” starring Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow. That full review will be up Friday for members of the Café.

**This Saturday, Chris Charlton returns with the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion to chat the 1998 cards from the Tokyo Dome with Kim Justice.

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WRESTLING NEWS

**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 8 pm Eastern on POP TV and Fight Network in Canada:
*Sami Callihan vs. Pentagon Jr. in a Mexican Death Match
*Alisha Edwards vs. Kiera Hogan
*Desi Hit Squad vs. KM & Fallah Bahh
*Matt Sydal vs. Zachary Wentz

**NXT is holding their television tapings tonight at Full Sail University coming off this past weekend’s TakeOver event. There will be a non-title match with Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong taking on Ricochet & Pete Dunne tonight, which will air on next week’s episode of NXT.

**Lucha Underground did their lowest number of the season this week with an average of 94,000 viewers on the El Rey Network. It was a drop from last week’s viewership of 97,000.

**Both Raw and SmackDown posted their highest viewership since April for their shows coming off SummerSlam. Raw averaged 3,090,000 viewers on Monday, equaling the mark set on April 23^rd one week after the Superstar Shakeup. SmackDown averaged 2,437,000 viewers on Tuesday and was their highest number since April 24^th. The fifth episode of Miz & Mrs was up 6% with 1,235,000 viewers following SmackDown. It’s the first episode that was up from the prior week’s episode, so that was a good sign. The first season wraps up next week and has been renewed for a second season with an order of 14 episodes.

**CMLL held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the full card for their 85^th Anniversary card on Friday, September 14^th at Arena Mexico. Back in May, LA Park returned to CMLL and he issued a challenge to Rush for a Hair vs. Mask match and it was expected the two would headline this card and would be among the biggest matches this year for the atmosphere and stakes. However, the match is not happening to lead to some disappointment from those that were expecting such a big main event. Below is what has been announced by the company:
*Volador Jr. & Matt Taven vs. Rush & Barbaro Cavernario in a Hair vs. Hair tag match
*LA Park, El Hijo de LA Park & Caristico vs. Penta El Zero M, King Phoenix & Diamante Azul – it’s worth noting that Pentagon & Fenix will be on this card on the same night that Impact is taping television in Mexico City
*Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero & Euphoria vs. Ciber the Main Man, Scharly Rockstar & The Chris
*Atlantis, Mistico & Soberano, Jr. vs. Cuatero, Forastero & Sanson
*Felino, Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla vs. Angel de Oro, Audaz & Niebla Roja
*La Jarochita, Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs. Dalys, La Maligna & Reyna Isis

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**Christopher Ashford-Smith who wrestled under several aliases during his career, died at the age of 57 on Wednesday. His career began in Florida Championship Wrestling where he wrestled as Chris Champion, teaming with Sean Royal as The New Breed. It was a unique concept where the tandem came back from the future and claimed to be from the year 2002 (remember that this was right after the “Back to the Future” film had come out) and had their hair and outfits designed to be from the future. Champion and Royal caught the eye of Dusty Rhodes, who was booking Jim Crockett Promotions during this era and he brought the team in. Following a year with the promotion, Champion would head to Continental and teamed with his younger brother, Mark Starr, as Wild Side. The two became the tag champions of the territory in July 1989 and kept them until September when they dropped them to the Rock ‘n Roll Express. His last national run came in 1993 when he returned to World Championship Wrestling under the moniker of Yoshi Kwan. He was managed by Harley Race and wore face paint, engaging in a feud with Mick Foley with his most notable match being a singles match loss to Foley at Fall Brawl that year. After a stroke in 2002, he still wrestled occasionally on independent shows.

**The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has stated that it will be several weeks before a final report is released into the investigation over the death of Brian Lawler. Jerry Lawler has been speaking publicly about the investigation and stories that have been relayed from inmates in the prison. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported this week that an inmate had been using Brian’s social security number to make outgoing calls with an affidavit filed last week accusing the inmate of identity theft. This included a call made on Saturday, July 28^th (the day before Brian died) to Brian’s mother to alert her that her son had suffered a concussion during a fight inside the jail and to let Jerry know. Jerry’s lawyer, Ted Hansom, in unaware who filed the affidavit as this case continues to bring up many questions with few answers while the TBI continues to investigate.

**The WWE has acknowledged the injury sustained by Erick Rowan from this past week, noting that he suffered a torn right biceps and is undergoing surgery this week. The injury occurred during the match against the New Day this past Sunday at SummerSlam with the match ending in a disqualification. Rowan and Harper dropped the titles to the New Day at Tuesday’s SmackDown taping in Brooklyn and had held the titles since WrestleMania in April.

**MLW has announced that Taya Valkyrie has been added to their September 6^th card in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Valkyrie will team with Joey Ryan against MJF and Aria Blake.

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**WWN has announced the cards for their next weekend of EVOLVE shows on September 7^th in Joppa, Maryland and September 8^th in Queens, New York. Below are the cards for each night:
*EVOLVE 112: Joey Janela vs. Austin Theory for the WWN title, Chris Dickinson vs. AR Fox, Josh Briggs vs. Jon Davis, Jaka vs. Trey Miguel
*EVOLVE 113: Shane Strickland vs. Tracy Williams for the EVOLVE title, Chris Dickinson & Jaka vs. The Skulk for the tag titles, AR Fox vs. Austin Theory, Joey Janela vs. Trey Miguel in a non-title match, Darby Allin vs. Josh Briggs

**The NWA and Global Force Entertainment have announced a card at the Nashville Fairgrounds on Sunday, October 21^st, to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the NWA. They have announced that the NWA title will be defended on the show and will be carried on FITE TV. The NWA title will be defended by Nick Aldis against Cody at “All In” on September 1^st at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

**The WWE stock closed at $80.64 on Thursday.

TELEVISION REVIEWS

Ring of Honor (Aug. 19^th)
–RESULTS: Chris Sabin over Scorpio Sky, Karen Q over Jenny Rose, Eli Isom and FR Josie went to a no contest, Marty Scurll over Kenny King
-I thought the best part of the episode was Alex Shelley’s in-ring promo standing next to Chris Sabin. Shelley gave a heartfelt message about stepping away from pro wrestling (but clarifying that it wasn’t a retirement but left it unknown if he would ever return). His message was for Sabin to continue and validate his own career but achieving success as a singles wrestler. This led to Punishment Martinez attacking them, as Sabin is set to challenge for the television title next. Later in the show, Shelley was shown laid out in the back and appeared to be his write off. I enjoyed Shelley’s promo a lot.
-Jeff Cobb debuted on this episode by interrupting a match between Eli Isom and FR Josie and received a big reaction. Cobb looked very good in the limited time he was shown but he’s a great addition to the roster and should thrive here.

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205 Live (Aug. 21^st)
-RESULTS: Noam Dar over TJP, Akira Tozawa, and Colin Delaney never started, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik over Tony Nese & Buddy Murphy
-The tornado tag match with Gran Metalik & Lince Dorada vs. Buddy Murphy & Tony Nese was excellent and one of the best WWE television matches in a long time. It wasn’t just the effort from the four guys, but the Brooklyn crowd was into it as well and was a rare 205 Live match where the audience wasn’t a detriment. There were so great spots mixed throughout, the highlight being a top rope walk by Metalik into a huracanrana to Tony Nese seated on the top and landed onto Murphy on the floor. All four worked super-hard and it was better than matches from Raw or SmackDown this week, it would have been one of the best matches at SummerSlam if it had aired on the kickoff show.
-Wale did commentary for the opening match between TJP and Noam Dar. The joke was he didn’t know TJP’s name and kept messing it up. Wale follows the product, so he brought up Dar leaving Alicia Fox and improving. TJP dabbed in front of Wale, who said that no one does that anymore. At first, it seemed like awkward with the four-man booth, but Wale seemed to have a great doing it and would have won everyone over by the end.
-Akira Tozawa was scheduled to face Colin Delaney but they were attacked by Drew Gulak, Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher. Gulak demanded a rematch with Cedric Alexander earlier in the show and was denied by Drake Maverick. Gulak interrupted and called Alexander a coward so it appears they will work up to a rematch.

MMA NEWS

**ESPN reported on Thursday that lightweight Michael Chandler has signed a new contract with Bellator MMA, the promotion he has fought for since 2010. Chandler fought for the Strikeforce organization prior to its sale to Zuffa and came to Bellator in September 2010. In 2011, he won the season’s lightweight tournament to earn a shot at champion Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 58 in what became Bellator’s biggest fight up to that point in its history and is most people’s choice for the best fight in the promotion’s history. Chandler submitted Alvarez to win the title and everyone clamored for the rematch, however, the tournament format required Alvarez to win one before he could get a rematch and showed the limitations of the tournament format. They eventually fought again in November 2013 with Alvarez winning by split decision and began a three-fight losing skid for Chandler, who lost a pair of fights to Will Brooks after the Alvarez loss. Since then, Chandler has gone 6-1, regaining the lightweight title and subsequently dropped it to Brent Primus when Chandler suffered a freak ankle injury during their June 2017 fight at Madison Square Garden. Chandler has fought twice in 2018 with victories over Goiti Yamauchi and Brandon Girtz and should have fought for the title by now, but Primus has not fought since the title win in 2017.

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**After several weeks off, the UFC returns this Saturday with a card from Lincoln, Nebraska with a strong main event between Justin Gaethje and James Vick. Gaethje has had three unbelievable fights since joining the UFC with a victory over Michael Johnson, and losses to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier. He has a style that the top fighters have appeared to have figured out, he can absorb incredible amounts of punishment and keep moving forward, which makes for entertaining fights but definite concern about the effects this style will have on the 29-year old down the road. Vick is one of the most underrated fighters in the promotion and has the chance with this main event to break through within the stacked lightweight division. Vick was a member of TUF Season 15, which was one of the deeper seasons of depth in recent memory. Vick lost to Michael Chiesa on the show but was signed by the UFC and has gone 9-1 since 2012. Vick has won his last four over Abel Trujillo, Polo Reyes, Joseph Duffy, and Francisco Trinaldo. Gaethje is the biggest name Vick has fought and it’s his first main event so it’s a chance to win a big fight and get into the top end of the division with this fight. Below is the lineup for Saturday’s show:

MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on FS 1, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Justin Gaethje (18-2) vs. James Vick (13-1)
*Michael Johnson (17-13) vs. Andre Fili (18-5)
*Cortney Casey (7-6) vs. Angela Hill (8-4)
*Jake Ellenberger (31-14) vs. Bryan Barberena (13-5)
*John Moraga (19-6) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (14-0)
*Eryk Anders (10-1) vs. Tim Williams (15-4)

PRELIMINARY FIGHTS (8 pm on FS 2, Fight Network in Canada)
*James Krause (25-7) vs. Warlley Alves (12-2)
*Iuri Alcantara (36-9) vs. Cory Sandhagen (8-1)
*Markus Perez (10-1) vs. Andrew Sanchez (9-4)
*Mickey Gall (4-1) vs. George Sullivan (17-6)

FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Joanne Calderwood (11-3) vs. Kalindra Faria (18-7-1)
*Drew Dober (19-8) vs. Jon Tuck (10-4)
*Rani Yahya (25-9) vs. Luke Sanders (12-2)

**The UFC has a main event for their Fight Night card on November 17^th in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Combate reports that Neil Magny has been pulled from his fight with Alex Oliveira that was scheduled for September 22^nd in Brazil to fight Santiago Ponzinibbio in Argentina in November. Ponzinibbio, a native of Argentina, has won his last six fights dating back to December 2015 and is coming off wins over Nordine Taleb, Gunnar Nelson, and Mike Perry in 2017. Magny has won his last two fights with a dominant performance against Carlos Condit last December and followed that win up by knocking out Craig White in May on the Fight Night card in Liverpool, England.

**UFC fighter Andrea Lee has released a statement regarding the ongoing legal issues with her husband, Donny Aaron. Louisiana police have issued a warrant for Aaron’s arrest on charges of domestic battery and false imprisonment, he has not been arrested yet. Andy Nguyen, a female MMA fighter that lived with the couple, has gone on the record and stated that Aaron tried to burn Lee’s arm with a cigarette and choked her during an altercation on August 5^th. Lee issued her statement and said:

“My family and I are handling the situation to the best of our ability, as this is a very sensitive issue and one that as a public figure I wish was not taking place in a public forum. I respectfully ask that everyone respects our privacy at this time as we work towards resolutions and closure. I look forward to returning to the Octagon and resuming my winning ways in the near future. Competing has always been a sanctuary for me and brings great joy to my life.”

**Veteran UFC lightweight Evan Dunham has announced that his upcoming fight against Francisco Trinaldo on September 22^nd in Sao Paulo, Brazil will be the last of his career. Dunham is 36 years old and has been with the UFC since February 2009. His UFC record of 11-7-1 featured a pair of four-fight win streaks and fought many of top lightweights of the past decade. His last victory was two years ago against Rick Glenn and since then fought to a majority draw with Beneil Dariush last October and is coming off a TKO loss to Olivier Aubin-Mercier this past April at UFC 223. He began his career in April 2007, fighting five times that year and joining the UFC after seven professional fights.

**MMA Brasil was the first to report that lightweights Gilbert Burns and Olivier Aubin-Mercier are scheduled to fight at UFC 231 on December 8^th in Toronto, Ontario. They were scheduled to fight this past February, but due to concerns with his weight cut, Burns was pulled from the bout by the UFC believing it was unsafe for him to cut the amount of weight necessary.

**ONE Championship held a press conference this week to announce the first 24 events on their calendar for 2019 with plans to runs a total of 30 next year. They will be running January 19^th in Jakarta, Indonesia; January 25^th in Manila, Philippines; February 16^th in Bangkok, Thailand; February 22^nd in Singapore; March 8^th in Yangon, Myanmar; March 31^st in Tokyo, Japan; April 5^th in Manila; May 4^th in Jakarta; May 11^th in Bangkok; May 17^th in Singapore; June 7^th in Beijing, China; June 15^th in Macau, China; June 28^th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; July 20^th in Guangzhou, China; August 2^nd in Manila; August 17^th in Bangkok; September 6^th in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; October 11^th in Tokyo; October 26^th in Jakarta; November 9^th in Shanghai, China; November 22^nd in Singapore; December 6^th in Kuala Lumpur; December 13^th in Manila, and December 20^th in Seoul, South Korea.

**Mark Bowden breaks down the body language of Ronda Rousey from her days as a fighter:

*****
upNXT 8/23/18: HangOver Brooklyn
Davie Portman returns from Brooklyn to share his live thoughts from TakeOver, SummerSlam & Raw with Braden Herrington and then review this week’s episode with Pete Dunne vs. Zack Gibson and Bianca Belair vs. Deonna Purrazzo.
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/hvc8sm/upNXT-August23.mp3
*****
BWE 8/22/18: Revolution Pro Summer Sizzler, Interview with John Lister on Doc Dean’s passing
Martin Bushby & Benno chat the latest news, including the Rev Pro Summer Sizzler card with Walter vs. Ishii, Martin speaks with historian & writer John Lister on the passing of Doc Dean, and the latest on the World of Sport show & the NXT UK tapings this weekend.
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/uy4ue8/BRITISH-WRESTLING-EXPERIENCE-Aug-22-2018.mp3
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 8/22/18: Joey Janela’s Lost in New York, Being the Elite & SCU Training
John Pollock & Wai Ting provide bonus reviews as Pollock watched the Game Changer Wrestling card from Friday feat. Matt Riddle vs. PCO & Janela vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, plus Wai reviews the latest Being the Elite episode and a new training video from SCU
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20910241
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 8/21/18: Becky explains, New Day win the tag titles
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown with the New Day winning the titles, Becky’s promo, plus they chat the major stories of the day with Villano III’s passing, Raw’s viewership, Erick Rowan’s injury, the TripleMania card & more.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/78r8t6/180821_RASD.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 8/20/18: Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor, Braun Strowman awaits, The Shield reunites
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Monday’s show from Brooklyn, the first Universal title match on Raw since January 2017, the reunion of The Shield, the fallout from SummerSlam, GLOW renewed by Netflix, New Japan’s lineups for September & your feedback.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/fe9dn8/180820_RAR.mp3
*****
WWE SUMMERSLAM 2018 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the 31^st annual SummerSlam event from Brooklyn with Roman Reigns and Ronda Rousey winning titles, Becky Lynch turns on Charlotte Flair, a tremendous WWE title match starring Annie Styles, Wai’s unexpected trip to Montreal, Pollock’s food recommendation of the year & more.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/r4yxer/180819_SUMMERSLAM_POST.mp3
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: BROOKLYN 4 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Braden Herrington are joined by Davie Portman, who attended the card live and they review the NXT TakeOver event from the Barclays Center with Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano, Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane, the debut of Matt Riddle & more.
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/3y8zuf/NXT-TakeOver-Brooklyn-POST-Show.mp3
*****
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 1997 w/ NATE MILTON
Chris Charlton chats the major Tokyo Dome cards from 1997 with Nate Milton, including the success of N.W.O. Japan, the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa feud, and Nate’s time living in Japan and early voiceover experiences.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/m7xa5c/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1997_w__Nate_Milton.mp3
*****

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