POST IT NOTES
**We have a new POST Movie Review up for members of the POST Wrestling Café as Wai Ting and I go back to our MCU reviews. This month, we go to the first Marvel film with “Ironman”, the 2008 film starring Robert Downey Jr. that began Marvel’s incredible run of films over the past decade. The two of us look back at the various characters in the film, the underlying themes and how they related to the culture at the time, the strength of the casting and numerous notes from the long and winding road for Ironman to make it onto the big screen. The review can be accessed on the POST Wrestling Café for all members of the 1 Milk, 1 Sugar ($6) level and above.
**We also have a new POST Production video, which Wai & I shoot weekly, and this week features a quick tutorial of the famous BASEBALL MOGUL I have spoken about throughout the summer. Our video content is available on the Café for “Double Double ($12) and above members and drops each week.
**This Sunday on the site, it is the return of The POST Interview as I will be chatting with Guy Evans, the author of “NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW”. We will be discussing the huge undertaking of this book that Guy spent over three years on, the major interviews he conducted with numerous Turner executives at the time, the demise of the company, the corporate structure’s effect on WCW, the plummet in 1999 & 2000 and lots more.
**On Saturday, we will have a new edition of the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion with host Chris Charlton going through the history of wrestling at the Tokyo Dome with a new year covered each week. On this week’s show, the year is 1998 and Chris is joined by Kim Justice to discuss the major wrestling events from that year with the retirements of Antonio Inoki and Riki Choshu, as well as All Japan’s return to the Tokyo Dome.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE has announced a rematch between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe for the WWE title at the Hell in a Cell event on Sunday, September 16th in San Antonio, Texas. The match was not announced as a Hell in a Cell match and is the second match on the card, joining Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse, which was announced this past Tuesday.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed card is taking place Sunday, September 30th at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach but will not be airing on AXS TV until Friday, October 5th. AXS TV sent out a press release announcing the premiere date and stating that Kevin Kelly will be filling in for Josh Barnett to call the show alongside Jim Ross. Barnett has a conflict and will be going to Japan for the Rizin card with one of his fighters at the Saitama Super Arena.
**Thursday night’s episode of Impact Wrestling averaged 212,000 viewers on POP TV. The last three episodes of Impact have been the three lowest of 2018 as they have gone against the NFL pre-season.
**The major card of the weekend is AAA’s TripleMania event from Arena Ciudad on Saturday night and streaming live on Twitch. The pre-show matches begin at 8 pm Eastern and the main show is at 9 pm with the following card:
*LA Park vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Psycho Clown in a four-way mask match inside of a steel cage, the last two in the cage will have a match and the loser is unmasked
*Lady Shani vs. Faby Apache in a Mask vs. Hair match
*Jeff Jarrett vs. Brian Cage vs. Rich Swann vs. Fenix for the AAA Mega Heavyweight title
*La Mascara, Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion vs. Joe Lider, Pagano & Murder Clown in a Street Fight
*Averno, Chessman & Super Fly vs. Teddy Hart, Juventud Guerrera & Jack Evans in a Lumberjack Match
*Maximo, Mamba & Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana vs. El Hijo de LA Park, Taurus & Puma King
*Drago & Aerostar vs. El Bandido & Flamita vs. Andrew Everett & DJ Z vs. Laredo Kid & Golden Magic in a Ladder Match
*Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa vs. El Hijo del Vikingo & Vanilla Vargas vs. Dinastia & Lady Maravilla vs. Angelikal & La Hiedra for the AAA mixed tag titles
*Australian Suicide defends the AAA Cruiserweight title
*La Llave a la Gloria match
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**Michael Luisi, who served as the president of WWE Studios is out of the company, with Deadline reporting that he was on the losing end of a clash with another executive. Luisi, who spent 12 years working at Miramax Film, came to the WWE in 2011 and was based out of Santa Monica, California where the WWE Studios is headquartered. Last November, the division had announced a wider scope of productions with the announcement they would expand to include television and digital content and seeking partners to work with. The Deadline report suggests that Luisi and WWE co-president Michelle Wilson had a showdown that led to Luisi’s dismissal from the company. Deadline added that it appears Wilson and Timothy Schmidt will be overseeing the division in the interim.
**Cody and The Young Bucks were guests on “Talk is Jericho” with an interview that was recorded back in June after the Dominion card in Osaka. They spoke about the short list of locations for “All In” before selecting the Sears Centre with the other options being Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, California and the Cow Palace in San Francisco (which it turned out was booked for July 7th by New Japan Pro Wrestling). Jericho shared a story that he spoke with Vince McMahon about “All In”, who thought it was a terrible weekend to book a show because of Labor Day, which you can add to the list of historical trends this show has bucked. This was recorded back in June, and it becomes clear at the end of the interview that Jericho has switched his stance when it comes to taking non-WWE dates in the United States. For a long time, Jericho didn’t appear to want to work directly against the WWE in the U.S. and was his rationale for working with New Japan, but not in the U.S. Today, Jericho clearly sees the thriving scene and he is a figure that will be in high demand and will only increase if some of the key figures end up signing with WWE. Jericho’s role over WrestleMania weekend next year will be very interesting as you would assume both sides will be attempting to book him and he’s in a unique spot of his career.
**The WWE SmackDown crew begins their tour on Saturday night in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are advertising AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz, and Asuka vs. Carmella. The continue Sunday in Saint John, New Brunswick while the Raw crew begins Sunday in Rochester, New York with Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman advertised. The Raw, SmackDown & 205 Live tapings take place from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday.
**Here are the matches taking place on tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion at 8 pm Eastern and replaying at 11 pm on beIN Sports:
*The Dirty Blondes vs. Fred Yehi & Simon Gotch
*Ricky Martinez in action
*Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. ACH & Rich Swann for the MLW tag titles
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**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of NJPW on AXS TV at 8 pm Eastern with their continued coverage of the G1 Climax:
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. EVIL
**Ring of Honor is holding television tapings on Saturday at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and have announced the following lineup:
*The Young Bucks & Cody vs. Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas for the ROH six-man tag titles
*Marty Scurll vs. Shane Helms
*Kenny King vs. Hangman Page
*Coast to Coast vs. TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia
*Chuckie T. & Trent Baretta vs. The Boys
*Will Ferrara vs. Cheeseburger in a Fight Without Honor
*Punishment Martinez vs. Aaron Solow for the ROH Television title
*Sumie Sakai vs. Tasha Steelz in a Proving Ground Match
Saturday’s card is ROH’s final event before their next pay-per-view on Friday, September 28th from Las Vegas.
**Destiny Wrestling is holding a card Saturday night from the Don Kolov Arena in Mississauga, Ontario at 4880 Tomken Road. The show will feature a steel cage match between Sami Callihan and Josh Alexander with matches being taped for an upcoming “One Night Only” event for Impact Wrestling. They are advertising Michael Elgin, Petey Williams, oVe, and Tessa Blanchard for the show.
**Smash Wrestling is running their Super Showdown event from The Phoenix Concert Theatre at 410 Sherbourne Avenue in downtown Toronto with the following card at 5 pm:
*Jeff Cobb vs. PCO vs. Brody King
*Joey Janela vs. Tyson Dux
*Tessa Blanchard vs. Vanessa Kraven
*The Well Oiled Machines vs. The SSB in a Tables, Ladders & Boxes Match for the Smash tag titles
*Kevin Blackwood vs. Scotty O’Shea
*Sebastian Suave vs. Tarik
*Daniel Garcia vs. Kevin Bennett vs. John Greed vs. Brent Banks
**Lucha T.O. is also running a card Sunday at 5 pm in Toronto at Lee’s Palace at 529 Bloor Street West featuring Shane Strickland on the card.
**The UK based Revolution Pro Wrestling has announced they will be holding a television taping on Wednesday, September 5th at York Hall. They have announced KUSHIDA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Chris Brookes this far for the taping, which is being promoted as an “International Wrestling TV Taping” but have not announced the outlet.
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**MLW has announced singles matches with Teddy Hart vs. Rich Swann and Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Vandal Ortagun for their War Games card on September 6th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
**Chase Owens has been added to the Ring of Honor television tapings from Las Vegas on Saturday, September 29th.
**Robin Leach, who was most well-known from his role as the host of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, died late Thursday night at the age of 76. Leach was one of the featured guests at WrestleMania 4 in 1988 where he presented the WWF championship title to the winner of the night’s 14-man tournament that was won by Randy Savage.
**Vince McMahon turns 73 years old today and Gran Metalik turns 30.
TELEVISION REVIEWS
Impact Wrestling (Aug. 23rd)
-So, the most talked about aspect of the show is going to be the angle shot involving LAX and OGz. In a pre-taped segment, LAX was shown in the streets of Toronto celebrating their street fight victory over the OGz that aired last week. Among those celebrating with the group was a young child that appeared to be around 12 years old and was handed the tag titles to place onto his shoulders. Throughout the segment, we get cutaways to the OGz inside of a car that is quickly approaching the area. The car speeds up as it approaches and runs through them with the guys getting out of the way and the car speeding off. They look down and the child is on the ground motionless and the scene ends with the implication that the child was struck by the car and could be dead. Then, Josh Mathews and Don Callis react to this as though they have just witnessed an attempted murder and continue with the show by setting up the DEATH MATCH coming up next. I was really turned off by the segment and specifically the idea that a child was killed, or it’s revealed he survived the attack. Impact is going for a direction designed to appeal to an adult audience and this is clearly an attempt to shock and create buzz over the angle. When pro wrestling delves into the idea of murder as a storyline, it typically fails because it’s beyond the realm of possibility on a show where it’s still grounded. The comparison of a wrestling show to “Sons of Anarchy” or any other high-end drama ignores the history that pro wrestling occupies a pocket of entertainment that borrows from drama and live sports. There is no credit roll, the attempt to blur the line between reality and fiction is always inherent in pro wrestling and that only allows so much creative license for the audience member to allow. Lucha Underground created a world for itself to go with fantastical storylines that introduced death, alternate universes, reptile beheadings and the result was an extremely niche audience that followed the product and it grew tiresome where the buzz level today is minuscule compared to the first season. The segment can be viewed below and I’m curious to hear people’s feedback in the comments section below.
MMA NEWS
**All the fighters made weight today in Lincoln, Nebraska for the UFC’s Fight Night event Saturday. Below is the card with record and weigh-in results in brackets:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on FS 1, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Justin Gaethje (18-2, 156) vs. James Vick (13-1, 156)
*Michael Johnson (17-13, 146) vs. Andre Fili (18-5, 146)
*Cortney Casey (7-6, 115.5) vs. Angela Hill (8-4, 115.5)
*Jake Ellenberger (31-14) vs. Bryan Barberena (13-5, 170)
*John Moraga (19-6, 125.5) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (14-0, 125)
*Eryk Anders (10-1, 185.5) vs. Tim Williams (15-4, 185)
PRELIMINARY FIGHTS (8 pm on FS 2, Fight Network in Canada)
*James Krause (25-7, 170.5) vs. Warlley Alves (12-2, 171)
*Iuri Alcantara (36-9, 136) vs. Cory Sandhagen (8-1, 135)
*Markus Perez (10-1, 186) vs. Andrew Sanchez (9-4, 185)
*Mickey Gall (4-1, 169) vs. George Sullivan (17-6, 170.5)
FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Joanne Calderwood (11-3, 125.5) vs. Kalindra Faria (18-7-1, 125)
*Drew Dober (19-8, 156) vs. Jon Tuck (10-4, 155.5)
*Rani Yahya (25-9, 136) vs. Luke Sanders (12-2, 135.5)
**It was reported by MMA Brasil on Thursday that featherweight Yair Rodriguez has been forced to withdraw from his fight -against Zabit Magomedsharipov at UFC 228 on September 8th. The two were scheduled for the pay-per-view main card and no replacement has been announced yet for Rodriguez.
**Earlier this year, the UFC announced that as part of their 25th anniversary, they would be rolling out 25 mini-documentaries on the history of the promotion. They have enlisted various producers to tackle the documentaries, which will begin to be released on September 17th. UFC president Dana White recently mentioned visiting President Donald Trump at the White House and Trump was interviewed for a future documentary. Below are the documentaries they have announced for September and the release dates on Fight Pass:
*Monday, September 17th – “OCTO: The Disputed Origin Story of the Octagon”
*Wednesday, September 19th – “The Lion’s Den: The Story of the First Mixed Martial Arts Team”
*Friday, September 21st – “Ultimate Accessory: The Story of the UFC Championship Belt”
*Monday, September 24th – “Blackout: The Story of the Political Crusade to Keep UFC Off TV”
*Wednesday, September 26th – “Judgment Day: The Story of the UFC Getting Run Out of Town”
*Friday, September 28th – “The Ice Age: The Story of Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell, UFC’s Breakthrough Star”
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**The UFC is gearing up for their biggest card of 2018 with UFC 229 scheduled for Saturday, October 6th at the T-Mobile Arena featuring the return of Conor McGregor to the UFC for his first MMA bout since 2016. In addition to the lightweight championship fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and McGregor, the UFC has announced the following fights on the card:
*Derrick Lewis vs. Alexander Volkov
*Sergio Pettis vs. Jussier Formiga
*Michelle Waterson vs. Felice Herrig
*Ovince Saint Preux vs. Dominick Reyes
*Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez
*Lina Lansberg vs. Yana Kunitskaya
*Ryan LaFlare vs. Tony Martin
*Nik Lentz vs. Gray Maynard
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW – “Ironman” (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting return with their Marvel Cinematic Universe reviews and are going back to the original Marvel film from 2008 with a review of “Ironman” starring Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and directed by Jon Favreau. We will be doing a movie review once per month for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20949856
*****
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 31st 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
*****
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