POST IT NOTES
**Today begins a big week for POST Wrestling as we will be heading to Chicago this Friday for “All In” weekend, which includes our live edition of ASK-A-WAI at Starrcast this Saturday morning at 10 am at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumberg, Illinois. Braden Herrington & Davie Portman of upNXT will be joining us for the trip so you can look forward to a lot of bonus content if you are a member of the POST Wrestling Café with the returns of LENS, as well as some cool ideas we have for the weekend. If you are not a member of the POST Wrestling Café, we will still have lots of content throughout the week, including a review of “All In” that will be posted late Saturday night after we attend the show at the Sears Centre.
**We have a new edition of The POST INTERVIEW on the site as I had the chance to speak with Guy Evans, who is the author of “NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW”. I recently reviewed the book on “The Double Shot” and this interview covered a lot of ground regarding the book, the 120+ interviews Guy conducted, the collapse of WCW in 1999 and 2000, the inner structure of the Turner empire, WCW’s accounting and so much more.
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**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-Raw for a full review of tonight’s show from Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena. We will also discuss news from the weekend and today at the start of the show along with feedback & questions.
**We have results posted from today’s PROGRESS Wrestling event with Will Ospreay vs. Jimmy Havoc, sent in by reader Matthew Smith.
SCHEDULE THIS WEEK AT POST WRESTLING
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: The Double Shot (Patreon)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai – NJPW in Long Beach from July 2nd, 2017 feat. Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Patreon, selected by Espresso Executive Producer Michael Darcy)
*Saturday: EGGSHELLS Companion Podcast with Chris Charlton, who will be joined by Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski to chat 1999 at the Tokyo Dome
*Saturday: ALL IN POST Show with John Pollock, Wai Ting, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Plus, we will have lots of bonus content, including video, throughout our road trip to Chicago on the POST Wrestling Café.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE will hold their first of two straights nights of television at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto tonight. While they are not promoting a match, Braun Strowman has issued a challenge for Roman Reigns to meet him in the ring tonight. The Toronto audience is going to be interesting these two nights because it’s very likely they will be heavily cheering Braun Strowman over Roman Reigns as well as Becky Lynch on Tuesday’s show. The closing segment of Raw last week felt on the surface like a heel dynamic for The Shield attacking Strowman 3-on-1 although I didn’t take it like that. If it were just Reigns coming out tonight, he would be heavily booed, but paired next with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose is going to force the audience to choose. Several people have thrown out the idea of Braun Strowman enlisting Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper to set up a Hell in a Cell match, which is a viable option although it feels like they are moving towards a singles match between Reigns and Strowman.
**There is a SmackDown house show in Peterborough, Ontario tonight and they have taken Bobby Roode off the Toronto show to wrestle in his hometown on the SmackDown side.
**On SmackDown, they have announced there will be two triple threat tag matches and the winners facing off to determine the next tag title challengers for the New Day. The first triple threat match is scheduled for Tuesday night in Toronto with The Bar vs. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. Primo & Epico.
**The Raw crew will be leaving after television this week to head overseas for shows in London, England on Wednesday, Osaka on Friday and then a show in Shanghai, China on Saturday.
**It was first reported by Ryan Satin at Pro Wrestling Sheet this weekend that Neville (Benjamin Satterley) was no longer under contract to World Wrestling Entertainment. Neville opted to walk out in the middle of his contract last October and has kept an extremely low profile since with no interviews or updates regarding his status. The Wrestling Observer website added that he doesn’t have any restrictions following his release and can begin working immediately. The obvious destination to show up would be at “All In” this Saturday night as a surprise or have one more match announcement. Upon hearing news of his release, Will Ospreay quickly wrote that he wanted a match with “Pac” (his former namesake prior to joining the WWE). Ospreay isn’t booked for “All In” and is also scheduled for the upcoming Ring of Honor pay-per-view so that doesn’t seem like a difficult match to put together logistically. For Neville, it makes all the sense in the world that he would end up with a deal working for New Japan Pro Wrestling to further bolster their junior heavyweight division and his excellent heel work throughout 2017 is a sign that he’s way more versatile with character work than his pre-WWE days. There should be no shortage of offers coming his way as he lands on the independent scene with lots of buzz and a unique time for the industry.
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**One of the pivotal behind-the-scenes figures behind the rise of the World Wrestling Federation as a national touring entity has passed away. Ed Cohen, who previously served as the Senior Vice President of Live Events, had been in poor health prior to his passing on Sunday. Cohen was instrumental during the national expansion and growth period of the 80’s when it came to the touring department. Cohen secured deals with arenas and buildings throughout North America, including the booking of the Pontiac Silverdome for WrestleMania 3 in 1987. One of his colleagues said that he extremely well-liked by everyone, including Vince McMahon and was always seen smiling and greeting the guys when they arrived at the buildings. Cohen is one of those guys, much like the late Zane Bresloff, who had such an extreme knowledge of the business end of the company and the ins and outs of the touring side of the business that it would have been highly educational and informative if we had ever written a book or did a lengthy interview about his career. The WWE issued the following statement on his passing:
WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of beloved former WWE Live Events executive Ed Cohen. Cohen was instrumental in helping to transform WWE’s Live Event touring business into the global phenomenon it is today. The company would like to express its sincerest condolences to Mr. Cohen’s family and friends. He will be greatly missed.
**The Japanese language version of Yahoo had a feature on Akira Taue and reported that he is battling stomach cancer, which was discovered in March this year. Taue underwent a procedure in April and now performing rehab but has lost a lot of weight. Taue added that he remained a consultant with Pro Wrestling NOAH until February 2017 and is no longer affiliated with the promotion. Taue came from Sumo and began wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1988 and forming tag teams with Toshiaki Kawada and Jumbo Tsuruta, who he won tag titles with on seven occasions between the two partners. In May 1996, Taue defeated Mitsuharu Misawa for his lone run with the Triple Crown championship and dropped it to Kenta Kobashi in July that year. Taue and Kawada were in the middle of their sixth tag title reign together when Taue joined the mass exodus of talent in the spring of 2000 to help launch Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kawada was one of the few to remain with All Japan, but the tag titles were vacated. In NOAH, Taue won the GHC title in November 2005 from Takeshi Rikio and had a brief run as champion before losing it to Jun Akiyama in January 2006. Taue retired in December 2013 to conclude a 25-year career.
**Here are the results from Smash Wrestling’s Super Showdown card at The Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto on Sunday. I would estimate there were around 300 or so at the venue and I was told it was probably their second highest attendance at the venue:
*Tarik over Sebastian Suave in a Last Man Standing Match
*Vanessa Kraven over Tessa Blanchard – the pairing and the result was interesting as Kraven is in the upcoming Mae Young Classic while Blanchard is the Impact Knockout’s champion with Smash Wrestling airing on Fight Network and this match will likely air at some point
*Scotty O’Shea over Kevin Blackwood
*The Well-Oiled Machines over The SSB in a Tables, Ladders & Boxes match
*Daniel Garcia over Kevin Bennett, Brent Banks & John Greed
*Jeff Cobb over PCO and Brody King
*Tarik (subbing for Tyson Dux) over Joey Janela to become the new Smash Wrestling champion
I’ll chat more about the show on Rewind-A-Raw tonight but this was a tremendous show by the company. With Tyson Dux injured, they inserted Tarik in his place for the main event and he won the title. The closing scene of the show featured the promotion’s originals together in the ring as company official James Kee handed Tarik the title and he posed with promoter Sebastian Suave, Dux, and Brent Banks (who was Tarik’s former tag partner).
**Smash Wrestling’s next show in Toronto is a special mystery show with nothing announced ahead of time. That card will take place Sunday, September 16th at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto at 3 pm. They will be running cards in London, Ontario on September 23rd and Kitchener on September 30th.
**Smash Wrestling is also running a unique concept show on October 14th at the Rec Room where all the wrestlers will work for free and admission is free. They will be taking optional donations, with all the money going to the staff members at Smash Wrestling with the company and wrestlers taking nothing.
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**Destiny Wrestling held a card on Saturday night at the Don Kolov Arena featuring Sami Callihan vs. Josh Alexander in a steel cage match. Alexander bled a ton in this match with photos circulating after the match. The match was taped for an upcoming “One Night Only” event for Impact Wrestling, which will be available on the GWN app this Friday. Destiny has announced the following matches for their next card in Mississauga at the Don Kolov Arena on Sunday, October 7th:
*Pete Dunne vs. Josh Alexander
*Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs. oVe
**Following this past weekend’s television tapings in Philadelphia, Ring of Honor has announced the following matches for the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view on Friday, September 28th in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena:
*Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay for the ROH title
*Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood for the Women of Honor title
*Cody, The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Chuckie T. & Trent Baretta
**Here is the visual of the weekend, the young son of El Hijo del Fantasma channeling a future violent death upon L.A Park, the man that has brought shame to his father and their family.
**There is a Kickstarter campaign that has been launched to help fund a proposed comic series on the late Bruno Sammartino. Historian John Crowther interviewed Sammartino several times for the project and is hoping to put out a five-part comic series on the former two-time WWWF champion. The campaign runs for two more weeks with a goal set at $4,000 (U.S.) and is approximately $400 away from reach the target.
**Matt Hardy wrestled on Sunday night’s WWE event in Rochester, New York in a triple threat match with The B Team and The Revival. The B Team retained their titles and afterward, Hardy tweeted, “Thank you for a wonderful & heartwarming send-off tonight.” The show also featured The Bella Twins teaming with Ember Moon and defeating The Riott Squad.
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**MLW has announced that Myron Reed will take on Jason Cade in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Thursday, September 6th. The show is headlined by a War Games match and Low Ki defends the MLW title against Rey Fenix.
**The WWE stock closed at $82.19 on Monday.
**The WWE Network has added several episodes of All-Star Wrestling from 1981 to the streaming service.
**The WWE presented SummerSlam on this date in 2000 from Raleigh, North Carolina and is remembered for the first TLC match between Edge & Christian, The Hardys, and The Dudley Boyz. The three teams had previously had a ladder match at that year’s WrestleMania but this was the first match promoted as a “TLC” match. While it was initially believed The Hardys would win the tag titles in their home state, it was decided that Edge & Christian would retain the tag titles, although the outcome was secondary to the match put forth and helped to cement the standing of the three teams at the time. This card also featured The Rock retaining the WWF title in a three-way match with Triple H and Kurt Angle, which saw Angle suffer a concussion from a pedigree spot onto the announcer’s desk. Angle was taken to the back but returned to finish the match and later stated he didn’t remember anything after the pedigree. The show reportedly did 570,000 buys on pay-per-view and took place one month before the WWF, at its popularity peak, would take its flagship program of Raw and move from the USA Network to TNN.
*****
THE POST INTERVIEW: Guy Evans, Author of “NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW”
John Pollock chats with the author for 45 minutes on the history of WCW, the major executives he interviews for the book, Eric Bischoff’s role in the rise & fall, the creative collapse in 1999 and 2000, the accounting department for WCW, a look at the internal corporate structure and much more.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/9iiz2d/THE-POST-INTERVIEW-Guy-Evans-Aug-2018.mp3
*****
EGGSHELLS COMPANION PODCAST: 1998 w/ Kim Justice
Chris Charlton is joined by YouTube gaming reviewer Kim Justice to chat about 1998, a year that featured the retirements of Antonio Inoki and Riki Choshu with a discussion on their retirement philosophies, plus All Japan runs the Tokyo Dome, brief talks between AJPW & WWF during the time period & more.
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/fcqwff/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1998_w__Kim_Justice.mp3
*****
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
*****
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