POST IT NOTES
**The latest WATCH-A-WAI is available for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café. On this installment, Wai Ting and I sit down and re-watch the Triple H vs. Undertaker Hell in a Cell match from WrestleMania 28 with Shawn Michaels as the special referee. This is a lengthy one, so sit back and enjoy our commentary and thoughts on this match that we attended live in 2012.
**Wai Ting and I have our largest edition of ASK-A-WAI to date out for members of the POST Wrestling Café. Our monthly Q&A show features 2 ½ hours of mailbag questions being answered with Wai Ting going through tons of topics. As always, this was a very fun show and allows us to chat about certain topics that we never get around to on our other shows and speak a bit about ourselves. We had extra questions to get to this month because of the live nature of last month’s special from Starrcast. We hope you enjoy this show.
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**On Saturday, Wai Ting and I will have a WWE Super Show-Down POST Show for Café members. If you are a Double Double, Iced Capp or Espresso member, you can watch the live video stream of our review at Noon Eastern and will be available to download for all Café members after we record.
**We will also have a new EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion out Saturday with Chris Charlton chatting the year 2004 with John Carroll from the Wrestling Omakase podcast on the Voices of Wrestling network. This show will cover NOAH’s first Tokyo Dome show from July that year and much more.
**We will also have a King of Pro Wrestling POST Show up Monday afternoon for Café members and then back Monday night with Rewind-A-Raw.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE will present Super Show-Down early Saturday morning at 5 am Eastern from the MCG in Melbourne, Australia with approximately 60,000 expected for one of the biggest international events the company has ever held. The show will be streaming on the WWE Network with ten matches announced:
*Triple H (w/ Shawn Michaels) vs. The Undertaker (w/ Kane) – This is the match that has been pushed as the main event and seems likely to be placed in the main event slot. It’s their first match since 2012 and being promoted as their last. Their WrestleMania matches in 2011 and 2012 stole the show those years but most have measured expectations for this version. The audience should be rabid due to the star power and the tease of Shawn Michaels returning will have an element of intrigue regarding his involvement in the match and setting the wheels in motion for his return. The winner is less important than the angle coming out of this to set up the tag match everyone expects.
*AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a No DQ, No Countout match for the WWE title – This has been set up as the culmination of the feud. Logic suggests that Styles gets the win and vanquishes Joe after all the threats made against his family. Joe getting a run with the title seems to be on everyone’s wish list, but I sense Styles retaining here.
*The Shield vs. Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre – This should be a great six-man tag as the six have terrific chemistry. There is the overarching story regarding whether Dean Ambrose turns or not. It feels too manufactured to execute it now. I like that they have introduced the idea and can reel it in and then revisit it several months from now with the seeds planted now for the turn. The drawback of The Shield’s reunion is that it has cast Seth Rollins into a supporting role and he seems in limbo after such a hot run this year on his own. Ziggler’s paring with Drew McIntyre has been a lifesaver for him and rejuvenated him. McIntyre looks like a breakout main event star waiting to happen in 2019.
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*Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins vs. The Riott Squad – Liv Morgan has been cleared to compete and will be in the match. Most of the focus is on Rousey with The Bellas and whether they turn the Bellas or they simply win the match and leads to a challenge by Nikki. I prefer the former as The Bellas have played such obnoxious characters in every scene with Rousey that it seems to telegraph a turn. I don’t know if they go through with the actual turn on this show or save it for Raw, but there is a great tie-in with The Bellas causing Rousey’s first loss in the WWE in the same city where she had her first MMA loss in 2015 to Holly Holm.
*Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown women’s title – Becky Lynch has been outstanding in her role despite the awkward start attempting to turn on the fans and then finding a middle ground. She has never been more popular and would be awful timing to take off the title off her. I sense Becky retains the title with another fluke or cheats to set up another match for Evolution. The audience was very negative in Portland this week to Charlotte and I’m interested to see if this stadium crowd has a similar reaction.
*The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan – The winner is set to get a WWE title shot. Bryan winning is the only possible finish I can fathom. He has lost way too often and needs this win. I feel the feud has reached its expiration, so I’m hoping this ends the program and Bryan challenges Styles or Joe next.
*John Cena & Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens & Elias – This seems designed for the audience to go crazy for a rare John Cena appearance and the babyfaces topple the heels.
*New Day vs. The Bar for the SmackDown tag titles – This all depends on the time they receive as it could be a sleeper on the show if they get 12-14 minutes. I expect this to be very good.
*Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight title – Murphy is from Melbourne and would be my pick to win the title on this show. Murphy should be one of the most popular performers on the show and it’s not often 205 Live gets a platform like this to do a title switch. Alexander has held the title since WrestleMania and Murphy’s time is now to win it.
*The IIconics vs. Naomi & Asuka – The IIconics should get an enormous reaction as well and we’ll see if they and fight the audience to make them the heels. This may be the match where the native stars lose in their home country, but I’d have them win just for the pop.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion at 8 pm Eastern on beIN Sports:
*L.A. Park vs. Pentagon Jr. in a Mexican Massacre match
*ACH vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
**Honor Club will be streaming tonight’s CMLL Grand Prix tournament at 9:30 pm Eastern from Arena Mexico.
**MLW has announced a second show during WrestleMania Week at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York. The promotion will be holding a Fusion television taping on Thursday, April 4th and have booked the venue the following night on April 5th with the return of “Battle Riot”. The concept match is a Royal Rumble style match with 40 participants with eliminations occurring by pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope. Both shows take place at 7 pm and they are scheduled to end by 10:30 pm. Tickets for both go on sale next Wednesday at 10 am.
**AXS TV is airing Fighting Spirit Unleashed tonight at 8 pm Eastern, which was an excellent card from this past Sunday in Long Beach.
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**This week’s viewership of Lucha Underground fell off a clip with a 43% drop from last week. This week’s episode did an all-time low for a first run episode with 51,000 viewers on the El Rey Network, down from 89,000 last week. The season will wrap on November 6th with a two-part Ultima Lucha special on the final two episodes.
**WWE’s Charly Caruso (Charly Arnolt) announced this week that has begun working with ESPN while continuing her work with the WWE. Arnolt will be appearing on SportsCenter updates and hosting the SportsCenter show on Snapchat.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling will be returning to the U.S. for a smaller scale event on November 10th from the Anaheim Convention Center in California. The company has announced the following matches for their Lion’s Break Project 1 card:
*Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb
*Kenny Omega vs. David Finlay
They have also announced that Jushin Thunder Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi, ACH, Rocky Romero, and Dojo students Clark Connors and Alex Coughlin will be participating.
**It was on this date in 1997 that Brian Pillman died at the age of 35 when he was found in a hotel room in Bloomington, Minnesota. Pillman was scheduled for the WWF’s “Badd Blood” pay-per-view that night in St. Louis. The show went on as scheduled with Vince McMahon announcing on the broadcast that Pillman had passed away. If you haven’t read Liam O’Rourke’s “Crazy Like a Fox” biography of Pillman, it is highly recommended.
**AAA founder Antonio Pena died on this date in 2006 at the age of 55.
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MMA NEWS
**The UFC 229 weigh-ins took place earlier today from Las Vegas for Saturday’s card at the T-Mobile Arena. Below is the full line up tomorrow with results from the weigh-ins:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on pay-per-view)
*Khabib Nurmagomedov (155) vs. Conor McGregor (154.5)
*Tony Ferguson (155) vs. Anthony Pettis (156)
*Ovince Saint Preux (205.5) vs. Dominick Reyes (204.5)
*Derrick Lewis (265.5) vs. Alexander Volkov (251)
*Michelle Waterson (115) vs. Felice Herrig (115.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 pm Eastern on FS 1)
*Sergio Pettis (125) vs. Jussier Formiga (125.5)
*Vicente Luque (170.5) vs. Jalin Turner (169.5)
*Tonya Evinger (136) vs. Aspen Ladd (134.5)
*Scott Holtzman (155.5) vs. Alan Patrick (155.5)
FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Lina Lansberg (135.5) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (134.5)
*Nik Lentz (156) vs. Gray Maynard (156)
*Ryan LaFlare (171) vs. Tony Martin (171)
**Thursday’s UFC 229 pre-fight press conference turned into a mess with Conor McGregor arriving late as usual, but this time his opponent didn’t wait around for his arrival. Khabib Nurmagomedov was on time and stated he was not adjusting his schedule and had to cut weight, so after answering questions for 15 minutes he got up and left with UFC president Dana White left alone on stage. McGregor arrived shortly afterward and continued the press conference. McGregor stated if the pay-per-view does over 3 million buys that he could be looking at a payday of around $50 million.
A statement that has picked up traction, including the Washington Post, was McGregor’s reference to Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz as a “snitch terrorist rat”. He claimed that Abdelaziz was pulled off a flight from Cairo, Egypt to New York on September 11th, 2001 with five passports in his possession. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani interviewed Abdelaziz after the press conference and gave the following response to the comments made by McGregor at the press conference:
“For me, it doesn’t offend me one fucking bit because at the end of the day he isn’t fighting me, he’s fighting Khabib.”
Veteran MMA reporter Mike Russell has been covering Abdel-Aziz for years and uncovered information that McGregor has drawn from in the lead up to the fight. Russell is also getting set to release a serialized podcast series that covers his extensive investigation of the story. Bloody Elbow also has an excerpt from the book, “Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America” by Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman.
**Jon Jones spoke with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on several topics, including his plans for his next fight. The former light heavyweight champion revealed that he sought out professional help earlier this year to deal with a lot of issues in his life. He checked into a trauma facility in Ocala, Florida for 30 days to address a “deep depression” he went into following the passing of his mother in June 2017 and being stripped of the light heavyweight title that summer after the second fight with Daniel Cormier. Jones said he is paranoid about places he eats and what food he puts into his body for fear of it being contaminated. On turning over information to USADA as part of his deal for a reduced sentence, he stated:
USADA asked me to do a lot of things throughout this case, but one thing I didn’t do is snitch on anybody in MMA. I definitely didn’t give up any information on anyone in the sport, nor do I know of anybody who’s doing these things in the sport. I think the whole snitching thing is pretty silly. It’s interesting to watch people jump to conclusions about things they don’t know what they are talking about. And that’s all I want to say about that topic.
Jones said he was offered to fight Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 230 on November 3rd at Madison Square Garden but didn’t have adequate time to prepare. He said nothing is signed but he is expecting to fight Gustafsson on December 29th at UFC 232. He stated he doesn’t have interest in fighting Daniel Cormier for the third time nor fighting him at heavyweight.
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**The PFL playoffs are underway and will hold a card from New Orleans, Louisiana tonight with the featherweight and heavyweight quarter-final and semi-final fights scheduled. The event will feature fighters having to compete twice tonight to clinch their spot in the finals at the end of the year for the $1,000,000 prize for each weight class tournament. Below is the scheduled of fights that will feature the prelims on Facebook and the main card on NBC SN:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on NBCSN)
*TBA vs. TBA in the heavyweight semi-final
*TBA vs. TBA in the featherweight semi-final
*TBA vs. TBA in the heavyweight semi-final
*TBA vs. TBA in the featherweight semi-final
*Josh Copeland vs. Francimar Barroso in the heavyweight quarter-final
*Steven Siler vs. Nazareno Malegarie in the featherweight quarter-final
PRELIMINARY CARD (7:30 pm Eastern on Facebook)
*Alex Nicholson vs. Jack May in the heavyweight quarter-final
*Alexandre Almeida vs. Jumabieke Tuerxun in the featherweight quarter-final
*Caio Alencar vs. Philipe Lins in the heavyweight quarter-final
*Alexandre Bezerra vs. Andre Harrison in the featherweight quarter-final
*Kelvin Tiller vs. Jared Rosholt in the heavyweight quarter-final
*Max Coga vs. Lance Palmer in the featherweight quarter-final
*Mike Kyle vs. Muhammed DeReese in the heavyweight quarter-final
*Marcos Galvao vs. Jeremy Kennedy in the featherweight quarter-final
**Following the first loss of his career, UFC fighter Darren Till has announced he is moving up to middleweight for his next fight. Till challenged welterweight champion Tyron Woodley last month in the main event of UFC 228 and was submitted in the second round. Till has a record of 17-1-1 since debuting in 2003 and joined the UFC in 2015.
**Here is the latest episode of UFC Embedded for UFC 229:
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything (October 2018)
John Pollock & Wai Ting present the biggest Ask-A-Wai ever with 2.5 hours of mailbag questions being answered.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/21863739/
*****
upNXT & Forever Young 10/4/18: Smokey Rooms & Scorpion Kicks
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are joined once again by Dahlia Black to review this week’s Mae Young Classic episode, and they have reviews of NXT and 205 Live from the past week.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/04/upnxt-forever-young-10-4-18-smokey-rooms-scorpion-kicks/
*****
BWE 10/3/18: Progress at Wembley, wXw Tag League, Carlos Romo, WOS Finale
Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno are back to talk Progress Chapter 76: Hello Wembley (Eddie Dennis vs. Mark Andrews) with Benno giving his live report from the show. Carlos Romo (FKA Adam Chase) drops in to chat his career so far, Whitewolf Wrestling, the Spanish wrestling scene and more
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/bwe-10-3-18-progress-at-wembley-wxw-tag-league-carlos-romo-wos-finale/
*****
POST Puroresu: Neville to DG, NJPW in Long Beach, Five Star GP, Observer HOF candidates
John Pollock & WH Park chat about Neville’s sudden return to Dragon Gate and his future, a look at the Destruction tour highlights, WH’s thoughts on Fighting Spirit Unleashed, a review of the Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita 5 Star GP final, and a look at the Japanese candidates for the Observer Hall of Fame.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/post-puroresu-neville-to-dg-njpw-in-long-beach-5-gp-observer-hof-candidates/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 10/3/18: Total Divas, BTE, MLW, Lucha Underground, ‘Taker interview
John Pollock & Wai Ting present the Double Shot with reviews of this past week’s episode of Total Divas, Lucha Underground’s “Kill Mil” episode, the newest Being the Elite, a review of MLW Fusion feat. Low Ki vs. Rey Fenix, and a rare sit-down interview with The Undertaker.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/double-shot-10-3-18-total-divas-bte-mlw-lucha-underground-taker-interview/
*****
RASD 10/2/18: Super Show-Down Preview, Milwaukee, Neville, MMC
This week’s SmackDown from Portland was the final episode heading into the Super Show-Down with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair featured in the final segment, the next chapter of Aiden & Lana’s Milwaukee Meetup, Daniel Bryan is pinned again, and Samoa Joe avoids being terminated.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/rasd-10-2-18-super-show-down-preview-milwaukee-neville-mmc/
*****
INTERVIEW: Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting
John Pollock chats with MMA journalist Marc Raimondi about Conor McGregor’s return, UFC 229 fight week, Bellator’s card in San Jose this past weekend, streaming services, the ESPN deal, USADA’s perception & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/02/interview-marc-raimondi-of-mma-fighting/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 10/1/18: Seattle Super Audience, ‘Taker & Kane attack Hunter & Shawn Michaels
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Monday’s Raw from Seattle featuring a closing segment with Shawn Michaels, the incredible reaction to Elias & Kevin Owens, Ronda Rousey’s match with Ruby Riott, a discussion of the major news items & your feedback.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/02/rar-10-1-18-seattle-super-audience-taker-kane-attack-hhh-shawn/
*****
NJPW FIGHTING SPIRIT UNLEASHED POST SHOW
John Pollock is joined by guest co-host Mike Murray to review Sunday’s card from Long Beach, discussing a terrific card from New Japan, the main event for KOPW, a discussion on the Death Before Dishonor show, feedback & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/01/njpw-fighting-spirit-unleashed-post-show-with-john-pollock-mike-murray/
*****
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