POST IT NOTES
**We are happy to announce the launch of store.postwrestling.com, which will be the official home for our POST Wrestling merchandise. We have several items available with various t-shirt designs and multiple colors to choose from. We hope you enjoy the selection and feel free to send us any feedback. Each Monday on Rewind-A-Raw, we will be giving away a t-shirt to a POST Wrestling Café member.
**At the beginning of Rewind-A-Raw, we outlined several additions we are making to the various Café tiers. Below is a quick overview of the changes:
*1 Milk 1 Sugar ($6): Nothing is changing at this level. Our bonus audio will always go onto this tier with a minimum two extra shows per week with the Double Shot and a Friday show. This level grants access to the bi-weekly Rewind-A-Wai shows, NJPW reviews, monthly Ask-A-Wai, and monthly MCU review.
*Double Double ($12): The ability to stream our WWE PPV POST Shows live on video immediately after the conclusion of each WWE event. We are introducing a new Thursday video show that will be live in the afternoon on Google Hangout. Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members can join the Hangout and participate as Wai Ting and I take a topic and discuss more in-depth, catch up on news from the past day or two, or look ahead to the weekend with whatever is topical.
*Iced Capp ($25): This is the merchandise tier and is going to feature new items available for those that join, including coffee sleeves, new shirt designs, and Wai & I will be developing a cassette tape. The tape will feature a special themed show that will only be accessible by the cassette. This will be released in the next few months.
*Espresso ($50): The changes we made was opening ten additional spots allowing for a total of 40 Espresso members. The slots were filled up quickly after we opened the new spots.
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is on the site with Wai Ting and I chatting about the new POST Wrestling Store and changes to the POST Wrestling Café. We also went through a lot of news with Triple H’s injury, the top matches for Wrestle Kingdom, Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting for Rizin on New Year’s Eve and Daniel Cormier’s win over Derrick Lewis. Plus, we have a complete review of Raw from Manchester and your feedback to wrap up the show.
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown and for Café members, we will have the Double Shot out Wednesday morning. On this week’s Double Shot, I’ll be reviewing Part 1 of Ultima Lucha, we will also have reviews of the new Being the Elite and Wai’s review of Total Divas. I’ll also provide a quick preview of ROH’s Global Wars shows this week, including the card in Toronto that we are attending live.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**Paul Levesque confirmed Monday that he would be undergoing surgery on Tuesday. There was no update regarding the extent of the injury, but a photo he posted featured his entire pectoral region bruised from the tear he sustained during Friday’s tag match at Crown Jewel.
**In a report from Tokyo Sports, Tetsuya Naito revealed that he turned down an offer by the WWE earlier this year. Naito spoke to the outlet and stated he was contacted shortly after his match with Chris Jericho at Dominion this past June. He stated that there was nothing to think about regarding the offer and already believes New Japan is the best company in the world. Naito is 36-years old and if healthy, should have many more years as a top performer within New Japan. Naito leaving the company would be a big hit on merchandise sales as LIJ is among the most popular items at New Japan events.
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reported Tuesday that the WWE has acquired the tape library of the Puerto Rican-based World Wrestling Council (WWC). Johnson reports that the deal was completed over the last month and the tapes have been shipped to Stamford for future use on the WWE Network. They added that some footage was damaged due to Hurricane Maria. There is not timetable of when the content will start to appear on the network or how it will be presented. The promotion dates to 1973 and was launched by Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica in 1973 when they formed Capitol Sports Promotions and would join the NWA in 1979. It was a thriving territory until the murder of Frank “Bruiser Brody” Goodish in July 1988 in Bayamon. Jose Gonzalez, who wrestled as Invader I and served as booker, was implicated for the murder but claimed self-defense and was found not guilty when the case went to trial. The way everything was handled led to numerous American wrestlers to leave Puerto Rico and not return. The company continues to produce weekly television for WAPA-TV that airs on the weekend.
**On Raw, it was announced that Brock Lesnar will appear on next week’s show from Kansas City, Missouri, which is the final Raw before the Survivor Series. Stephanie McMahon will also be appearing next week to continue the angle involving Shane McMahon, which is the only major storyline implication from Crown Jewel beyond Lesnar’s title win. I was surprised they didn’t confirm more for Survivor Series on Monday as all the teams will need to be established next week on the “go home” show. It’s a very rushed event, but it’s not the pay-per-view era where such a quick turnaround would have an adverse effect on the business the show generates. Following Raw, this is the lineup for Survivor Series on November 18th:
*Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles
*Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch
*Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
*Team Raw (Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre & TBA & TBA) vs. Team SmackDown in the men’s elimination match
*Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown in the women’s elimination match
I would assume The Bar vs. AOP will be added to the show with AOP winning the tag titles on Raw.
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**The WWE is at the Manchester Arena for the second straight night with the SmackDown, 205 Live & Mixed Match Challenge tapings. The following has been announced for the shows:
*Shane McMahon reacts to winning the World Cup
*Bobby Lashley & Mickie James vs. Finn Balor & Bayley on the Mixed Match Challenge
*Naomi & Jimmy Uso vs. Carmella & R-Truth on the Mixed Match Challenge
*Buddy Murphy vs. Mark Andrews on 205 Live
*Gran Metalik vs. TJP on 205 Live
**The Raw crew has a show in Leeds on Tuesday. The European tour continues Wednesday with shows in Cologne, Germany and Nottingham, England.
**Impact Wrestling and House of Glory will be running a card together on Thursday, April 4th during WrestleMania Week. The event will be called “Culture Clash 19” and stream live on Twitch. The show will take place in Queens, New York at 9112 144th Place at 8 pm with tickets priced at $20. Thursday night of WrestleMania Week has shows from wXw, MLW, the WrestleCon Supershow, DDT, and Inter Species Wrestling.
**The WWE has a story on the tryouts that they company is holding in Germany this week. The sessions are being run by Matt Bloom, Robbie Brookside, and Sarah Stock with NXT performers Fabian Aichner and Marcel Bothel assisting. The following names were listed as participating in the tryouts: Ilja Rukober (better known as Ilja Dragunov and one of the biggest stars on the European independent scene with wXw and participated in BOLA this year), Camille Grignon, Raffael Gorzzielik, Jurn Sijtzema (who wrestles as Jurn Simmons), Edwige Trabouillet (wrestler Mila Smidt), Emil Sitoci (has been wrestling in 2001 across Europe and trained under Chris Hero), Vesna Busic-Chaer, Christopher Oketch, and Aleksander Jaksic (a former basketball player that trained at Santino Marella’s gym in Ontario).
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**The El Rey Network has announced the hiring of Mauricio Rios as the new Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions. Rios is replacing the Dan Kozlowski, who had held that position since 2014. Rios previously worked at Telemundo’s Universo channel as the director of programming and scheduling and worked for Fox Latin American Channels for 11 years. In Deadline’s report on the hiring, it stated that El Rey wants to double the number of original hours in the network next year as well as expand into new genres. It is too early to know if this will have any impact on the future of Lucha Underground, which will wrap its fourth season this Wednesday night on the station.
**The Stamford Advocate ran a story on the WWE’s decision to run the Crown Jewel event in Riyadh last Friday. The paper spoke to Josh Shuart, who is the chairman of marketing and sports management at Sacred Heart University, and he defended the WWE’s decision:
They dialed down promotion across all platforms for a while, as the public cried out for them to outright cancel the event. You do have to be sensitive to the potential impact that canceling a 10-year deal, in year one, may have had on the company.
WWE and Sacred Heart University have a very close connection through Linda McMahon, who previously served as a trustee for the University and donated $5 million in 2012 to the institution. There is a commons area at the school named in Linda McMahon’s honor, so it would be surprising to see a representative of the school speak out against her husband’s decision to run the show and create a larger story. Shuart added that “it remains to be seen” if the relationship between the WWE and General Sports Authority last the full ten years, but noted that “from a financial perspective, it makes a lot of sense.”
**The WWE stock closed at $73 on Tuesday after opening at $73.13.
**EVOLVE has a big weekend coming up with shows on Friday in Livonia, Michigan, and Saturday in Oak Lawn, Illinois. The shows will feature several NXT performers as well as Mustafa Ali from 205 Live. The first night features Fabian Aicher vs. Kassius Ohno for the EVOLVE title, The Street Profits vs. JD Drake & Anthony Henry, and Mustafa Ali vs. DJZ. The second night is headlined by The Street Profits vs. AR Fox & Leon Ruff, along with JD Drake vs. Austin Theory for the WWN title, Mustafa Ali vs. Darby Allin, and Kassius Ohno vs. Shane Strickland. Both shows will be streaming on WWN Live.
**MLW has announced a ladder match for their December 14th television taping in Miami. The match will feature middleweight champion MJF taking on Kotto Brazil, Marko Stunt, and Jason Cade for the title in MLW’s first-ever ladder match. MLW is holding television tapings on December 13th and 14th from the Miami Scottish Rite Temple.
**WrestlePro has announced that Johnny Impact will take on Dan Maff on their card next April in Anchorage, Alaska.
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MMA NEWS
**It didn’t take long for Conor McGregor to insert him into the Floyd Mayweather Jr. story with Mayweather set to fight Tenshin Nasukawa on New Year’s Eve for Rizin in Japan. McGregor posted the following comment on Instagram mocking the two fighters:
Is that a tracksuit or a sauna suit Floyd haha wtf. is it hot in Tokyo or what’s the story here? that climate change is no joke fuck me hahah
What in the fuck is going on here? Who’s this little prick next to you ? That’s mad shit. Like something out of rush hour 5 or something. Chris tucker and Jackie fucking Chan back in this bitch. Fucking brilliant. Mad little bastard you are Floyd. Fair fucks to you mate. No lie. Fuck it.
Nakusawa responded to McGregor with his own statement:
Hello, Mr. McGregor.
My Name is Tenshin Nasukawa.
I am not Jackie Chan.
I promise to avenge your loss, so please watch my fight.
**The UFC is in the process of finalizing Ben Askren’s first fight with the organization, according to a report from Brett Okamoto at ESPN. The site reports that a bout between Ben Askren and former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will take place at UFC 233 on January 26th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The bout has not been signed but is expected to be finalized. Askren, who represented the U.S. in the Olympics in 2008, will be fighting for the first time since November 2017 after leaving ONE Championship. Since losing the welterweight title to Tyron Woodley in July 2016, Lawler has only fought twice. He defeated Donald Cerrone by unanimous decision in July 2017 and then dropped a decision to Rafael dos Anjos last December.
**The UFC 230 preliminary card on FS1 averaged 635,000 viewers on Saturday night from Madison Square Garden. It was their highest viewership figure for pay-per-view prelims since UFC 227 in August, although the prelims that night aired on FX. The 230 prelims were headlined by Jordan Rinaldi defeating Jason Knight by unanimous decision. The UFC 230 pre-fight show on FS1 averaged 205,000 viewers and the post-fight show at 1:30 am Eastern did 188,000 viewers.
**The UFC has announced a lightweight bout between Paul Felder and James Vick for UFC 233 on January 26th in Anaheim. Vick was on a great run having won four in a row when he was stopped by Justin Gaethje in August, which was the second loss of his career (he lost on the season of TUF he competed on in 2012 but that loss isn’t on his record). Felder will return to lightweight after taking a fight at welterweight in his last outing in July where he dropped a split decision to Mike Perry. Felder is 7-4 since entering the UFC in 2014.
**A fight that was first reported by MMA Fighting in the summer is now official. The UFC confirmed that Paige VanZant will fight Rachael Ostovich on January 19th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the first ESPN+ card for the promotion. VanZant has only fought once since December 2016 as she is coming off losses to Michelle Waterson and Jessica Rose-Clark. In the fight with Rose-Clark, she suffered a broken arm and has not fought since. Ostovich fought for Invicta FC and competed on TUF in 2017 during the flyweight season. She last fought in July where she was submitted by Montana De La Rosa.
**ONE Championship is bringing Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez to Singapore this week for a press conference on Wednesday. The two will also be attending Friday’s “Heart of a Lion” card that takes place from the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The main card will be streaming the ONE Championship app at 8:30 am Eastern and is headlined by Bibiano Fernandes vs. Kevin Belingon to unify the bantamweight titles.
**Sage Northcutt has also noted online that he is flying to Singapore as a guest of ONE Championship. Northcutt is a free agent, with Ariel Helwani adding that he has not signed with anyone.
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*****
REWIND-A-RAW 11/5/18: Kurt Angle wrestles, Survivor Series news, Triple H set for surgery
Monday’s Raw from Manchester saw Kurt Angle have his first singles match on Raw since 2006 against Drew McIntyre, the top matches were announced for Survivor Series, plus special news from the POST Office with the launch of the POST Wrestling Store.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/06/rar-11-5-18-angle-wrestles-survivor-series-news-triple-h-set-for-surgery/
*****
UFC 230 POST SHOW
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok & Ziggy Cao to rundown the UFC 230 card from Madison Square Garden with Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis for the UFC heavyweight title.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/04/ufc-230-post-show-with-john-pollock-phil-chertok-ziggy-cao
*****
NJPW POWER STRUGGLE 2018 POST SHOW (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review New Japan’s Power Struggle card from Osaka featuring Chris Jericho vs. EVIL for the IC title, Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/22493628
*****
EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion: 2008 w/ Wai Ting
Episode 20 sees Chris Charlton and Wai Ting look at 2008. NJPW go from battling AJPW in the Dome to taking on TNA. Kurt Angle and Yuji Nagata steal the show, while Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi headline.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/03/eggshells-podcast-companion-2008-w-wai-ting/
*****
WWE Crown Jewel POST Show (In Support of the Committee to Protect Journalists)
John Pollock & Wai Ting present a special live POST Show immediately following WWE Crown Jewel. Beyond discussing the results of this event, we’ll be conducting in-depth interviews about the various issues surrounding WWE’s involvement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/02/wwe-crown-jewel-post-show-in-support-of-cpj-streaming-today-430pm-et/
*****
ASK-A-WAI: ASK US ANYTHING (NOVEMBER 2018)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the November 2018 edition of Ask-A-Wai. Plus, we announce a number of upcoming changes to our Patreon tiers.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/22455577
*****
upNXT 11/1/18: IT’S BROVEMBER
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman chat this week’s episode of WWE NXT featuring the debut of Matt Riddle and a huge backstage brawl. They also give their thoughts on WWE Evolution, the MYC Finals, and details about their Halloween party.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/01/upnxt-11-01-18-its-brovember/
*****
POST PURORESU
John Pollock & WH Park chat the Super Junior Tag League tournament, a big preview of NJPW’s Power Struggle, Kento Miyahara regains Triple Crown, a Q&A from listeners & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/01/post-puroresu-power-struggle-preview-super-jr-tag-league-qa/
*****
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