POST IT NOTES
**We are holding our first POST Wrestling Black Friday Sale this weekend with 25% off all items in the POST Wrestling Store. If you visit store.POSTwrestling.com and used the code “Double Shot” you can receive the 25% discount off all items. This sale runs through Monday.
**We have a new Rewind-A-Wai out for members of the POST Wrestling Café with Wai Ting and I reviewing the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view from November 1994. This show was selected by our Espresso Executive Producer Robert Holzhammer, who joined us on the show from Austria to discuss his selection and play our 1994 trivia game. In addition to our review, we are also joined by Rob Bihari (@RobViper) to discuss the legacy of this event, the career of Art Barr, AAA’s numerous expansion plans, how WCW promoted this card and many other notes from the event. If you are a member of the Café, you can download the show immediately and will receive a custom RSS feed for Café shows to make it easier to download into your podcast app.
**On Saturday, Chris Charlton will be joined by Mike Sempervive of Wrestling Observer Live on the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion to chat about Wrestle Kingdom 5 from January 2011 at the Tokyo Dome.
**Below is this week’s Café Hangout with Wai Ting and I chatting the AXS TV announcements for New Japan Pro Wrestling, the All Elite Wrestling trademark filings, plus taking questions from listeners:
[wp_ad_camp_1]
WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE will be holding their 2nd annual Starrcade-themed house show Saturday from the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event will be turned around into a one-hour version for the WWE Network airing Sunday night at 8 pm Eastern. The arena’s website is listing the following matches and segments:
*Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose in a steel cage match for the Intercontinental title
*AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a steel cage match
*Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rey Mysterio for the United States title
*Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka
*The Bar vs. New Day for the SmackDown tag titles
*Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor
*The Miz vs. Rusev
*A concert with Elias and Ric Flair
**The WWE’s tour continues Sunday with house shows in Madison, Wisconsin and Bloomington, Illinois. The Raw tapings are Monday in Milwaukee with the SmackDown crew holding a live event Monday night in Cesar Rapids, Iowa and taping television Tuesday in Minneapolis at the Target Center.
**The WWE has announced AOP will defend the Raw tag titles against Bobby Roode & Chad Gable on Raw this Monday night.
**There is an interesting experiment going on today with a golf match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson that is available on pay-per-view with the winner taking home $9 million. The matchup has been built up with the tone of a big fight, including a stare down this week for the cameras. It is streaming online through Bleacher Report and traditional cable providers with a $19.99 (U.S.) price point. The golf course will be closed off with no spectators and will be based around side bets and a heavy gambling component to encourage viewers at home. Many events have tried to go the pay-per-view route, but few have been successful except for combat sports, including professional wrestling. Generations of sports fans in North America have grown up with the idea that sports are something you watch on television and don’t pay additionally for the big match at the end.
With professional wrestling, you have two generations of fans that were brought up knowing that the big event was something you paid for either through closed-circuit or on pay-per-view without a live experience attached to the purchase. There is also the inherent belief that conflict involving two personalities is the easiest path to profitability in the medium and the most successful boxing and MMA fights have drawn on that component. This past August, online celebrities Logan Paul and KSI generated 800,000 buys for their boxing match at $10 per buy and may have opened a floodgate for others sports and non-sports figures to go this direction.
The timing of such an experiment occurs when television rights for live sports are at a premium and offsetting the need for major sports outfits to take their events off TV. That said, the biggest money can be made off pay-per-view if you have the right attraction that connects. Whether this exhibition is a one-off or the precursor to more fringe events attempting pay-per-view, the results will be of great interest to sports executives and pay-per-view providers who are desperately looking for new attractions. This was evident by the amount of revenue cable providers gave up to the UFC with a new revenue split closer to 70/30 than the previous 50/50.
[wp_ad_camp_2]
**Earlier this week, it was revealed that several trademarks had been filed by company titled “All Elite Wrestling, LLC”, which is linked to the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise with the company registered to the address of their stadium. Last month, it was reported by Brad Davis at SEscoops that a potential start-up organization was in development through the funding of Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and his son, Tony. The terms that were trademarked, include “All Elite Wrestling”, “Tuesday Night Dynamite”, All Out”, “AEW”, “AWE All Out”, and “Double or Nothing” (a term Cody has used several times about a possible follow up for All In). The extent of this promotion becoming a reality is limited because of so many variables in play, mainly the contracts of the various Elite members, whose deals have either expired or about to expire at the end of 2018. We spoke about this topic in-depth on the Café Hangout this week, which is available on the POST Wrestling YouTube channel.
**The annual WrestleCade convention is taking place this weekend from the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The convention will feature wrestling shows, panel discussions, podcasts, and meet-and-greets. FITE TV is carrying the FanFest Podcast, the November to Remember Panel hosted by Mike Johnson of PWinsider, along with the Showcase of Champions card tonight at 7 pm and the WrestleCade Supershow on Saturday night.
**The WWE has announced that John Cena will work several dates in late December and early January. The company has announced 13 shows he will work, beginning December 26th at Madison Square Garden through January 14th in Memphis. The stretch of shows includes one television appearance on Monday, January 7th at the Amway Center in Orlando.
**MLW has a two-hour block on beIN Sports tonight, beginning at 8 pm Eastern after being pre-empted last Friday. They will air last week’s show at 8 pm followed by this week’s new episode at 9. Below are the matches on both shows:
*Sami Callihan vs. Tom Lawlor in a Chicago Street Fight
*The Dirty Blondes vs. Joey Ryan & Swoggle
*Rex Bacchus vs. Ricky Martinez
*Kotto Brazil vs. Trey Miguel
*Low Ki vs. Shane Strickland for the MLW heavyweight title
[wp_ad_camp_3]
**The New Japan World Tag League continues Saturday with a show in Saitama. There will be three tournament matches on the card, which will be added later that day on New Japan World with the following Tag League matches scheduled:
*Hangman Page & Yujiro vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
*Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Killer Elite Squad vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
**All Japan Pro Wrestling has Saturday off and the Real-World Tag League resumes Sunday in Niigata with two tournament matches set for Sunday:
*Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai
*Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu vs. Kengo Mashimo & KAI
**Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Global League tournament wraps up Sunday at Korakuen Hall. Naomichi Marufuji has won the A Block and will face the B Block winner, which has come down to a tie involving Go Shiosaki, Takashi Sugiura, and Maybach Taniguchi. Sunday’s show will also feature Kotaro Suzuki defending the junior heavyweight title against Tadasuke and the GHC junior heavyweight tag champions Minoru Tanaka & Hi69 defending against Koji Kanemoto and Hiroshi Yamato.
**This week’s episode of Impact Wrestling was a complete throwaway for Thanksgiving. The show featured one-match with a ten-man tag involving teams captained by Eli Drake and Fallah Bahh, who chose partners at random. The show featured promos from the ten individuals and was carried by Drake, who was the star of the show and appeared in each backstage segment with a different t-shirt on. It featured Fallah Bahh, KM, Alisha Edwards, Kikutaro & Dezmond Xavier defeating Drake, Katarina, Jake Crist, Rohit Raju & Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno) with Gilbertti taking the fall and wearing the turkey suit. Beyond Drake’s promos, I can’t say there was anything notable on this show.
*Due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., ratings will be delayed until next week.
**Jim Ross wrote on Twitter today that he has a concussion and blurred vision from his fall last week. He is flying to Winston-Salem for WrestleCade this weekend.
**Revolution Pro has announced a match between Zack Sabre Jr. and PAC for Sunday, January 6th at their Live at the Cockpit 37 card at the Cockpit Theatre in London, England.
**EVOLVE has announced that Santana & Ortiz of LAX has been added to their December 15th card in Queens and December 16th show in Deer Park, New York.
[wp_ad_camp_4]
**Ring of Honor has been announcing its card for Final Battle for Friday, December 14th at the Hammerstein Ballroom and below are the matches they have announced:
*Jay Lethal vs. Cody for the ROH title
*Jeff Cobb vs. Hangman Page for the ROH Television title
*Sumie Sakai vs. Madison Rayne vs. Karen Q vs. TBA for the Women of Honor title
*Christopher Daniels vs. Marty Scurll – Scurll is putting his title shot on the line that he earned at Survival of the Fittest
*Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon in an I Quit match
*Matt Taven vs. Dalton Castle
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jonathan Gresham
**The WWE stock closed at $62.60 on Friday.
**WWE co-president Michelle Wilson was one of four recipients of the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Wilson was named alongside Gordon Ramsay, Rosanna Pansino, and Stephen Curry for their contributions to the foundation. They stated that Wilson has served as a board member for Make-A-Wish in Connecticut, a donor, along with additional work on their national level through World Wish Day and generating leads for sponsors and influencers to become involved.
**Michael Paris, who wrestles as DJ Z, posted an interesting note that in 2002 he won a contest designing the original Ring of Honor logo prior to their first show in February 2002.
**NXT wrestler Aliyah turns 24 years old today.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC is holding a Fight Pass card early Saturday morning from Beijing, China with the preliminary fights beginning at 3:15 am Eastern and the main card at 6:30 am. The weigh-ins took place with Rashad Coulter missing weight for his light heavyweight fight against Hu Yaozong and will be fined 20% of his purse. Below is the full card and weights:
MAIN CARD (6:30 am Eastern on Fight Pass)
*Curtis Blaydes (260) vs. Francis Ngannou (254)
*Alistair Overeem (247) vs. Sergey Pavlovich (257)
*David Zawada (170) vs. Li Jingliang (171)
*Vincent Morales (136) vs. Song Yadong (136)
PRELIMINARY CARDS (3:15 am Eastern)
*Alex Morono (170.5) vs. Song Kenan (170)
*Wu Yanan (126) vs. Lauren Mueller (126)
*Rashad Coulter (208*) vs. Hu Yaozong (205)
*Weili Zhang (116) vs. Jessica Aguilar (115)
*Martin Day (136) vs. Liu Pingyuan (135)
*Syuri Kondo (115.5) vs. Yan Xiaonan (116)
*John Phillips (186) vs. Kevin Holland (186)
*Louis Smolka (135.5) vs. Sumudaerji Sumudaerji (134.5)
[wp_ad_camp_5]
**The fight that is receiving the most attention this week is the Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz fight that is set for Saturday night on Golden Boy’s first Mixed martial arts pay-per-view. Liddell is coming out of retirement for his first fight since June 2010 while Ortiz is coming out of his own retirement that took place in January 2017. Expectations for both fighters will be measured, especially Liddell who was becoming knockout prone toward the end of his career and going down from punches that a younger version of himself would have walked through. Ortiz is not a power striker and it would be surprising to see him win the fight in that way, although there is no way of predicting how Liddell will look. Ortiz is a comfortable favorite on sports books and seems the logical pick. The fight is all spectacle and the real outcome that matters it the pay-per-view’s performance for a card promoted around one fight that is heavy on nostalgia. Below is the main card line up for Saturday night and results from today’s weigh-in:
*Chuck Liddell (203.4) vs. Tito Ortiz (204.8)
*Tom Lawlor (199.6) vs. Deron Winn (205.6)
*Gleison Tibau (159.4) vs. Efrain Escudero (159.8)
*Walel Watson (139.4) vs. Ricardo Palacios (142*)
*Albert Morales (135) vs. James Barnes (135.2)
**Brandon Vera had his first fight in two years on the ONE Championship card this morning from Manila. Vera needed 64 seconds to stop Mauro Cerilli with a first-round knockout and earning his fourth consecutive win. Vera has fought sparingly since joining ONE in 2014 with four fights during that time. Vera became the promotion’s heavyweight champion in December 2015 when he stopped Paul Cheng and defended it in December 2016, which was his last fight until today.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #24: AAA & IWC’s WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE 1994
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the highly-acclaimed When Worlds Collide event from November 1994 and welcome Rob Bihari to the show to chat about the card, the legacy of the event, Art Barr, AAA’s expansion attempts and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/23/rewind-a-wai-24-aaa-iwcs-when-worlds-collide-1994/
*****
upNXT 11/22/18: WAR GAMES HANGOVER
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman chat this week’s episode of WWE NXT featuring the “Hangover” from this past weekend’s TakeOver: War Games. Tons of recaps, Candice LeRae vs. Nikki Cross, an angle with Lars Sullivan & Keith Lee, and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/22/upnxt-11-22-18-war-games-hangover/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 11/21: Dean Ambrose & AJ Styles’ WWE Network specials, Nick Gage vs. David Arquette
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the WWE Network’s specials on Dean Ambrose & AJ Styles, Nick Gage vs. David Arqutte & Being the Elite.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/21/double-shot-11-21-dean-ambrose-aj-styles-wwe-network-specials-nick-gage-vs-david-arquette/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 11/20: The “New” Daniel Bryan, Orton unmasks Mysterio
The WWE’s final night at the Staples Center featured Daniel Bryan’s explanation for his turn on AJ Styles last week and the enlightenment he acquired from the use of a hyperbaric chamber, a big angle to close the show involving Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio, Eli Everfly involved in a match with Shane McMahon, Charlotte Flair’s rampage on The IIconics, and the Thanksgiving Feast Fight.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/21/rasd-11-20-18-the-new-daniel-bryan-orton-unmasks-mysterio/
*****
RAR 11/19/18: Survivor Series fallout, Braun Strowman attacked
WWE returns to L.A.’s Staples Center for the third straight night with the fallout from Survivor Series. We explain what’s going on with the Braun Strowman injury angle, Ronda Rousey defends her title against Mickie James, A-O-PEE-PEE emerges, and Seth Rollins searches for Dean Ambrose for three hours.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/20/rar-11-19-18-survivor-series-fallout-braun-strowman-attacked/
*****
WWE SURVIVOR SERIES POST SHOW w/ John Pollock & Wai Ting
John Pollock & Wai Ting provide an extensive review of the WWE Survivor Series with a two-hour discussion of the event from Los Angeles, California at the Staples Center.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/19/wwe-survivor-series-2018-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting/
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES POST SHOW
The upNXT crew of Braden Herrington & Davie Portman is joined by John Pollock to review the NXT TakeOver War Games event from Los Angeles on Saturday night.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/18/nxt-takeover-war-games-post-show-with-braden-herrington-davie-portman-john-pollock/
*****
EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion: 2010 w/ Damon McDonald
Episode 22 sees Chris Charlton and Damon McDonald look at 2010. Shinsuke Nakamura faces Yoshihiro Takayama in the main event of a show that also sees NJPW opposite NOAH in several bouts.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/17/eggshells-podcast-companion-2010-w-damon-mcdonald/
*****
Browse the new POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
