POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will be hosting a special Q&A show over WrestleMania weekend in New York City. We are happy to announce that POST Wrestling LIVE from New York will be going down Sunday, April 7th from the Broadway Comedy Club (318 W 53rd Street in New York City). The Q&A portion will begin at Noon with a meet-and-greet to follow from 1:30 – 2:30 pm and leaving you with lots of time to get to MetLife Stadium for WrestleMania. We will be releasing ticket information shortly, but you can save the date if you are planning to attend.
**We have today’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw posted on the site with Wai Ting and I reviewing Monday’s show from Phoenix following the Royal Rumble. We discussed the big segment with Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch, the closing angle involving Brock Lesnar’s attack on Seth Rollins, new directions for the key talent, news from the day, the Royal Rumble Pool winner and much more.
**Wai Ting and I will be back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown. For members of the POST Wrestling Café, we will have a new edition of the Double Shot out later tonight with reviews of:
-WWF Raw is War from Feb. 21, 2000, leading into No Way Out (which we will review Friday)
-WWF Chronicle: Paige
-WWE 24: WrestleMania 35
-Total Bellas
-Being the Elite
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE:
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Tonight: Double Shot – WWE 24, WWE Chronicle: Paige, Raw is War from Feb. 21st, 2000, Total Bellas, Being the Elite
*Thursday: Café Hangout (Live at 3 pm Eastern for Double Double + members)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington and Davie Portman
*Friday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock and WH Park
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai #29 on WWF No Way Out 2000 (Patreon)
*Sunday: NJPW New Beginning POST Show with reviews of both cards (Patreon)
*Sunday: upNXT bonus review of “Halftime Heat”
WRESTLING NEWS
UPDATE: The WWE has released the following statement to the media, confirming the Pro Wrestling Torch’s story on Dean Ambrose:
Dean Ambrose (Jonathan Good) will not be renewing his contract with WWE when it expires in April. We are grateful and appreciative of all that Dean has given to WWE and our fans. We wish him well and hope that one day Dean will return to WWE.
**Late Monday night, a report came out from Wade Keller at the Pro Wrestling Torch site that Dean Ambrose (Jonathan Good) has turned down a contract extension and would be leaving the company after WrestleMania once his deal is up. The report states that Ambrose informed management of his decision not to negotiate further adding that it wasn’t about getting more money. Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com has added that Ambrose was offered a five-year contract worth a little over seven-figures annually and was turned down by Ambrose’s side.
Ambrose was signed by the company in 2011 and reported to Florida Championship Wrestling. He was originally pegged for a storyline with Mick Foley, which began with an ambush video by Ambrose over WrestleMania weekend in Miami in 2012 but the idea was dropped. He made his actual main roster debut that year at the Survivor Series as a member of The Shield with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. It was Ambrose who was pegged early on to be the breakout star of the three with his unique mannerisms and delivery that drew frequent comparisons to Terry Funk, Dick Slater, and Roddy Piper. The Shield was a main event act throughout their run, which only lasted 18 months. It was Rollins who was given the spot of turning on the team and becoming the pushed heel, although was an underling to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as a member of The Authority.
Dean Ambrose would feud with Rollins throughout 2014 while the company had their stock behind Roman Reigns as the heir apparent to John Cena. Ambrose was at his hottest during this period where he had enough momentum that he seemed ready for the top spot above Reigns. This didn’t pan out as they put off Reigns winning the WWE title at WrestleMania 31 in March 2015 and had Rollins cash in his Money in the Bank contract and leave with the title.
Ambrose gained the reputation of the workhorse on the roster, never missing dates and working the most matches of anyone on the roster. In 2016, he had his highest profile match at WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar but came when Lesnar had his sights on a return to the UFC later that summer. Lesnar received criticism for his lack of effort in the match with Ambrose, with the latter having big plans for the match ahead of time for the biggest match and stage of his career.
He received his biggest push in 2016 when a set of circumstances involving a Wellness Policy violation by Roman Reigns and subsequent suspension led to Ambrose winning the WWE title in June 2016. Reigns was the champion, lost the title to Seth Rollins followed by Ambrose cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and pinning Rollins the same night. Ambrose became the top champion on SmackDown as they split the brands that summer. Ambrose only held the title until September when AJ Styles defeated him for the title and became the top star on the brand. Ambrose would only make it onto the kickoff show of WrestleMania 33 in April 2017.
In 2017, Ambrose suffered a torn biceps that took him out of action for the first half of 2018 with numerous complications stemming from the recovery process. He returned last summer and turned on partner Seth Rollins in October, the same night Roman Reigns made his announcement about battling leukemia and came off in poor taste over the subsequent weeks.
**Tonight’s episode of SmackDown is their fourth straight night in Phoenix with another show at the Talking Resort Arena. They have announced a celebration from Shane McMahon and The Miz after winning the tag titles. There will also be follow up on the women’s title match for WrestleMania, which as of today is scheduled to be a three-way match with Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair.
**LIDET Entertainment has purchased a majority stake in Pro Wrestling NOAH. The group has purchased a 75% ownership stake in the group and is expected to install their own executives with many of the current staff set to depart the company. NOAH’s chairman Masayuki Uchida is among those departing the company and will take on an advisory role with Lidet, which is a similar agreement that Dixie Carter made with Anthem Sports when the purchase of Impact Wrestling was completed. Company president Yusuke Fuwa will stay on board with NOAH, but the company will be overseen by Yukihiro Takeda, who reports to LIDET’s owner Hiroyuki Suzuki.
**It was first reported by 1wrestling.com that Jeff Jarrett has signed with the WWE and is expected to take a role as a backstage producer. It is quite an amazing story involving Jarrett and finding his way back in the company in a full-time position 18 years after being essentially fired on Raw when WCW was bought out.
Jarrett’s last stint with the company ended in October 1999 with his contract set to expire the day before that year’s No Mercy pay-per-view event. Jarrett was still Intercontinental champion and negotiated a large fee to work the pay-per-view and drop the title to Chyna in a professional manner. Jarrett was free to go and appeared on Monday Nitro the following night, which was the first episode written by Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara who had just left the WWF for WCW earlier that month. When Jarrett wasn’t brought in with other WCW talent, he went on to form NWA TNA along with his father in June 2002. Jarrett returned and entered the WWE Hall of Fame last year after being let go by Impact Wrestling the previous fall where he had been serving as an executive with Anthem Sports.
**Ember Moon (Adrienne Reese) is scheduled to undergo elbow surgery with no timetable for how long she will be out. She spoke to WWE.com and indicated she been gone for a while. She stated that she worked last year’s Royal Rumble match with one arm and did the same this year. She was in this year’s Rumble match for just over 52 minutes.
**KUSHIDA wrestled his final match with New Japan Pro Wrestling on Tuesday against Hiroshi Tanahashi. They had a solid match that went almost 25 minutes with KUSHIDA fighting for the Hoverboard Lock throughout the match and Tanahashi attacking KUSHIDA’s knee. Tanahashi kicked out of Back to the Future and couldn’t land the High Fly Flow, so he submitted KUSHIDA with the Texas cloverleaf. After the match, Jay White attacked Tanahashi and wrapped a chair around Tanahashi’s knee and blasted it with another chair to set up an injury going into the title match next week. KUSHIDA gave a farewell speech to the audience at Korakuen Hall after the angle and thanked Tanahashi for teaching him what pro wrestling is.
**Andy Boy Simmonz was part of the English commentary team with Kevin Kelly for today’s card on New Japan World.
**Next week’s episode of Raw in Portland, Oregon will feature an Elimination Chamber Qualifying match with Sasha Banks and Bayley vs. Nikki Cross and Alicia Fox. On Monday, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan and Nia Jax & Tamina became the first teams to qualify for the match to determine the first women’s tag champions.
**Pro Wrestling Guerrilla will hold their 200th show on Friday, March 1st at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles with tickets going on sale next Tuesday. They have announced the following card
*Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido for the PWG title
*Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz vs. Santana and Ortiz vs. Pentagon Jr. and Fenix for the PWG tag titles
*David Starr vs. Jonathan Gresham
*Brody King vs. Darby Allin
*Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher vs. Chuckie T. and Beretta
*Puma King vs. Laredo Kid
*Jungle Boy vs. Trey Miguel vs. Jake Atlas
**Black Label Pro has announced that Grado will take on Orange Cassidy on April 5th at the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City during WrestleMania week.
**Jimmy Jacobs is hosting a seminar in conjunction with Pro Wrestling Revolver on Saturday, March 9th at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines, Iowa. Spots are available for $40 by contacting [email protected].
MMA NEWS
**The Nevada Athletic Commission held hearings on Tuesday involving Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor to hand out punishments for their roles in the brawl following their fight at UFC 229 in October. Nurmagomedov received the steepest punishment with a fine of $500,000 and a nine-month suspension that could be reduced up to three months if the lightweight champion films an anti-bullying PSA. The suspension is retroactive to October 6th, 2018. The fine represents 25% of his guaranteed disclosed purse of $2,000,000 for the fight.
For his part in the brawl, McGregor will receive a fine of $50,000 and a six-month suspension that is also retroactive to the date of the fight meaning he would eligible to fight April 6th this year.
Nurmagomedov’s teammates and cornermen, Zubaira Tukhugov and Abubakar Nurmagomedov were each issued suspensions of one-year and $25,000 fines for getting involved in the post-match brawl. Tukhugov has been fighting for the UFC since 2014 with a 3-1 record with the organization. He was scheduled to fight Artem Lobov last October but was removed from the fight for his role in this brawl. Nurmagomedov is the cousin of Khabib and has fought for World Series of Fighting (now the PFL) since 2015. He fought two weeks after UFC 229 where he fought Bojan Velickovic to a unanimous draw at PFL 10.
**The hearing for Jon Jones is ongoing throughout the day and we will have a report on the hearing later today.
**ESPN has announced earlier start times for the upcoming Fight Night events to end shows earlier. Below are the start times for the next series of main cards coming up:
*February 2nd in Fortaleza, Brazil – 8 pm (Raphael Assuncao vs. Marlon Moraes)
*February 9th in Phoenix, Arizona – 9 pm (Cain Velasquez vs. Francis Ngannou)
*February 23rd in Prague, Czech Republic – 2 pm (Jan Blachowicz vs. Thiago Santos)
*March 9th in Wichita, Kansas – 8 pm (Derrick Lewis vs. Junior dos Santos)
*March 16th in London, England at 3 pm (Darren Till vs. Jorge Masvidal)
*March 23rd in Nashville, Tennessee – 8 pm (Anthony Pettis vs. Stephen Thompson)
*March 30th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 7 pm (Justin Gaethje vs. Edson Barboza)
*****
RAR 1/28/19: Royal Rumble fallout, Becky Lynch picks opponent, Jeff Jarrett
John & Wai discuss Raw after last night’s Royal Rumble with the main matches at WrestleMania 35 taking form, Becky Lynch selects the champion she will challenge, Jeff Jarrett and Road Dogg perform “With My Baby Tonight”, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/29/rar-1-28-19-rumble-fallout-becky-picks-opponent-jeff-jarrett/
*****
WWE Royal Rumble 2019 POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Royal Rumble 2019 from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. They breakdown the entire card and discuss the winners of the Royal Rumble matches, which matches delivered and which didn’t click, the handling of John Cena’s absence and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/28/wwe-royal-rumble-2019-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting/
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: PHOENIX POST SHOW
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman have a full review of the NXT TakeOver: Phoenix card going through all the matches, title changes, and future directions.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/27/nxt-takeover-phoenix-post-show/
*****
Café Hangout: Royal Rumble Preview with Jimmy Korderas
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Aftermath TV co-host and former WWE referee, Jimmy Korderas to preview this weekend’s Royal Rumble. Plus, we take your calls and talk Ronda Rousey’s future with WWE, Abyss & Sonjay Dutt joining WWE, NJPW’s US visa issues, Daniel Bryan goes off on Chase Field, NXT TakeOver: Phoenix, and WWE Worlds Collide.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/25/royal-rumble-preview-w-jimmy-korderas-cafe-hangout-live-1-24-19/
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything (February 2019)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the February 2018 edition of Ask-A-Wai. In this 107 min podcast, we discuss AEW, Patreon, UFC, Energy Drinks, ASMR, The Undertaker, Impact and more.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24213974
*****
upNXT 1/24/19: DIY Another Day
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman chat this week’s “Go Home” episode of NXT featuring a huge angle involving DIY, Ricochet and Aleister Black, an amazing sleeper hit tag team match between Lorcan & Burch vs. Aichner & Barthel, Velveteen Dream vs. Bobby Fish, and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/24/upnxt-1-24-19-diy-another-day/
*****
BWE 1/23/19: NXT UK, ITV World of Sport Tour, PAC vs. ZSJ
In a packed show, Benno and guests Will Cooling (Fighting Spirit Magazine) and JP Houlihan (Eurograps, The Indy Corner) talk NXT UK’s first TV show since Takeover: Blackpool, ITV World Of Sport’s UK tour, the Zack Sabre Jr. vs. PAC match from Rev Pro, plus the latest news and announcements from Progress, OTT and Fight Club Pro.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/01/24/bwe-1-23-19-nxt-uk-itv-world-of-sport-tour-pac-vs-zsj-progress-ott-fight-club-pro/
*****
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