POST IT NOTES
**A new edition of the British Wrestling Experience is up with Martin Bushby and Benno joined by Lee Malone from Voices of Wrestling. The three go over this past weekend’s OTT Homecoming card, Rev Pro’s High Stakes card with Will Ospreay vs. PAC, Benno’s experience at Preston City Wrestling and the latest on NXT UK, Progress, Kip Sabian to AEW, 16 Carat tournament & more.
**We have today’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown posted with Wai Ting and I reviewing SmackDown, going over the handling of the NXT talent on their second night on the main roster, Mandy Rose pins Asuka, and Kofi Kingston set to face Daniel Bryan at Fastlane. Plus, we chat about the latest involving the NXT call ups and their schedules, a discussion on a recent interview with The Young Bucks, and your feedback.
**We also have the Double Shot up for members of the POST Wrestling Café. On this week’s show, Wai and I have reviews of:
-The World’s Strongest Man: The Mark Henry Story on the WWE Network
-Total Bellas covering the injury to Liv Morgan last year on Raw
-Being the Elite Episode 139
-WALTER vs. PAC and Jordan Devlin vs. David Starr from OTT’s Homecoming 2 card this past Sunday
**Wai Ting and I will be live with the Café Hangout Thursday at 3 pm Eastern for Double Double, Iced Capp and Espresso members of the Café. The big focus will be the retirement announcement of Georges St-Pierre and we may have some guests on the show as well as your calls.
**Thursday’s edition of upNXT will feature Braden Herrington being joined by Wai Ting to review this week’s show and discuss a busy week for the brand.
**I’ll be a guest on Sportsnet 590 The Fan in Toronto on Thursday morning at 8:12 am Eastern to discuss the retirement of Georges St-Pierre.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The Hollywood Reporter announced that a biopic on Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea is in the works with actor Chris Hemsworth slated to play the role of Hogan. The deal is in the final stages of being closed with Netflix with Michael Sugar scheduled to produce the film with director Todd Phillips and writer Scott Silver, the latter two worked together on “The Joker”. THR adds that the film will focus on the rise of Hulk Hogan and cover his origin rather than the past decade and the scandals involving Gawker, his sex tape and the racist rant contained on the tape that led to his firing by the WWE in the summer of 2015. THR states that Hogan will serve as a consultant and Eric Bischoff will also have a role as one of the producers. There was no time frame provided for production to begin or a release.
**The main event of Fastlane will be Daniel Bryan defending the WWE title against Kofi Kingston March 10th in Cleveland, Ohio. There was another plan for Bryan on this show, but they made the change on Monday due to the momentum behind Kingston. The card will also feature a rematch with The Usos defending the SmackDown tag titles against Shane McMahon and The Miz. As of Tuesday, the plan was for Sasha Banks and Bayley to defend the women’s tag titles on the show against Nia Jax and Tamina, which was teased on Raw but not officially announced.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of NXT on the WWE Network at 8 pm Eastern:
*Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream for the North American title
*Roderick Strong vs. Aleister Black
*Xia Li vs. Mia Yim
**They are also promoting a special announcement on tonight’s NXT episode.
**Late Tuesday night, Tye Dillinger (Ron Arneil) announced via his social media that he had requested his release from the WWE. POST Wrestling has reached out to the company to confirm what his status is with the company and have yet to hear back as of this writing. Cody responded to his announcement by writing:
Fearless. I can’t wait to see what you do next. I wish you all the happiness in the world old friend. Don’t settle.
**NXT will also be holding television tapings tonight at Full Sail University and dealing with the recent decisions to call up Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Ricochet and Aleister Black. For the time being, the four are going to be appearing on Raw and SmackDown while also doing NXT until they wrap up. There is another set of tapings on March 13th, which will be the final set before TakeOver in Brooklyn.
**EVOLVE has announced that Ricochet will no longer be wrestling on the March 15th and 16th cards. The WWE is sending Velveteen Dream to replace Ricochet, although Ricochet will be still be appearing at the show for meet-and-greet sessions.
**On Thursday’s episode of Road to Double or Nothing, Cody announced that the Over Budget Battle Royal will return at Double or Nothing. They announced Sonny Kiss, Kip Sabian, and Brandon Cutler for the match. Cody stated there would be something for the winner without announcing what it would be.
**205 Live will be holding a single elimination tournament with the winner facing Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight title at WrestleMania. The tournament kicks off next Tuesday in Charlotte with Drew Gulak vs. Brian Kendrick and Kalisto vs. Tony Nese.
**New Japan will be holding a card at Korakuen Hall Thursday at 5:30 am Eastern featuring Takashi Iizuka’s retirement match in the main event. The event will be streaming live on New Japan World and below is the card:
*Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Yuya Uemura
*Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Toa Henare & Tiger Mask
*Yuji Nagata and Shota Umino vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi
*Roppongi 3K vs. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Zack Sabre Jr. and Taka Michinoku vs. Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi
*Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay vs. Killer Elite Squad
*Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Toru Yano vs. Takashi Iizuka, Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
**Here is an interview with Kazuchika Okada discussing Takashi Iizuka and being part of his retirement match.
**New Japan will continue with the two Honor Rising shows on Friday and Saturday from Korakuen Hall. Friday’s Honor Rising event features Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Jay Lethal vs. The Kingdom in the main event along with Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto for the ROH Television title and Will Ospreay vs. Dalton Castle for the NEVER Openweight title.
**Andrew Everett has announced that he will be requiring surgery for a torn meniscus. He stated he plans to fulfill his commitments through the end of March and then have surgery, which he explained would be costly. He suffered a slightly torn MCL and meniscus back in October during a match with Trevor Lee for CWF. The MCL has healed but the meniscus has not, resulting in his knee locking up in his matches and limiting his movement. Everett had been wrestling with Impact Wrestling since 2015 and was granted his release from the company last September.
**Impact Wrestling has announced a Monster’s Ball match between Sami Callihan and Jimmy Havoc for April 4th at the United We Stand card in Rahway, New Jersey.
**New Japan World has added five matches from the Giant Baba Memorial show featuring New Japan talent. This includes the main event with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu facing Kento Miyahara and Daisuke Sekimoto.
**Sunday night’s episode of Total Bellas was up 7.5% with 426,000 viewers for this past week’s episode. The jump is encouraging given the show was going against the NBA All-Star Game and a live UFC card on ESPN as well as Elimination Chamber.
**MLW has announced a match between DJZ and Ace Austin for Intimidation Games on March 2nd at Cicero Stadium in Chicago.
**NXT UK will be holding television tapings on April 19th and 20th at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. They will also tape television June 14-16th at the Download Festival at Donington Park and July 19th and 20th in Plymouth at the Plymouth Pavilions. They are advertising all the top NXT UK talent, including Pete Dunne, WALTER, Tyler Bate, Jordan Devlin, Trent Seven, Rhea Ripley, and Jinny.
**Australian Suicide has been announced for Part 1 of Joey Janela’s Spring Break card on Friday, April 5th in Jersey City.
**The WWE stock closed at $86.27 on Wednesday.
MMA NEWS
**A press conference is scheduled for Thursday morning at the Bell Centre in Montreal where Georges St-Pierre is expected to announce his retirement. St-Pierre has not fought since November 2017 when he moved up in weight to win the middleweight title from Michael Bisping. St-Pierre suffered from colitis after the fight and vacated the championship. In ESPN’s report, Ariel Helwani states that St-Pierre was hopeful of having a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, but the fight was unable to materialize. This will be a very big story over the next 24 hours with lots of coverage on his retirement and leaving the sport as arguably the greatest to ever do it.
We have a big story on the career and legacy of St-Pierre on the site.
**Here is a clip from St-Pierre that is listed from January 31st as he discussed his interest in fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov:
**Since the news of St-Pierre’s pending retirement broke, the following statement was posted on Khabib Nuramgomedov’s Instagram account:
Let’s do it in November. After this fight you can retire. I grow up on your fights, and have nothing but respect for you, and I believe showed that to you George when you were in Moscow.But, it would be honor for me to share Octagon with one of the greatest fighters of all time. Let’s do it 155 lbs, or I give away 5lbs to you, cause you newer done 155. Well, it’s your choice 155 or 160, Montreal, NYC, Moscow or Abu Dhabi. Send me location my Friend.
Ariel Helwani contacted St-Pierre about Nurmagomedov’s post and told Helwani:
I saw what Khabib wrote, and I appreciate it very much. Unfortunately, these decisions aren’t up to us. I will address everything at the press conference tomorrow.
**Saturday’s UFC card on ESPN averaged 1,463,000 viewers for the main card, which featured a 26-second main event between Francis Ngannou and Cain Velasquez. The preliminary card on the network averaged 988,000 viewers from 7-9 pm Eastern. The card had competition from the NBA All-Star Game that did 5,766,000 viewers on TNT, although was finished before the main event.
**The UFC has announced a return to Ottawa, Ontario on Saturday, May 4th at the Canadian Tire Centre. The promotion has announced a middleweight fight between Derek Brunson and Elias Theodorou for the card. They have also announced Arjan Bhullar vs. Juan Adams, Aiemann Zahabi vs. Vince Morales, Mitch Gagnon vs. Brian Kelleher, Andrew Sanchez vs. Marc-Andre Barriault, and Merab Dvalishvili facing Brad Katona. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 8th with more fight announcements to come. The last time they ran a card in Ottawa was in June 2016 with Stephen Thompson defeating Rory MacDonald in the main event.
**Dave Meltzer reported at MMA Fighting that Jake Hager’s opponent on May 11th at Bellator 221 will be 1-1 heavyweight TJ Jones. Hager made his debut last month with a first-round submission win against J.W. Kiser. Jones made his pro debut in March 2015 and didn’t fight again until October 2017, which is the time he competed. The card will take place at the Allstate Arena in Chicago.
**Friday’s Bellator 215 card averaged 365,000 viewers on the Paramount Network for their first of two straight nights of shows. The card was headlined by Matt Mitrione vs. Sergei Kharitonov, which only lasted 15 seconds when Mitrione kicked him low and Kharitonov was unable to continue so it was ruled a no contest. Saturday’s card aired exclusive on DAZN and was the bigger card, but we don’t have streaming numbers from DAZN. The promotion returns Saturday with a live card on the Paramount Network and DAZN from Dublin, Ireland.
**USADA has announced that Jake Collier has accepted a ten-month suspension after testing positive for Higenamine in an out-of-competition test on December 27th, 2018. Collier put out a statement where he acknowledged taking a supplement that was recommended to him. The substance did list the banned substance on the label, which he states he was unaware was banned. Collier hasn’t fought since November 2017 and holds an 11-4 record and defeated Marcel Fortuna in his last fight.
*****
BWE 2/20/19: Rev Pro High Stakes, OTT Homecoming 2, NXT UK, PCW in Blackpool
Martin and Benno are joined by Lee Malone of Voices Of Wrestling to talk Revolution Pro Wrestling High Stakes (Will Ospreay vs. PAC), Over The Top Homecoming 2 (Starr vs. Devlin, PAC vs. Walter) and Benno’s trip to Blackpool for Preston City Wrestling Road To Glory.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/20/bwe-2-20-19-rev-pro-high-stakes-ott-homecoming-2-nxt-uk-pcw-in-blackpool-wxw-icw/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 2/20: Mark Henry documentary, OTT Homecoming 2, Total Bellas, BTE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review World’s Strongest Man: The Mark Henry Story, the latest Total Bellas feat. Liv Morgan’s injury, Being the Elite and matches from OTT’s Homecoming 2.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24828807
*****
RASD 2/19/19: #KofiFastlane, NXT Talent Return, Mandy Rose pins Asuka
Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown featured the announcement of Daniel Bryan’s next title challenger at Fastlane along with a six-man tag involving the members of Sunday’s Elimination Chamber match.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/20/rasd-2-19-19-kofifastlane-nxt-talent-return-mandy-rose-pins-asuka/
*****
RAR 2/18/19: NXT-Tease, DX into the Hall of Fame, Rousey-Riott rematch
Following Elimination Chamber, Raw featured four big NXT call ups with NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa, North American champion Johnny Gargano, Ricochet and Aleister Black all wrestling on the show. Plus, Ronda Rousey defended her title in a rematch against Ruby Riott, “The Brock Lesnar Story” narrated by Paul Heyman, the first official inductees into the WWE’s Hall of Fame 2019 class & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/19/rar-2-18-19-nx-tease-dx-into-hall-of-fame-rousey-riott-rematch/
*****
WWE Elimination Chamber POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Elimination Chamber 2019 from Houston, Texas featuring another great performance for Kofi Kingston, new WWE tag team women’s champions, and several title changes on a show that exceeded our expectations.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/18/wwe-elimination-chamber-2019-post-show
*****
TRMPS #2: The Rundown (2003) w/ Jay Hunter & Stephen “V1” Roe
On this edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Nate Milton welcomes Jay Hunter & V1 (OSW Review) into the theater to review 2003’s The Rundown! Is it as bad a film as the box-office would suggest? Was Seann William Scott TOO annoying?? Did Chris Walken even bother reading the script??? Find out the answers to those questions & more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/16/trmps-2-the-rundown-2003-w-jay-hunter-stephen-v1-roe/
*****
WWE Elimination Chamber Preview w/ Nate Milton
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Nate Milton (The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Kings of Sport) to preview WWE Elimination Chamber 2019. We also discuss the arrest of Jimmy Uso following a drunken dispute with a police officer.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/15/wwe-elimination-chamber-preview-w-nate-milton-cafe-hangout-live-2-14-19/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #30: WWE King of the Ring 2002 (Patreon)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE King of the Ring 2002 featuring The Undertaker vs. Triple H for the WWE Undisputed Championship and the finals of the King of the Ring tournament.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24711044
*****
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