POST IT NOTES
**We have Rewind-A-Wai #38 out today with Wai Ting and I reviewing the WWE Backlash 2004 card from Edmonton, Alberta. This was selected by Espresso Executive Producer Ian Kushner. This show featured a rematch from that year’s WrestleMania with Chris Benoit defending the World title against Triple H and Shawn Michaels in Benoit’s hometown. The show is most remembered for the classic between Mick Foley and Randy Orton that cemented Orton’s status in the climax of their several month-long feud. Plus, we look at this era of WWE in 2004, the news items from that week, how this show drew, the hot streak Raw was having on television, and the usual Trivia Gauntlet game at the end. This show is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**On this week’s Café Hangout, we were joined by Anthony Kingdom James to discuss the return of his promotion – the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers for a card this August in Toronto. We discuss the decision to promote again, a crowded week of shows in Toronto during SummerSlam week, the Ontario independent scene, loyalty to specific promotions, his match last year with Tarik, and LEGO.
Plus, Damian Abraham stops by for his weekly chat about The Wrestlers on Viceland. This week we discuss the Death Match episode featuring Atsushi Onita, Jun Kasai, Danny Havoc, and more.
**There will be new editions of Cruel Summer coming out Saturday and Sunday morning here on the site. On Saturday’s show, WH Park welcomes Martin Bushby of the British Wrestling Experience to discuss the finals of the 1995 G1 Climax between Keiji Mutoh and Shinya Hashimoto. On Sunday’s show, WH reviews the finals of the 1996 G1 Climax between Riki Choshu and Masa Chono with STRIGGA of the Eastern Lariat podcast. Cruel Summer is available through the main POST Wrestling RSS feed.
**On Sunday night, a new edition of POST Puroresu will be out with WH Park and I chatting all the latest news. We will go through the highlights of the Best of the Super Juniors, the news following Dominion, the addition of KENTA, Jon Moxley’s arriving, the G1, the recent Kento Miyahara vs. Shuji Ishikawa Triple Crown match, and lots more.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The hottest tickets in wrestling did not last long with another instant sellout by All Elite Wrestling. As expected, tickets for the August 31st “All Out” event at the Sears Centre sold out within 15 minutes after going on sale today at Noon Eastern. This follows the immediate sellouts for last year’s “All In” card at the same arena and last month’s Double or Nothing show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Those purchasing tickets were limited to four per person and the numbers listed in the queue to buy tickets were staggering and listing over 60,000 people at one point. If accurate, those numbers are mind-boggling and tell you that they drastically underestimated the size of the venue to run.
There were two matches announced in advance for the card with Chris Jericho facing Hangman Page for the AEW title and Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley announced on Thursday. Fans have distinguished between the major shows from AEW and the smaller ones with tickets still available for Fyter Fest in Daytona Beach on June 29th and Fight for the Fallen at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville on July 13th. When it comes to the big shows, it has become increasingly difficult to secure tickets unless you resort to the secondary market where I expect enormous demand.
**The Raw crew starts their weekend tour in Winnipeg, Manitoba tonight featuring Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin. Becky Lynch is not listed for tonight’s show, the only other match advertised is Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. The Raw crew heads to Anaheim on Saturday for a show at the Honda Center, which Lynch is listed for. The SmackDown crew starts Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado featuring Kofi Kingston, Roman Reigns, and Bayley. On Sunday, the Raw is in San Diego and SmackDown is in Salt Lake City, Utah. There is no SmackDown house show on Monday, so all talent is available for Raw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 10 pm Eastern:
*Ethan Page & Josh Alexander vs. Rob Van Dam & Sabu
*Michael Elgin vs. Willie Mack
*Madison Rayne vs. Jordynne Grace
*The return of Jessicka Havok
**NXT UK is running shows in conjunction with the Download Festival at Donington Park in England this weekend. There will be a show tonight and then two shows each on Saturday and Sunday and Noon and 5 pm. Kyle O’Reilly noted he was unable to go to the shows due to a back injury stemming from the ladder match at TakeOver earlier this month.
**Fite TV has confirmed that they will be carrying Fyter Fest on Saturday, June 29th for those outside the U.S., U.K., and Ireland. We have been told Fite will be doing the same for the Fight for the Fallen card next month.
**Steve Austin’s podcast will be returning next Tuesday, and his guest will be AEW president Tony Khan.
**Sunday’s New Japan Kizuna Road card from Korakuen Hall will stream live at 5:30 am Eastern on New Japan World. In the main event, Roppongi 3K defends the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles against El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori. The major news on the show will be the announcement of the G1 Climax participants.
**AAA’s annual Verano de Escandalo (‘Summer of Scandal’) card takes place this Sunday night from Merida, Yucatan in Mexico from the Poliforum Zamna with a live stream of the event on their Twitch channel at 5 pm Eastern. One of the big matches features the Young Bucks returning to Mexico to defend the AAA tag titles against Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix in a rematch from Double or Nothing. There was a lot of buzz this week for the promotion following Laredo Kid and El Hijo del Vikingo’s match in Monterrey last Sunday. The two are in different matches this weekend but it’s a good-looking card from AAA and it’s happening on a quiet weekend where they have the night to themselves. Below is the full lineup:
*Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr. & Taurus
*The Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix for the AAA tag titles
*El Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. & La Parka vs. El Texano Jr., La Hiedra & Rey Escorpion
*Puma King, Aerostar & Pagano vs. Killer Kross, Monster Clown & Chessman
*Laredo Kid & Taya Valkyrie vs. Daga & Tessa Blanchard
*Maximo & Mamba vs. Sammy Guevara & Australian Suicide
*Faby Apache vs. El Hijo del Tirantes
*Lady Shani vs. Chik Tormenta vs. Keyra for the AAA Reina de Reinas championship
**Chinlock Wrestling is running a charity event this weekend at the Leon’s Centre in Kingston, Ontario. There will be a legends convention from 10 am until 5 followed by a wrestling show in the evening. The convention will feature Bret Hart, Mark Henry, Tommy Dreamer, Billy Gunn, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Fred Ottman, Jimmy Hart, Swoggle, and Jimmy Korderas. The wrestling card starts at 7 pm Easter in conjunction with Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion. It will feature Willie Mack vs. Sami Callihan for the HOH title, Tommy Dreamer & Billy Gunn vs. Tyson Dux & Tarik, Swoggle vs. RJ City, Jessie Mack vs. Addy Starr vs. Beautiful Beaa vs. Madison Rayne, Ray St-Jean vs. Sebastian Suave, a 25-man battle royal, and more.
**Killer Kross spoke to the Wrestling Perspective podcast regarding the report from PWinsider.com last month. Kross confirmed the outlet’s reporting as accurate and that he did request his release from Impact Wrestling. Kross stated it came down to financial issues and believed he was misled regarding what resources were available. In the podcast, he indicated that he was made aware of what others were making and had been told differently regarding the financial figures the company could commit to. Kross reportedly asked for a six-figure guaranteed contract and Impact countered with a restructured three-year deal that was less than six-figures. Kross was complimentary to Impact in the interview, acknowledging that he ‘barely existed’ in the industry before starting with the company last year.
**Colt Cabana suffered a right leg last week during a match with Chris Masters during a match in St. Paul, Minnesota. The two were wrestling for F1rst Wrestling at an event called Mitzvah Mayhem and Cabana hit a splash and thought he had a charley horse. Later that week, the pain was bad enough he could not walk and went to the emergency room where they diagnosed it as a hematoma on the quadriceps. Cabana was scheduled to wrestle this weekend for AIW in Cleveland but had to cancel due to the injury.
**The Guerrillas of Destiny will defend the ROH tag titles against The Briscoes in a New York City Street Fight at the Manhattan Mayhem card on Saturday, July 20th at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
**Ric Flair apologized to Shawn Michaels in a message posted earlier this week. Previously, Flair had been upset with the comments made by Michaels in the 30 for 30 documentary on Flair and asking who Michaels was to judge him. In this latest message, he apologized and said Michaels and Ricky Steamboat were the best wrestlers he was ever in the ring with.
**Here are the matches for Saturday night’s episode of MLW Fusion at 9 pm Eastern on beIN Sports:
*Sami Callihan vs. Mance Warner in a Falls Count Anywhere Loser Leaves MLW match
*Flamita vs. Rey Horus
*Low Ki vs. Ricky Martinez
**Marshall & Ross Von Erich have been added to the MLW Fusion television taping at the Melrose Ballroom on Thursday, July 25th.
**The WWE stock closed at $74.54 on Friday.
MMA NEWS
**Bellator 222 is the big show this weekend and takes place tonight from Madison Square Garden and streaming on DAZN. While this doesn’t feel like a major show, there are many interesting fights, including on the preliminary portion.
The big question throughout the week is the status of Rory MacDonald and returning seven weeks after his majority decision with Jon Fitch. It was a close fight, I scored it for MacDonald, but because it was a title fight MacDonald retained and advanced to fight Neiman Gracie in the Welterweight Grand Prix. While undefeated, Gracie has never fought anyone at MacDonald’s level and the champion should be favored to win. The wild card is MacDonald’s state of mind after bearing his thoughts in the cage and questioning if he has the same desire to hurt people that he did in the past. Regardless of a win or loss, MacDonald appears at a crossroads in his career. While only 29 years old, MacDonald has 26 fights on his record and has been fighting professionally since he was 16 years old. That is a lot of miles put on his body and everyone points to the July 2015 fight with Robbie Lawler as one that changes a fighter. The winner of this fight will meet Douglas Lima in the final later this year with the winner leaving as welterweight champion and receives $1 million.
Here is the full card for tonight’s show, including the results from Thursday’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on DAZN)
*Rory MacDonald (169.4) vs. Neiman Gracie (169.8) in the Welterweight Grand Prix
*Lyoto Machida (204.4) vs. Chael Sonnen (205.6)
*Dillon Danis (175) vs. Max Humphrey (174.4)
*Ricky Bandejas (136) vs. Patrick Mix (135.6)
*Eduardo Dantas (145.6) vs. Juan Archuleta (145.8)
*Darrion Caldwell (134.6) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (134.4) for the Bellator bantamweight title
PRELIMINARY CARD
*Aaron Pico (145.4) vs. Adam Borics (145.4)
*Heather Hardy (127.8) vs. Taylor Turner (127.8)
*Valerie Loureda (125) vs. Larkyn Dasch (125.8)
*Robson Gracie Jr. (168.6) vs. Oscar Vera (168.8)
*Mike Kimbel (136.6*) vs. Sebastian Ruiz (135.6) – Kimbel missed the bantamweight limit
*Haim Gozali (178) vs. Gustavo Wurlitzer (176)
*Rena Kubota (111.2) vs. Lindsay VanZandt (111.4)
*Phil Hawes (186) vs. Michael Wilcox (185.4)
*Nekruz Mirkhojaev (154) vs. Marcus Surin (155.6)
*Brandon Polcare (126) vs. Brandon Medina (124.8)
*Kastriot Xhema (164.6) vs. Whitney Jean Francois (163.8)
*John Beneduce (146) vs. Kenny Rivera (145.8)
**The next strawweight to challenge Jessica Andrade for the championship will not be Tatiana Suarez or Michelle Waterson, as most assumed. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported this past week that contracts have not been signed but it’s expected that Chinese fighter Zhang Weili will challenge for the championship when the UFC holds a card in Shenzhen, China on Saturday, August 31st. Zhang has been fighting professionally since 2013 and debuted for the UFC in 2018. She has three victories in the UFC following victories over Danielle Taylor, Jessica Aguilar, and Tecia Torres. Obviously, the location of the card is a big component for Zhang to receive the title fight ahead of Waterson, who was assumed to be the leading candidate after Suarez’s fight with Nina Ansaroff last weekend. This coincides with the UFC opening a Performance Institute in China and would be expected to garner a lot of national attention in China with Zhang challenging for a championship in a headline fight. Andrade defeated Rose Namajunas last month at UFC 237 and has won her last four fights.
**T.J. Dillashaw was a guest on Chael Sonnen’s podcast this week and addressed his drug test failure for the first time. Dillashaw admitted to cheating and taking a banned substance called Procrit to assist with his weight cut to flyweight for the fight against Henry Cejudo in January. He stated his body was starting to crash around six weeks out from the fight and was on the verge of being anemic. He added that he wasn’t mad he took it because he would not have been able to fight without it, which is kind of immaterial because after being caught he can’t find for two years now and was also stripped of his bantamweight championship.
**Yahoo Sports was the first to report that welterweights Rafael dos Anjos and Leon Edwards will headline the UFC Fight Night card in San Antonio, Texas on July 20th. After losses to Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman, dos Anjos rebounded in his last outing submitting Kevin Lee in May. Edwards is 17-3 and is on a seven-fight winning streak that dates to May 2016 and coming off a split decision victory over Gunnar Nelson this past March.
**ONE Championship has a card Saturday morning streaming on B/R Live from Shanghai, China. The show is headlined by Yoshihiro Akiyama taking on Agilan Thani.
**The UFC has announced seven fights for their debut card in Uruguay on August 10th with the following fights scheduled: Tecia Torres vs. Marino Rodriguez, Ciryl Gane vs. Raphael Pessoa Nunes, Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Talia Santos, Enrique Barzola vs. Bobby Moffett, Rachael Ostovich vs. Veronica Macedo, Raulian Paiva vs. Rogerio Bontorin, and Geraldo De Freitas vs. Chris Gutierrez.
*****
Café Hangout
Damian Abraham discusses Atsushi Onita, Jun Kasai on this week’s The Wrestlers, Anthony Kingdom James talks Union of Independent Pro Wrestlers.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/14/the-wrestlers-deathmatch-wrestling-anthony-kingdom-james-cafe-hangout/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #38: WWE Backlash 2004
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Backlash 2004 from Edmonton, Alberta featuring Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels in a WrestleMania XX rematch, and Cactus Jack vs. Randy Orton in one of WWE’s most violent matches
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27615409/
*****
upNXT 6/13/19: JobberCops!
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with another episode of upNXT! The BDE chat all about the June 13th, 2019 edition of NXT, including Kushida vs. Drew Gulak in a Submission Match and Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs. Undisputed Era.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/13/upnxt-6-13-19-jobbercops/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: 205 Live, Raw from April 2004, The Road to Fyter Fest
John Pollock & Wai Ting review this week’s episode of 205 Live, an April 2004 episode of WWE Raw, Road to Fyter Ep. 2 & Being the Elite.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27594343
*****
BWE 6/12/19: NXT UK TakeOver, OTT Banjaxed, WAW Fightmare
Martin is back with Benno and Jamesie to talk NXT UK, OTT Banjaxed, Rev Pro Live At The Cockpit 41 and WAW’s huge Fightmare show at Carrow Road.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/12/bwe-6-12-19-nxt-uk-takeover-ott-banjaxed-waw-fightmare-janela-vs-jordan/
*****
RASD 6/11/19: Big E Returns, 30 Minutes of Miz
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown featuring the return of Big E., Shane McMahon vs. The Miz, Chad Gable appears on 205 Live, News of the Day & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/11/rasd-6-11-19-big-e-returns-30-minutes-of-miz/
*****
RAR 6/10/19: While You Were Watching the NBA Finals
As the only two Canadians that watched Raw Monday, John & Wai discuss the quick turnaround until Stomping Grounds – It’s Time to Kick Ass and Take Names.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/11/rar-6-10-19-while-you-were-watching-the-nba-finals/
*****
POST Profile Bonus: Treigh Lindstrom
John Pollock speaks with Treigh Lindstrom, a fan that spent the day with Owen Hart prior to his passing on May 23, 1999, in Kansas City, MO.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27472707
*****
NJPW Dominion 2019 POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW Dominion 2019 featuring Kazuchika Okada vs. Chris Jericho, the debut of KENTA, and one of the most sickening neck bumps we’ve ever seen.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/10/njpw-dominion-2019-post-show/
*****
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