POST IT NOTES
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is posted with Wai Ting and I reviewing Monday’s edition of Raw from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. We also discussed the G1 Climax blocks and matches, Jon Moxley not working the Dallas card, Laredo Kid added to Fyter Fest, Aerostar’s dive at Verano de Escandalo, Chael Sonnen’s retirement, Wai attends the Toronto Raptors’ parade on Monday, and your feedback & questions.
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown to chat about tonight’s show heading into Stomping Grounds along with a discussion of the news from today.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Wednesday: The Double Shot (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout with a Stomping Ground preview & guest Damian Abraham (3 pm ET for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: MCU review of ‘Ant-Man’ with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Patreon)
*Saturday: Cruel Summer ‘1997 G1 Finals’ with WH Park & Braden Herrington
*Sunday: Cruel Summer ‘1998 G1 Finals’ with WH Park & Dylan Fox
*Sunday: WWE Stomping Grounds POST Show with John Pollock & Wai Ting (LIVE for Double Double+ Patrons)
WRESTLING NEWS
**On Tuesday morning, Impact Wrestling announced the release of Scarlett Bordeaux from her future commitments with the company. Bordeaux was brought in last summer with a series of vignettes and had lots of television time where she became one of the strongest personalities on the show. For weeks, she was scouting potential talent to manage and was eventually paired with Fallah Bahh. Mike Johnson of PWinsider.com had reported in May that Bordeaux had requested an early release from her deal, which was set to expire this summer. Bordeaux was being paid per appearance and was not on a guaranteed deal with the company. Bordeaux has tremendous personality and could be a main event level manager and it was where I thought Bordeaux would be elevated to in Impact after the comedy with Bahh had run its course. Because of Impact’s relationship with AAA, she had begun working with the promotion last September.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling announced Monday evening that Jon Moxley will not be part of the opening night of the G1 Climax in Dallas, Texas on July 6th. The opening night will feature five A Block tournament with the B Block participants traditionally working in tags on the undercard. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed that it was a contractual issue where Moxley’s AEW deal prohibits him from working the U.S. date. Moxley will officially begin with the first night of the B Block tournament matches on Saturday, July 13th at Ota Ward Gymnasium in Tokyo against Taichi.
**Here is the full card for the opening night of the G1 Climax at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The show will air live on AXS TV and outside of the U.S. on New Japan World at 6 pm Eastern:
*Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Roppongi 3K in a non-title match
*Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino vs. Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita
*Jay White & Chase Owens vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
*Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Tagaki & Bushi vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Juice Robinson & Toru Yano
*Will Ospreay vs. Lance Archer
*EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Sanada
*Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
**The SmackDown and 205 Live tapings take place from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California tonight. It’s the final set of tapings going into the Stomping Grounds pay-per-view this weekend in Tacoma. Last week’s episode of 205 Live received a lot of praise for the main event fatal four-way and a singles match between Chad Gable and Jack Gallagher. It is the most buzz the program has had over the past year, so it will be interesting to see if those sampling the show return this week. Last week’s show left with a cliffhanger with Akira Tozawa and Drew Gulak finishing with a double fall and no clear winner to face Tony Nese at the pay-per-view. Below is what they have announced for tonight:
*Dolph Ziggler vs. Xavier Woods
*A Moment of Bliss with Bayley
*Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Daivari on 205 Live
*The Singh Brothers vs. Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik on 205 Live
**A graphic was displayed on the screen at the Staples Center on Monday promoting that the first episode of SmackDown on Fox will take place from the arena on Friday, October 4th. There are 15 episodes remaining on the USA Network before the move as the WWE enters a five-year agreement with Fox for the show in a deal worth $205 million per year to the company.
**Fite TV has officially announced that Fyter Fest will be available on their platform with a price tag of $9.99 (U.S.). This will not be available in the U.S. because the show will stream free on B/R Live for those that sign up for the service. Fite TV is also scheduled to carry Fight for the Fallen on July 13th.
**A three-way tag match has been added to the ‘Buy-In’ pre-show for Fyter Fest on Saturday, June 29th. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky will face Private Party and the Best Friends with the winners advancing to a match at All Out with a chance to earn a buy in the eventual tag title tournament that AEW will hold.
**Dana Brooke was injured during her match with Sarah Logan on the Main Event tapings Monday night in Los Angeles. Brooke took a knee to the head and appeared to have sustained a cut above her right eye and was bleeding. The match was stopped, and Brooke walked to the back on her own afterward.
**In an interview with Jonathan & Kristina Snowden on the Inside Major League Wrestling podcast, company founder Court Bauer spoke to the two about MLW’s business. Bauer said a women’s division will happen when they can ‘do it right’. Bauer noted they did have women’s matches when they re-launched with the likes of Santana Garrett, Leva Bates, Mia Yim, and others, but they were promoting several divisions they didn’t want to fully launch a division until it could be done correctly. Bauer stated the big five in the company are Tom Lawlor, Salina de la Renta, and the Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr., Teddy Hart, and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) that are signed long term and will be the focus most weeks on television. Bauer broke down MLW’s audience as a heavy Hispanic audience because of the exposure on beIN Sports Espanol, a significant number that he labeled ‘Joe Six Packs’ that enjoy wrestling but follow casually and a smaller percentage of die-hard wrestling fans.
**Ring of Honor has added two more matches to the Best in the World pay-per-view on Friday, June 28th in Baltimore. The ROH six-man tag titles will be defended by Marty Scurll, PCO & Brody King against PJ Black, Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams. They have also announced a women’s tag match with Women of Honor champion Kelly Klein teaming with Jenny Rose against Angelina Love & Mandy Leon. The show has eight matches announced and is headlined by Matt Taven defending the ROH title against Jeff Cobb, who has just been announced for this summer’s G1 Climax tournament as the lone ROH representative.
**Savio Vega is being brought in for the MLW Never Say Never card at the Melrose Ballroom on Thursday, July 25th in New York. The promotion began airing vignettes for Vega on this past weekend’s edition of MLW Fusion. Vega is coming to work with the promotion as a player/coach.
**EVOLVE has announced that Bobby Fish will be unable to wrestle at the upcoming shows on June 29th and 30th. Fish will still be in attendance for meet-and-greets along with Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly. The June 29th card in Queens will feature Austin Theory vs. Leon Ruff for the Evolve championship and Strong & O’Reilly vs. Anthony Henry & JD Drake. The following night’s card in Brooklyn is headlined by Austin Theory vs. Roderick Strong in a non-title match, JD Drake defending the WWN championship against Babatunde, and Kyle O’Reilly vs Josh Briggs.
**The WWE stock closed at $76.98 on Tuesday.
MMA NEWS
**The third season of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series kicks off tonight at 8 pm Eastern on
Fight Pass from the new UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. There will be four fights instead of the usual five after Leon Shahbazyan was instructed to stop cutting weight on Monday and his bout with Brok Weaver was pulled from the card. Below are the remaining fights scheduled for tonight:
*Middleweight: Punahele Soriano (5-0) vs. Jamie Pickett (9-3) – Soriano trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and has a professional record of 5-0 dating to January 2017. Pickett is 30 years old and fought on the Contender Series in July 2017 where he was submitted by Charles Byrd. He is 9-3 and turned pro in 2011 but with his amateur experience, he has been fighting for over a decade.
*Strawweight: Kali Robbins (6-2) vs. Hannah Goldy (4-0) – Robbins has fought for RFA, King of the Cage, and Invicta FC. After losses to Pearl Gonzalez and Hannah Cifers, she beat Celine Haga last November on a JacksonWink card. Goldy has been fighting since March 2016 but went almost two years without fighting and came back to fight three times in 2018.
*Featherweight: Bill Algeo (12-3) vs. Brendan Loughnane (16-3) – Algeo has fought Jared Gordon and Shane Burgos in the past. He’s won his last four fights competing for Ring of Combat and has six submissions on his record. Loughnane is one of the standouts on the show with 19 pro fights and won six of his last seven. He’s competed against Pat Healy, David Lee, Tom Duquesnoy, and Mike Wilkinson among his fights.
*Heavyweight: Alton Meeks (3-0) vs. Yorgan De Castro (4-0) – After three amateur fights, Meeks turned pro last July and his longest fight was 1:51, so that’s question heading into this one. He is coming off a 25-second stoppage this past March against Baraq Hunter. De Castro had a 2-4 amateur record but since going pro has been unbeaten. His last fight was in January where he earned a unanimous decision over Carlton Little on a CES card.
**UFC president Dana White spoke to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports on the opening of the UFC Apex with tonight’s Tuesday Night Contender Series episode. Below are some highlights from their discussion:
-The UFC will still be doing shows at venues in Las Vegas, such as The Pearl at the Palms and they have a deal with them
-Most of the content being shot of the new Apex will be for UFC Fight Pass
-He just got his amateur promoter’s license for boxing and will be holding his first amateur card at the Apex later this year and is looking to bid on and promote boxing fights
-White said there were possibilities of buying other boxing promotions and has had talks with all the major boxing promoters
-He is looking to treat Fight Pass like HBO did with regards to housing fights
-According to White, Fight Pass has grown since the deal with ESPN began and are looking to expand with movies and other content and doubled down that ‘streaming is the future’
-The expansion of the Performance Institutes will continue with land purchased in Mexico and scouting locations in Puerto Rico with a PI scheduled to open in China this summer
**ESPN was the first to report that Eric Spicely is returning to the UFC this Saturday for a short-notice fight with Deron Winn. Spicely was cut by the UFC last year after three consecutive losses but has won two fights for the CES promotion this year. Winn was signed by the UFC after his win over Tom Lawlor last November at the one-and-done Golden Boy MMA card in Los Angeles and is making his debut this Saturday. This is Winn’s third opponent for the card.
**This Saturday’s UFC card takes place from Greenville, South Carolina with the main card streaming on ESPN+ and the prelims on ESPN2 in the U.S. There are some interesting fights from an action standpoint, led by the main event between featherweights Chan Sung Jung and Renato Moicano. Both are coming off difficult losses with Moicano last fighting Jose Aldo and Jung on the receiving end of one of the most dramatic knockouts you’ll ever see in the final second of the fight to Yair Rodriguez. Rob Font and John Lineker are not in championship contention at bantamweight, but I can’t see this fight disappointing given their respective styles. Matt Wiman is fighting for the first time since November 2014 against Luis Pena and is a fighter that’s been competing since 2004 and made his UFC debut at UFC 60 in May 2006. Below is the full card:
MAIN CARD (7 pm Eastern on ESPN+)
*Renato Moicano (13-2-1) vs. Chan Sung Jung (14-5)
*John Lineker (31-9) vs. Rob Font (16-4)
*Randy Brown (10-3) vs. Bryan Barberena (14-6)
*Andrea Lee (10-2) vs. Montana De La Rosa (10-4)
*Alessio Di Chirico (12-2) vs. Kevin Holland (15-4)
*Ashley Yoder (6-4) vs. Syuri Kondo (6-2)
PRELIMINARY CARD (4 pm on ESPN2)
*Dan Ige (11-2) vs. Kevin Aguilar (17-1)
*Luis Pena (6-1) vs. Matt Wiman (16-7)
*Allen Crowder (10-3) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (7-0)
*Molly McCann (8-2) vs. Ariane Lipski (11-4)
*Deron Winn (5-0) vs. Eric Spicely (12-4)
*Andre Ewell (14-5) vs. Anderson dos Santos (20-7)
*****
RAR 6/17/19: Baron, Rollins & Chairs, G1 Climax Announcements
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the final WWE Raw leading into Stomping Grounds featuring a main event between Seth Rollins and Daniel Bryan.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/18/rar-6-17-19-baron-rollins-chairs-g1-climax-announcements/
*****
POST PURORESU
John Pollock & WH Park discuss the fallout from Dominion, the arrival of KENTA to NJPW, highlights of the BOSJ, the life & career of Atsushi Aoki, Stardom, ten-years since Mitsuharu Misawa passed & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/16/post-puroresu-kenta-to-njpw-dominion-bosj-atsushi-aoki/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #6: Riki Choshu vs. Masahiro Chono
WH Park welcomes the co-host of the Eastern Lariat podcast, STRIGGA to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 6th G1 Climax tournament: Riki Choshu vs. Masahiro Chono from August 6, 1996.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/16/cruel-summer-6-riki-choshu-vs-masahiro-chono-1996-w-strigga/
*****
TRMPS #VI: Southland Tales (2006)
On this edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Nate Milton welcomes Brian Mann (Keep It 2000/Complex) back into the theater to review 2006’s Southland Tales.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/15/trmps-vi-southland-tales-2006-w-brian-mann/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #5: Keiji Mutoh vs. Shinya Hashimoto
WH Park welcomes the host of POST Wrestling’s British Wrestling Experience, Martin Bushby to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 5th G1 Climax tournament: Keiji Mutoh vs. Shinya Hashimoto from August 15, 1995.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/15/cruel-summer-5-keiji-mutoh-vs-shinya-hashimoto-1995-w-martin-bushby/
*****
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/
*****
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