POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-Raw to review the show from North Little Rock, Arkansas and going through the news of the day along with your feedback and questions at the end of the show.
**For members of the POST Wrestling Café, each week you are entered into a draw to win a POST Wrestling Prize Pack with items from the POST Wrestling Store. We are moving the draw to a new night with the weekly winner announced on Rewind-A-SmackDown weekly. As well, we still have our G1 sale going on with a 20% discount on each item in the store for the next two weeks.
**WH Park’s latest edition of Cruel Summer is with Alan4L from PWTorch.com and the host of the ProWres Paradise podcast. On this week’s show, they chat the finals from the G1 Climax in 2008 with Hirooki Goto vs. Togi Makabe and discuss many different subjects including how to follow New Japan in 2008, WH and Alan meeting through various message boards, and tons more from this time period in 2008. WH also has a show from Saturday with Joel Abraham from the Super J Cast reviewing the 2007 final between Yuji Nagata and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
**Our UFC 240 POST Show is available with Phil Chertok and I reviewing Saturday’s card from Edmonton, Alberta with Max Holloway retaining the UFC featherweight title against Frankie Edgar, Cris Cyborg’s win over Felicia Spencer, a phenomenal fight on the prelims between Deiveson Figueiredo and Alexandre Pantoja, a look at several upcoming cards & more.
POST SCHEDULE
*Monday: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: G1 Climax – Night 11 (Patreon)
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: ASK-A-WAI (Patreon)
*Thursday: G1 Climax – Night 12 (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout with guest Rich Kraetsch from Voices of Wrestling (LIVE at 3 pm Eastern)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Saturday: G1 Climax – Night 13 (Patreon)
*Saturday: Cruel Summer with WH Park & guest Mike Murray (Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Togi Makabe, G1 Climax 2009)
*Sunday: G1 Climax – Night 14 (Patreon)
*Sunday: Cruel Summer with WH Park & STRIGGA (Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, G1 Climax 2010)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Raw is taking place from the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas tonight. It’s the second-to-last Raw before SummerSlam and we have a good sense of the card for Toronto with more matches to be added. The Verizon Arena has been advertising Brock Lesnar over the past week despite WWE not promoting him. The following matches and segment have been announced:
*Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler
*Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss in a non-title match
*Ricochet vs. Cesaro vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Sami Zayn vs. Andrade in a Gauntlet match to face AJ Styles for the United States title
*The Revival vs. The Usos vs. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows for the Raw tag titles
*A ‘Samoan Summit’ with Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe
**The SmackDown and 205 Live tapings are in Memphis, Tennessee on Tuesday with the following announced:
*Finn Balor vs. Dolph Ziggler – if Balor is healthy
*Big E. & Xavier Woods vs. Drew McIntyre & Elias in a non-title match
*The IIconics vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville in a non-title match
*Trish Stratus appears on ‘The King’s Court’ with Jerry Lawler
**All Elite Wrestling will be placing tickets on sale this Friday at Noon Eastern for their debut show on TNT in October. Their first television show will take place from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. with tickets priced at $20, $35, $50, $75, $90, and $250 for the first three rows that will include a commemorative chair to take home. They are advertising all the major stars for the show with Chris Jericho, Cody, The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Brandi Rhodes, and Dr. Britt Baker featured on the promotional material.
The tickets are scaled at a competitive price and given AEW’s track record of exceeding expectations for their major shows, I feel this show is going to have a high demand. It’s a test given that it’s not a weekend event where you would expect the same level of people traveling for a Wednesday night show, but it is historic and I’m expecting a heavy demand this Friday. As the weeks progress, it will showcase the volume of ticket buyers for a mid-week show and what sized buildings they will be best served to run. It’s an ambitious start at the Capital One Arena but the first show is the one to test the waters and seems like a worthwhile attempt to make a big statement if they can come anywhere close to filling this building.
**Finn Balor was taken off Saturday’s Smackville special in Nashville, Tennessee and replaced by Ali. We were told on Saturday that Balor was dealing with an illness as opposed to being injured and they are hopeful Balor will be available for SmackDown on Tuesday night in Memphis. Dave Meltzer added that Balor did go to the hospital with the stomach flu. The company put out a message that he was not cleared and would be unable to face Shinsuke Nakamura on the show.
**The G1 Climax continues Tuesday in Takamatsu with an A Block show after crossing the midpoint of the tournament over the weekend. The show will be streaming on New Japan World at 6 am Eastern with the following matches:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi (3-2) vs. EVIL (3-2)
*KENTA (4-1) vs. Sanada (1-4)
*Kazuchika Okada (5-0) vs. Lance Archer (2-3)
*Will Ospreay (2-3) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (1-4)
*Kota Ibushi (3-2) vs. Bad Luck Fale (1-4)
*Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Juice Robinson, Jeff Cobb & Toa Henare
*Jay White, Yujiro & Chase Owens vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs. Toru Yano & Ren Narita
*Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura vs. Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi & Yota Tsuji
We are now into the portion of the G1 where eliminations are starting to occur. Over the weekend, Bad Luck Fale and Zack Sabre Jr. were mathematically out following Kazuchika Okada’s fifth win. At best, Fale and Sabre Jr. could tie Okada and would lose the tiebreaker as both have lost to Okada in the tournament, and Okada isn’t losing all his remaining matches.
If Okada beats Archer on Tuesday’s show, it would also eliminate Sanada, Lance Archer, and Will Ospreay and therefore, I think it’s a strong possibility that Okada loses to Archer. Okada’s next tournament match is against Sanada in Osaka this Saturday and it would make no sense to have that match where Sanada is already eliminated from the tournament.
I think it’s a lock that Ospreay and Ibushi win their matches on Tuesday, especially Ospreay to stay alive. In the top two matches, Tanahashi and EVIL could go either way. EVIL has his own match with Okada still to come so beating Tanahashi is possible. KENTA has had his big run and after losing to Okada, I could see him dropping a few and I see Sanada beating KENTA ahead of the Osaka match with Okada.
So, my updated predictions for tomorrow are EVIL, Sanada, Archer, Ospreay, and Ibushi.
**The B Block resumes on Thursday from Fukuoka and the following tournament matches set:
*Tomohiro Ishii (3-2) vs. Hirooki Goto (2-3)
*Jay White (2-3) vs. Taichi (2-3)
*Tetsuya Naito (2-3) vs. Juice Robinson (3-2)
*Jon Moxley (5-0) vs. Toru Yano (2-3)
*Shingo Takagi (2-3) vs. Jeff Cobb (2-3)
On the B Block side, everyone is mathematically alive but if Moxley defeated Yano that would eliminate Jeff Cobb, Tetsuya Naito, Taichi, and Shingo Takagi. So, Moxley is probably due for a loss and Yano gets the big upset win over the undefeated leader of the block.
**Broadcaster and interviewer Chris Van Vliet announced Monday that he is joining All Elite Wrestling, beginning with the promotion’s television debut on October 2nd on TNT. Van Vliet is originally from Toronto and began training to become a professional wrestler before focusing on broadcasting. He relocated to Florida, which is where he is based out of. He serves as an entertainment reporter on The Deco Show on WSVN while working on the side interviewing wrestlers for his popular YouTube channel that has close to 200,000 subscribers. Van Vliet is a very talented interviewer and has spoken to a who’s who of the industry. Last week, he hosted the Control Center segment on ‘The Road to All Out’ in the spot Tony Schiavone had previously occupied and signaled that Van Vliet may be brought in as a regular.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH has revealed the blocks for the upcoming N-1 Victory tournament in August. In the A Block, they have announced Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Go Shiosaki, Masa Kitamiya, and MLW’s Alex Hammerstone. In the B Block, it will feature Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenou, Shuhei Taniguchi, Masaaki Mochizuki, and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. The tournament kicks off on Sunday, August 18th in Nagoya and there will be 12 shows with the finals in Osaka on Monday, September 16th.
**All Japan Pro Wrestling held a big card in Osaka on Sunday highlighted by the main event where Kento Miyahara defended the Triple Crown against former champion Zeus. I was told the main event and the Battle of Glory finals were excellent matches to close the show. The tournament final featured Yusuke Okada and Hikaru Sato defeating Kagetora and Yosuke Santa Maria.
Miyahara is having a phenomenal year, he just doesn’t receive the same level of attention given the lower profile that All Japan has, although with the emergence of their streaming platform those that want to seek out his major matches have an easier way to do it now. I need to catch up on his recent matches as I received great reviews of this match with Zeus and his last title defense against Yoshitatsu in June at Korakuen Hall.
**Ring of Honor has added a Television title match with Shane Taylor defending against Tracy Williams for the Summer Supercard event in Toronto on Friday, August 9th at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. We have the full list of shows and matches in Toronto during SummerSlam week on the site.
**There is a big story on Brian Pillman at Cincinnati.com with comments from Brian Pillman Jr.
**Since the WWE Network updated their interface, I have heard from some with issues among Canadians logging in. In Canada, you must log in through your cable provider and the URL previously used is now dead. I had the same issue and have gone to https://watch.wwe.com/ in order to log in and it’s been an easier process with fewer steps to get in.
**New Japan commentator Chris Charlton has noted he will be back on the English broadcasts this weekend for both shows in Osaka. He will also be part of the team on August 8th in Yokohama and the final three nights at Budokan Hall.
**Lio Rush has put out a music video for his single ‘Scenic Lullaby’.
**NXT has announced house shows for September 26th in Des Moines, September 27th in Kansas City, September 28th in St. Charles, and September 29th in Southaven, Mississippi with tickets on sale this Friday.
**In an interesting coincidence, Paul Levesque and Dana White both had birthdays over the weekend with Levesque’s on Saturday and White’s on Sunday with both turning 50.
**The UFC 240 card drew an announced crowd of 12,144 to Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta with a gate of $1.4 million. The last time UFC ran the building was for the UFC 215 pay-per-view in September 2017 with Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC flyweight title. The 2017 card drew 16,232 and a gate of $2,028,307. The UFC 215 was supposed to be headlined by Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg for the flyweight but was canceled after Borg fell ill on the Thursday before the show.
**The Fight of the Night bonus at UFC 240 went to flyweights Deiveson Figueiredo and Alexandre Pantoja, which was an awesome fight and I’d highly recommend. The Performance of the Night bonuses was awarded to Geoff Neal and Hakeem Dawodu with both scoring TKO victories.
**This Saturday, the UFC is in Newark, New Jersey with an afternoon card on ESPN. The prelims start at Noon Eastern, which means 9 am on the West coast and the main card airs at 3 pm Eastern. The show is headlined by a welterweight fight between Colby Covington and Robbie Lawler, who were previously teammates at American Top Team.
Covington has not fought since June 2018 when he beat Rafael dos Anjos to become the interim champion within the division. Lawler did not fight in 2018 and returned this past March where he suffered a technical submission loss to Ben Askren, which was heavily debated regarding the stoppage. It’s a big fight for Lawler and stylistically, Covington is a tough fight for him given his conditioning is so strong and it’s going to test Lawler’s ability to keep the fight standing.
The other big fight features two long-tenured stars as Jim Miller and Clay Guida will be meeting in a lightweight fight.
**On the UFC 240 broadcast, they announced that Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens will headline the promotion’s card in Mexico City on September 21st. Rodriguez is coming off one of the most spectacular finishes in MMA history with an elbow strike that finished Chan Sung Jung with one second remaining in their five-round fight last November. Rodriguez is 7-1 in the UFC with the one blemish to Frankie Edgar in May 2017. Stephens is coming off a pair of losses to Jose Aldo and Zabit Magomedsharipov and this will be his 31st fight with the UFC going back to May 2007.
G1 CLIMAX REVIEWS
Night 1: https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/07/g1-climax-29-post-show-opening-night-okada-vs-tanahashi-free-preview/ (Tanahashi vs. Okada) – FREE SHOW
Night 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28351982 (White vs. Goto)
Night 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28374580 (Tanahashi vs. KENTA)
Night 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28403937 (Naito vs. Taichi)
Night 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28475091 (Ospreay vs. Ibushi)
Night 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28495477 (Moxley vs. Ishii)
Night 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28520429 (Okada vs. Ospreay)
Night 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-g1-climax-28631911 (Naito vs. Ishii)
Night 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28693414 (Okada vs. KENTA)
Night 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28714838 (Moxley vs. Naito)
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #18: Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto (2008)
WH Park and Alan4L of PWTorch’s ProWres Paradise come together to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 2008 G1 Climax tournament: Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto from August 17 of that year.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/28/cruel-summer-18-togi-makabe-vs-hirooki-goto-2008-w-alan4l/
*****
UFC 240 POST SHOW
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok for the UFC 240 POST Show as they review Saturday night’s card from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/28/ufc-240-post-show-max-holloway-vs-frankie-edgar/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #17: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata (2007)
WH Park is joined by Joel Abraham of the Super J-Cast (which you can find at Voices of Wrestling) to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 17th G1 Climax tournament: Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi from August 12, 2007.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/27/cruel-summer-17-hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-yuji-nagata-2007-w-joel-abraham/
*****
CAFÉ HANGOUT feat. Brandon Thurston, WWE Q2 Earnings Report
On this week’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss highlights of Thursday’s WWE’s Q2 2019 Earnings Report. Brandon Howard Thurston (Wrestlenomics) joins us for an in-depth discussion about the results.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/26/wwe-q2-2019-earnings-report-w-brandon-thurston-cafe-hangout/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #41: NJPW Fallout Down Under 2018 (Night 2)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review NJPW Fallout Down Under 2018 (Night 2) featuring Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii ＆ Rocky Romero vs. Kenny Omega & The Guerrillas of Destiny from the legendary Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/25/rewind-a-wai-41-njpw-fallout-down-under-2018-night-2/
*****
upNXT 7/25/19: The Dream is Dunne
The BDE chat all about the July 24th edition of WWE NXT including Keith Lee vs. Damian Priest, Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano pick their stipulations for TakeOver Toronto and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/25/upnxt-7-25-19-the-dream-is-dunne/
*****
BWE 7/24/19: FCP Project Whitewold, Progress 92, OTT, Fighting Spirit Magazine
Martin and Benno talk Fight Club: PRO’s Project Whitewolf (A-Kid vs. Pete Dunne), Progress Chapter 92 (Jordan Devlin vs. Ilja Dragunov), OTT Contenders 15 (Callum Black vs. Jordan Devlin) and Zack Sabre Jr. & Will Ospreay in this year’s NJPW G1 Climax.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/24/bwe-7-24-19-fcp-project-whitewolf-progress-92-ott-fighting-spirit-magazine-ends/
*****
RASD 7/23/19: SummerSlam Update, Raw Reunion Viewership
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton and Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahaon are both made official for SummerSlam.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/24/rasd-7-23-19-summerslam-update-raw-reunion-viewership/
*****
RAR 7/22/19: Raw Reunion
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring the Raw Reunion and the return of Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, DX, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and countless others.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/23/rar-7-22-19-raw-reunion/
*****
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