POST IT NOTES
**The Double Shot returned on Wednesday night with Wai Ting and I reviewing the first two episodes of the latest season of GLOW. We did a quick recap of how season two ended and then dove into the first two episodes. Plus, we go over this week’s edition of Road to All Out with a match announcement and a sitdown interview with Hangman Page.
**I was a guest on Thursday’s edition of The MMA Reporters with Ariel Helwani on ESPN. We discussed the potential of Brock Lesnar fighting Jon Jones, his options beyond WWE, and launching POST Wrestling.
**On Friday, our MCU reviews return with Wai Ting and I reviewing “Doctor Strange” for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**We will also have EVOLVE POST Shows this weekend that Davie Portman will be hosting. On Saturday night, Davie will be joined by Wai Ting to review EVOLVE 133 and on Sunday, Davie reviews EVOLVE 134 with Jason Solomon from Solomonster Sounds Off podcast.
**This week’s edition of Five Questions with Phil Chertok focuses on the fall out from UFC 241 regarding the best heavyweight of all-time debate, the future of Daniel Cormier, Nate Diaz’s win over Anthony Pettis, Paulo Costa vs. Yoel Romero, and the next opponent for Jon Jones.
POST SCHEDULE
*Friday: MCU review of “Doctor Strange” with John & Wai (Patreon)
*Friday: BWE Bonus with Jamesie & Alan4L on Top 50 UK matches of all-time
*Saturday: EVOLVE 133 POST Show with Davie Portman & Wai Ting
*Saturday: Cruel Summer “G1 Climax 2015” with WH Park & Mike Murray (Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura)
*Sunday: EVOLVE 134 POST Show with Davie Portman & Jason Solomon (@solomonster)
*Sunday: Cruel Summer “G1 Climax 2016” with WH Park & Jojo Remy (Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto)
WRESTLING NEWS
**The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that WWE will be partnering with Endeavor Audio to launch a podcast network. It is expected that several shows will be launched based around various talent, although no announcements of names or a launch date were included. WWE already has a relationship with Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, with Endeavor Streaming handling the streaming of the WWE Network. The WWE’s streaming service was previously powered by Disney Streaming Services (formerly BAMTech), but did not renew their deal at the end of 2018. The podcast space has not been an area greatly explored by WWE with sporadic shows such as a WrestleMania-themed show that was hosted by Renee Young several years ago and having Steve Austin do several sit-down interviews for the WWE Network and branded as the Steve Austin Podcast. The Bella Twins launched their own podcast earlier this year, which is part of Endeavor Streaming and would make sense that their show is included with the WWE’s network. Steve Austin’s show is attached to Podcast One and the Edge & Christian show is with Westwood One.
**The Super J Cup kicks off tonight from the Temple Theatre in Tacoma, Washington with a loaded card. The tournament follows the lineage that dates to 1994 and with the first two Super J Cups representing two of the most influential shows for its era and many people’s gateway into tape trading. The last version was in 2016, which was won by KUSHIDA. Tonight’s show features the opening round matches and it continues Saturday in San Francisco and Sunday at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California.
New Japan World is taping the shows for future broadcast, which is astounding in 2019 that this show isn’t available anywhere live. I would imagine there will be strong word-of-mouth but in today’s era with so many excellent wrestling on a weekly basis, you have a 48-72-hour window of relevance unless you’re the cream of the crop and the audience is on to the next big show.
Below is the lineup for tonight’s show at the Temple Theatre with the first round matches:
*Soberano Jr. vs. Rocky Romero
*TJP vs. Clark Connors
*BUSHI vs. Caristico
*Jonathan Gresham vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
*Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo
*Dragon Lee vs. YOH
*SHO vs. Taiji Ishimori
*Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red
*Jushin Thunder Liger & Karl Fredericks vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita in a non-tournament match
**Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter had clarification on his radio program regarding the amount USA Network is paying for NXT. The updated figure being reported is $30 million per year over two years. From that figure, it would work out to approximately $577,000 per week and $8.7 million for the 15-week period from September 18th until the end of 2019. To compare, Raw’s deal with the USA Network that replaces the existing one begins October 1st at approximately $265 million per year and SmackDown’s deal on Fox is worth $205 million per year.
**Will Ospreay recently spoke about his contract status with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Ospreay tweeted that he is with New Japan for the next five-years and his deal allows him to work for Revolution Pro and OTT. Ospreay has been with New Japan since 2016 and is coming off his first appearance in the G1 Climax.
**Ring of Honor has a set of television tapings this Saturday night at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia and a live event the following night at the Nashville Fairgrounds. For the tapings, they have announced Bandido vs. Marty Scurll, PCO & Brody King vs. Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins, Chase Owens vs. PJ Black vs. LSG, Angelina Love vs. Sumie Sakai, and the Champions vs. All-Stars match with Jay Lethal, Kenny King, Jeff Cobb & Rush vs. Matt Taven, Shane Taylor & The Briscoes.
**EVOLVE will be running cards Saturday and Sunday on WWN Live with Matt Riddle, Drew Gulak, and KUSHIDA being sent. Gulak is only working Sunday’s show where he defends the Cruiserweight title against KUSHIDA. The card for Saturday’s event in Livonia, Michigan features AR Fox & Leon Ruff vs. Joe Gacy & Sean Maluta for the tag titles, Matt Riddle vs. Josh Briggs, KUSHIDA vs. JD Drake, Austin Theory vs. Anthony Henry in a non-title match, Anthony Greene vs. Curt Stallion, Karam vs. Anthony Gutierrez, Arturo Ruas vs. Stephen Wolf, Shotzi Blackheart vs. Camron Bra’Nae, and Adrian Alanis & Liam Grey vs. Cyrus & Mongo (neither Don Callis or Steve McMichael).
**Sunday’s show in Chicago has the Cruiserweight title match along with Austin Theory vs. JD Drake vs. Josh Briggs for the EVOLVE title, and AR Fox & Leon Ruff vs. Matt Riddle & Curt Stallions for the tag titles. Brandi Lauren and Shotzi Blackheart will also have a rematch from last month’s show in Philadelphia, that got over big. Tommaso Ciampa will be meet-and-greets on both nights.
**Here is the full card for next weekend’s NXT UK TakeOver show from Cardiff, Wales:
*WALTER vs. Tyler Bate for the United Kingdom championship
*Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee Ray for the NXT UK women’s title
*Zack Gibson & James Drake vs. Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Mark Coffey & Wolfgang for the NXT UK tag titles
*Noam Dar vs. Travis Banks
*Joe Coffey vs. Dave Mastiff in a Last Man Standing match
**The promotion put out a video on Thursday with Sid Scala announcing the show was sold out but tickets remained for the following day’s television tapings.
**All Elite Wrestling has announced that Private Party will take on Jack Evans & Angelico on the “Buy-In” pre-show next Saturday at the Sears Center before All Out.
**The first match is set for WWE’s Clash of Champions show next month with Bayley defending the SmackDown women’s title against Charlotte Flair. The card takes place Sunday, September 15th in Flair’s namesake of Charlotte, North Carolina. This show is running the same night as AAA’s card at Madison Square Garden, which will be broadcast on Fite.tv.
**MLW has announced that Austin Aries will face Brian Pillman Jr. on September 7th at the War Chamber tapings in North Richland Hills, Texas.
**The XFL has revealed the names of the eight teams along with head coaches that will also serve as general managers. The full list features the St. Louis BattleHawks (Jonathan Hayes), Houston Roughnecks (June Jones), New York Guardians (Kevin Gilbride), Tampa Bay Vipers (Marc Trestman), Dallas Renegades (Bob Stoops), L.A. Wildcats (Winston Moss), and the Seattle Dragons (Jim Zorn). The season will launch next February one week after the Super Bowl.
MMA NEWS
**Brock Lesnar’s name resurfaced among the MMA world this week after an interview involving Kurt Angle on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. Angle stated that Lesnar wanted to fight Jon Jones and the item spread like wildfire. Jones was quick to jump on the bait and insult Lesnar, smartly, because it’s the biggest fight Jones could land in the wake of Daniel Cormier’s loss last weekend. After fights with Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos, Jones is lacking blockbuster opponents and Lesnar would every bit of one. Lesnar is believed to be under a WWE deal through the spring of 2020, with Dave Meltzer reporting earlier this year that it expires in May or June. Lesnar is expected for WrestleMania next April.
It is not known what provisions Lesnar has in his current WWE contract or where his stance is regarding fighting now that he just turned 42.
The business of UFC and WWE has changed drastically in the past year. For the UFC, because of their U.S. pay-per-view distribution deal with ESPN+, it provides the promotion with a financial cushion that doesn’t make pay-per-view life-or-death to their bottom line. This has allowed them to walk away from a Georges St-Pierre proposal to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov and made them less reliant on landing Lesnar for the fight with Daniel Cormier after their angle last July at UFC 226. WWE’s revenue has never been at this level with two incredible television deals going into effect on October 1st and the ten-year agreement with the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia.
On top of that, the ultimate lesson for future stars to learn from Lesnar is the value of leverage and how to manipulate it to one’s favor. When Lesnar was signed in 2000, there were multiple suitors going after him and it landed him a fantastic developmental deal with WWE. He saw his pro wrestling leverage go out of business in 2001 with the loss of WCW and ECW simultaneously. In 2005, when he returned to wrestling in New Japan it was not viewed as a great experience for him and he saw the gap between WWE and everyone else during that period. By 2012, after returning to WWE as a major figure within combat sports, he understood his leverage was using the UFC when necessary. He was strategic by appearing at UFC cards to create a stir and making sure he was seen and allowing speculation to fuel his case to score the biggest deal. Fast forward to today and there is a legitimate competitor to WWE as an option if Lesnar plans on continuing to wrestle.
When you consider what WWE is spending on lower-end talent, with the potential of a wrestling war brewing, Lesnar once again will find himself with impeccable timing next spring if he plans to score another big deal.
For Jones, he has stated he wanted to get another fight in before the end of 2019. If that’s the case, the only available option is Jan Blachowicz, who is coming off a knockout win over Luke Rockhold. The rest of the light heavyweight division will be sorted with two fights this fall. On October 18th, Chris Weidman moves up to the weight class to fight Dominick Reyes. Two weeks later, Johnny Walker will fight Corey Anderson on November 2nd at Madison Square Garden. If Reyes wins, he has to get the title fight, although if Weidman wins, he would be the most marketable fight for Jones.
**Bellator 225 takes place on Saturday night from the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The show features a heavyweight rematch between Matt Mitrione and Sergei Kharitonov. They fought in February and the fight lasted 15 seconds after an accidental low kick to Kharitonov forced the fight to be stopped.
It isn’t a big Bellator show and one of the more interesting fighters on the show is Nick Newell, who is on the prelims. Everyone knows Newell’s story, he is a congenital amputee, who had great success in World Series of Fighting and then received a fight last summer on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series and lost by unanimous decision. He wasn’t signed and rebounded with a win this past May for CES MMA and is getting a one-fight offer from Bellator for this card.
Here is the full card for Saturday night’s show at 9 pm Eastern on the Paramount Network:
*Matt Mitrione (13-6) vs. Sergei Kharitonov (29-7)
*Vitaly Minakov (21-1) vs. Javy Ayala (11-7)
*Alejandra Lara (7-3) vs. Taylor Turner (4-5)
*Tyrell Fortune (6-0) vs. Rudy Schafforth (6-0)
*David Rickels (21-5) vs. Yaroslav Amosov (21-0)
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW Season 3 Ep. 1 & 2, Road to ALL OUT
On the return of the Café Hangout, John and Wai dive into Season 3 of GLOW with reviews of Episodes 1 and 2. Plus, we discuss the latest edition of Road to ALL OUT.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29353962
*****
BWE 8/21/19: Progress Toronto, wXw Ambition, ROH UK Tour
Martin, Benno, and Jamesie are back to chat Progress Toronto (WALTER vs. Paul Robinson), wXw Toronto (Mike Bailey vs. Bobby Gunns) and their final thoughts on Will Ospreay & Zack Sabre Jr. in the G1 Climax.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/21/bwe-8-21-19-progress-toronto-wxw-ambition-roh-uk-tour/
*****
RASD 8/20/19: Twin Freaks, NXT to USA Network
John Pollock & Wai Ting are back to review SmackDown from Sioux Falls, further discussion on NXT’s move to the USA Network, additional details on the move, and how they announced it.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/21/rasd-8-20-19-twin-freaks-nxt-to-usa-network-official/
*****
RAR 8/19/19: Mandible Lawler, Latest on NXT-USA Network
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Minnesota, discuss the latest involving NXT-USA Network, AEW’s latest locations, Starz greenlights a wrestling drama & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/20/rar-8-19-19-mandible-lawler-latest-on-nxt-usa-network/
*****
TRMPS #8: The Gameplan (2007) w/ Kris Ealy & Britney Monae
On this edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Nate Milton continues his trip through Dwayne Johnson’s filmography by reviewing 2007’s The Gameplan!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/18/trmps-8-the-gameplan-2007-w-kris-ealy-britney-monae/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #24: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada (2014)
Joey Bay makes his return to the show and joins WH Park to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 24th annual G1 Climax tournament: Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura from August 10, 2014.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/18/cruel-summer-24-shinsuke-nakamura-vs-kazuchika-okada-2014-w-joey-bay/
*****
UFC 241 POST SHOW: Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok for the UFC 241 POST Show as they review Saturday’s card from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/18/ufc-241-post-show-daniel-cormier-vs-stipe-miocic/
*****
Browse the new POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
