POST IT NOTES
**We have our monthly ASK-A-WAI posted for September with Wai Ting and I answering your questions for over 90 minutes. We tackled many subjects including AEW vs. NXT on Wednesday nights, WWE leaving Sky for BT Sport, favorite music albums, latest Spotify downloads, and tons more questions covered. This show is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**On Thursday, we were joined by Pat McAfee on the Café Hangout to discuss his new daily show on DAZN that starts this Monday. In this discussion, we covered his retirement from the NFL in 2017, how he has transitioned into media, his work with WWE, relationship with Michael Cole following the “shorts” story at WrestleMania, hosting the Watch Along specials and identifying when guests don’t want to be on the show. Plus, Wai and I took phone calls and went through all the news from Thursday including the WWE’s creative team moves, Ric Flair filing for a trademark and at odds with WWE, and more.
**On Saturday, Phil Chertok and I will have the UFC 242 POST Show covering the card from Abu Dhabi including the main event between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.
**POST Puroresu returns Sunday night as WH Park and I chat about WH’s final thoughts on the G1 with his top matches and performers, we’ll discuss Royal Quest, the technical problems on Fite TV that night, the upcoming lineups from New Japan, ongoing tournaments from Stardom and NOAH, All Japan’s upcoming Royal Road tournament, and lots more.
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE has announced that Rey Mysterio will face Gran Metalik on Monday’s episode of Raw at Madison Square Garden. On paper, that should be a hell of a match and is the most high-profile match that Gran Metalik has had since the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016. If given time, this could be a tremendous television match. Additionally, they have announced Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair teaming against Bayley & Sasha Banks, and have also added a match between AJ Styles and Cedric Alexander.
They are also advertising the semi-final match of the King of the Ring with Ricochet vs. Baron Corbin vs. Samoa Joe and a contract signing between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman with Steve Austin as the moderator.
**With one week remaining, AAA has finally announced additional matches for their card at Madison Square Garden. On Friday, they announced that Cain Velasquez will team with Psycho Clown and Brian Cage against Black Taurus, Rey Escorpion, and Texano Jr. Despite the set up at TripleMania, Killer Kross is not booked in the match, it was reported by Fightful this week that due to the issues between Kross and Impact Wrestling that it was implied to AAA not to book Kross on the Madison Square Garden show next weekend.
The AAA show at The Garden will also feature a tag match with Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. LAX, and they confirmed the Reina de Reinas championship match between Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie. The main event on the show is a rematch from TripleMania between Dr. Wagner Jr. and Blue Demon Jr. The card takes place Sunday, September 15th and will be available on Fite TV.
**Ring of Honor is holding their Global Wars Espectacular tour this weekend in conjunction with talent from CMLL. They will start tonight in Dearborn, Michigan and continue Saturday in Villa Park, Illinois and finish Sunday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Below are the lineups for all three shows:
Sept. 6th in Dearborn:
*Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. Volador Jr. & Triton
*Marty Scurll, PCO, Brody King & Flip Gordon vs. Rey Bucanero, Okumura, Hechicero & Barbaro Cavernario
*Rush vs. Stuka Jr.
*Bandido vs. Jay Briscoe
*Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry
*Jeff Cobb vs. Kenny King vs. Tracy Williams
*Dak Draper vs. Haitian Sensation in the semi-finals of the Top Prospect tournament
Sept. 7th in Villa Park:
*Matt Taven vs. Volador Jr. for the ROH title
*Rush vs. Barbaro Cavernario
*Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham & Jeff Cobb vs. Caristico, Stuka Jr. & Triton
*PJ Black & Okumura vs. Josh Woods & Silas Young
*PCO, Flip Gordon & Brody King vs. Bandido, Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins
*Kenny King vs. Dalton Castle vs. Colt Cabana vs. Marty Scurll
*Shane Taylor vs. Joe Hendry in a Proving Ground match
*The Briscoes vs. The Bouncers vs. Rey Bucanero & Hechicero
*Austin Gunn vs. Dante Caballero in the semi-finals of the Top Prospect tournament
Sept. 8th in Milwaukee:
*The Briscoes & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Bandido, Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins
*Flip Gordon vs. PJ Black vs. Triton
*Caristico, Stuka Jr. & Volador Jr. vs. Okumura, Rey Bucanero & Hechicero
*Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. Rush & Jeff Cobb
*PCO & Brody King vs. The Bouncers
*Marty Scurll vs. Joe Hendry
**Ricochet was interviewed by Justin Barrasso at SI.com earlier this week and commented on the status of his girlfriend Kacy Catanzaro. Ricochet stated that “She’s still with the company. She’s not retired at all and she’s not injured. It’s a tough sport and we’re all hurting, but there is nothing wrong with her”. When asked if she would wrestle again, his was “I don’t know. She’s very family-oriented and she wants kids, so she doesn’t know if being on the road so much is for her. For me, I’m already too deep—I’m on the road all the time. She loves wrestling and she loves it here, and she’s so good at it, so it’s a very tough decision for her.”
Earlier this week, it had been reported she was leaving the company. We did reach out to WWE this week for a statement and did not receive a response regarding her status.
**CM Punk will be a guest on an upcoming edition of the hockey podcast 31 Thoughts with hosts Jeff Marek and Elliotte Freidman.
**Jonathan Snowden is doing weekly features at Bleacher Report with original interviews and other news items. This week, he spoke with Brandi Rhodes about her role as a female executive that is often the lone female in various decision-making areas. She spoke about past situations where she would speak out about roles, she was not comfortable with such as on-screen intimations that she was unfaithful to her husband that she doesn’t want to project and adding a female perspective that isn’t always considered. She also spoke of the challenges marketing talent like Riho and Hikaru Shida, where their first language is not English, as well as their relationship with Kulture City. In the same piece, Snowden interviewed Shane Douglas on the 25th anniversary of him throwing down the NWA title and proclaiming himself the ECW champion in 1994.
**All Elite Wrestling has issued a statement apologizing for the actions of Cody after his Trios match at TripleMania alongside Psycho Clown and Cain Velasquez. The three took part in a chant yelling, “Puto” to the audience in Mexico City, a chant that can be considered homophobic within the Mexican culture. The clip was used on one of AEW’s Road to episodes and led to Outsports seeking a statement from the company. A spokesperson for AEW release the following message to the outlet:
Cody joined his teammates at AAA TripleMania for what he understood to be their post-match tradition in Mexico and was unaware of any negative connotations. Certainly the last thing Cody would want to do is to hurt or offend anyone, anywhere.
**El Hijo del Fantasma (Jorge Bally) has reported to the WWE Performance Center in Florida along with former football player Edgar Lopez. Bally is the 35-year old son of El Fantasma with the son working since 2000.
He started his career in CMLL where he won the World Trios titles on two occasions with partners La Mascara and the late Hector Garza. In July 2009, he defeated Averno to become the promotion’s world middleweight champion and lost it to Negro Casas in February 2010. He jumped to AAA in October 2013 as a member of El Consejo and became AAA Fusion champion, Latin American champion, and won their Cruiserweight title during his run. This also opened the doors for him to work with Lucha Underground under the name King Cuerno. In 2017, he also wrestled select matches for Impact Wrestling and signed with WWE this past summer.
**This past Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 2,130,000 viewers on the USA Network, which was up 2% from the previous week.
**The Raw crew has a live event in Saint John, New Brunswick tonight with Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin in a Street Fight advertised as the main event. The company issued a news release today that Saturday’s show in Halifax, Nova Scotia has been canceled “due to expected severe weather and hazardous conditions this weekend.” Those that purchased tickets can receive refunds at the Halifax Forum Box Office this week and online purchases will be automatically refunded.
**The SmackDown crew has a show in Bueno Aires, Argentina tonight with Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair, and Bayley advertised. There is a combined house show Sunday night in Syracuse, New York and then Raw and SmackDown will be taped from Madison Square Garden this week.
**Here are the matches scheduled for Impact Wrestling tonight at 10 pm Eastern on Pursuit, Twitch, and Fight Network in Canada:
*Josh Alexander & Ethan Page vs. LAX in a Title vs. Careers match
*Rob Van Dam vs. Madman Fulton
*Moose vs. Fallah Bahh
**Below are the matches for Saturday night’s episode of MLW Fusion at 9 pm Eastern on beIN Sports:
*Alex Hammerstone vs. Go Shiosaki – this a taped match from the ongoing N-1 Victory tournament that NOAH is holding
*Richard Holliday vs. Brian Pillman Jr.
*Gringo Loco vs. Jordan Oliver
**Prior to this weekend’s War Chamber television taping, MLW has announced a return date to the NYTEX Sports Complex in North Richland Hills, Texas. The company will be holding their Zero Hour television taping on Saturday, January 11th at the venue, which they have said is close to sold-out for tomorrow’s taping.
**Impact Wrestling will be returning to St. Claire College in Windsor, Ontario for television tapings on Friday, October 25th and Saturday, October 26th. These will be the tapings following Bound for Glory, which takes place the prior weekend on October 20th in Villa Park, Illinois.
**Naomichi Marufuji will be wrestling at Bound for Glory as part of Impact’s working relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH.
**Dave Musgrave has a feature on Daniel Makabe at SLAM Wrestling.
**Explosive Pro Wrestling out of Perth, Australia has posted a match between TJP and Damian Slater that has received strong reviews.
**The WWE stock closed at $73.57 on Friday.
MMA NEWS
**All fighters but one made weight for Saturday’s UFC 242 card in Abu Dhabi on Yas Island. The card will be an afternoon pay-per-view in North America with the Fight Pass prelims at 10 am ET, the televised prelims at Noon and the pay-per-view portion beginning at 2 pm. Here is the full card and results from the weigh-ins:
MAIN CARD (2 pm Eastern on pay-per-view)
*Khabib Nurmagomedov (155) vs. Dustin Poirier (155) for the UFC lightweight title
*Edson Barboza (155.5) vs. Paul Felder (155)
*Islam Makhachev (155) vs. Davi Ramos (156)
*Curtis Blaydes (251) vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov (257)
*Diego Ferreira (156) vs. Mairbek Taisumov (156)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Noon Eastern on FX, TSN 3 in Canada)
*Joanne Calderwood (126) vs. Andrea Lee (126)
*Lerone Murphy (146) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (146)
*Liana Jojua (134.5) vs. Sarah Moras (138*)
*Teemu Packalen (156) vs. Ottman Azaitar (156)
FIGHT PASS PRELIMS (10:15 am on Fight Pass)
*Belal Muhammad (170) vs. Takashi Sato (171)
*Nordine Taleb (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (170)
*Omari Akhmedov (186) vs. Zak Cummings (185.5)
*Fares Ziam (155) vs. Don Madge (155)
**UFC president Dana White spoke to ESPN ahead of the UFC 242 card with White stating that BJ Penn will not be booked for any future fights in the organization. This stems from a recent video that surfaced on TMZ of Penn involved in an altercation outside of a club in Hawaii. In the video, Penn was knocked down from a punch and later got on top of the unknown individual. Penn spoke to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter this past week, defending his actions and denied he started the incident and was attempting to diffuse it.
**Bellator 226 takes place Saturday night from the SAP Center in San Jose, California with the card airing exclusively on DAZN. Mauro Ranallo and John McCarthy will be calling the event and features the start of the Featherweight Grand Prix. Because of the UFC 242 card airing in the afternoon, Bellator’s main card won’t be going against the UFC. Below are the main card fights that begin at 10 pm Eastern with the weigh-in results from Friday:
*Ryan Bader (228.7) vs. Cheick Kongo (239.2) for the Bellator heavyweight title
*Derek Campos (144.9) vs. Daniel Straus (144.4) in the opening round of the Featherweight Grand Prix
*Adam Borics (144.7) vs. Pat Curran (144.6) in the opening round of the Featherweight Grand Prix
*Tywan Claxton (144.3) vs. Emmanuel Sanchez (144.1) in the opening round of the Featherweight Grand Prix
*Pedro Carvalho (144.1) vs. Sam Sicilia (145) in the opening round of the Featherweight Grand Prix
*Daniel Carey (144.2) vs. Gaston Bolanos (145.5)
**Below is Episode 4 of the current UFC Embedded series promoting UFC 242:
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (September 2019)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the September 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29744380
*****
Café Hangout: Ric Flair vs. WWE, Pat McAfee talks to John Pollock
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss Ric Flair threatening legal action with WWE over “The Man”, Raw and SmackDown receive new lead writers. Pat McAfee speaks to John Pollock about working with WWE and the launch of The Pat McAfee Show.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/05/ric-flair-vs-wwe-pat-mcafee-talks-to-john-pollock-cafe-hangout/
*****
upNXT 9/5/19: Big Comfy Couch
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review WWE NXT featuring Adam Cole defending the NXT championship against Jordan Myles, Velveteen Dream vs. Kona Reeves, and Roderick Strong committing arson.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/05/upnxt-9-5-19-big-comfy-couch/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW S3 Ep. 5 & 6, CM Punk int, Starrcast III, Adrian Street doc
On this week’s DOUBLE SHOT reviews: Episodes 5 & 6 of GLOW Season 3, Starrcast III panels including CM Punk’s interview with Mike Johnson, Wrestling with Stereotypes 2, and WWE Network’s Adrian Street documentary.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29723499
*****
RASD 9/3/19: The Ramdeen Laugh, Jericho loses AEW belt, KENTA
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Daniel Bryan demands an apology from Roman Reigns (again). Chris Jericho’s AEW title is either lost or stolen. We discuss NJPW’s handling of concussions with regards to KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/04/rasd-9-3-19-the-ramdeen-laugh-jericho-loses-aew-belt-kenta/
*****
RAR 9/2/19: Bayley’s Irish Cream
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Bayley’s attack on Becky Lynch. Plus, a discussion on the AEW media scrums, Royal Quest added to New Japan World, and fallout from the weekend.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/03/rar-9-2-19-bayleys-irish-cream/
*****
BWE Special: NJPW Royal Quest, NXT UK TakeOver & Summer Sizzler
Martin, Benno & Jamesie are back to review two major shows this weekend: NJPW Royal Quest (Okada vs. Suzuki) and WWE NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff (WALTER vs. Bate). Will Cooling drops in to give a live report from RevPro’s Summer Sizzler and a controversial main event between Will Ospreay and David Starr.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/01/bwe-special-njpw-royal-quest-nxt-uk-takeover-cardiff-revpro-summer-sizzler/
*****
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