POST Wrestling News Update
By: Andrew Thompson
**The Wrap is reporting that at least 40 people have been let go from AXS TV following the news that Anthem had acquired a majority stake in AXS. The report notes that there were more than 40 employees cut which includes contractors, consultants, and freelancers. The cuts happened within hours of the announcement. A source told The Wrap that there was no time for consultants to negotiate a new deal. Bob Gold, who is a spokesman for Anthem told The Wrap that AXS had a few more than 100 hundred employees before the cuts. There are currently 20 AXS employees left per the report but Bob Gold believes that number is higher. There are some AXS employees remaining in the Los Angeles office but most staffers in Dallas and Denver have been laid off.
**In a dark match following the 9/10 edition of 205 Live, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt defeated Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel.
**While speaking with Newsweek, Triple H stated that viewers will soon begin to see 205 Live move under the umbrella of NXT:
“You’ll start to see 205 begin to. I think it always existed as an island onto itself, a little bit, and its become lost in this limbo.” Triple H said. “You’ll begin to see it move more towards the NXT banner and the talent there. We have a lot of talent. For them to begin to compete either open against anyone or in the cruiserweight division, but have that title sit under the NXT brand is more meaningful. It creates more opportunities for more people. As for RAW and SmackDown, it’s an open division for them. When you’re on both shows, everybody is competing against everybody.”
**Triple H also spoke to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated about The Undertaker’s appearance on College Gameday over the weekend.
**Drew McIntyre told The Scottish Sun that he will always remember former ICW World Heavyweight Champion Adrian ‘Lionheart’ McCallum as a champion. Lionheart took his own life on June 19th of this year:
“He really wanted to make a difference to the UK wrestling scene and the Scottish wrestling scene, and he did.” McIntyre said. “He got to the top, he became ICW Champion, and is a respected figure and always will be. He went out a champion. That’s how I like to remember Adrian.”
**McKenzie Mitchell noted on Twitter that she is officially an on-air host for WWE. Mitchell previously worked for IMPACT Wrestling. Also, a former employee of SiriusXM and House Of Hardcore ring announcer Matt Camp is now working for WWE as an on-air talent and digital host.
**A GoFundMe has been set up for former WCW Hardcore Champion Brian Knobbs. Knobbs’ friend, Fred Jung set up the page and noted in the description that Knobbs suffered a debilitating infection in his knee and will need a knee replacement. Along with Brian’s current status, his wife has also been dealing with health issues which are taken care of via Brian’s appearances at conventions and independent wrestling shows.
**Roman Reigns and Erick Rowan’s bout at Clash Of Champions will now be held under No-DQ rules.
**Former ICW Women’s Champion Session Moth Martina has signed a full-time deal with Ring Of Honor, per PWInsider. Martina’s deal allows her to continue working for STARDOM and independent shows in Europe.
**During an interview with Sporting News, Killer Kross told the publication that his relationship with IMPACT Wrestling is not in a good state. Kross did not dive into specifics but he stated that one of the roots of his issues with IMPACT has to do with merchandising. Kross says that he is trying his best to address the situation and is remaining civil and professional although it can be difficult. Killer Kross also confirmed that he will not be working AAA’s show in New York City on September 15th as he was originally scheduled to work the show but when IMPACT got involved, he was told he was no longer going to be a part of the event.
**Nick Gage versus Killer Kross has been added to GCW and Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport II event on September 14th.
**NXT U.K. Tag Team Champions Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster spoke with Mirror Sport for an exclusive interview. ()
**The 2019 NJPW Super J-Cup tournament shows from August 22nd, 24th and 25th are up on NJPW World.
**Sasha Banks appeared on WFNZ Sports Radio to promote this Sunday’s Clash Of Champions pay-per-view and she was asked about her hiatus after WrestleMania 35 and here’s how Banks responded to the question:
“I’ve been doing this for seven years straight, no break. People need to step back and reevaluate their lives and take care of their souls and minds and I’m back and I’m better than ever and I got myself a championship match on Sunday so, I think I did quite well for myself, right?” Banks laughed.
**Nigel McGuinness is no longer on the 205 Live commentary team as he’ll be with the NXT brand full-time. Filling in for Nigel on 205 Live and joining Aiden English and Vic Joseph is NXT’s Brennan Williams.
**Yahoo! Sports conducted an interview with WWE Hall Of Famers Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Triple H said that NXT has been the “alternative” wrestling program for five years in regard to All Elite Wrestling describing themselves as an alternative.
**Seth Rollins discovered that he has a brother and sister he never knew about.
**Chad Gable will meet Baron Corbin on the 9/16 episode of Monday Night RAW in the finals of the 2019 King Of The Ring tournament.
**Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander joined Busted Open Radio with Mark Henry and Dave LaGreca and reflected on main-eventing RAW at Madison Square Garden and sharing a beer with Stone Cold Steve Austin. During the conversation, Alexander said he thought about quitting wrestling before his daughter came into the picture. He became emotional when speaking about the love he has for his daughter and being the father figure that he did not have growing up:
“For me, its been a long road. Not only as a performer but as a man, as a father and all that kind of stuff. So, at one point in my career, I really wanted to just give up and hang it [up] because I wasn’t getting anywhere.” Alexander said. “I felt like I wasn’t getting myself into good shape. I didn’t feel dedicated, but it wasn’t until my daughter was born that I thought to myself, ‘If I give up, what example am I setting for my daughter?’ Because you always tell your kids, ‘Don’t give up, succeed at your dreams and be the best you can be’ and now that I actually have someone to tell that to, I was like, ‘I can’t just give up’. I can’t just hang it up and say, ‘This isn’t for me’. This is something I’ve loved since day one, and beyond. So, to me, it was more than just succeeding at a career I love. It was setting an example for my daughter and future generations that no matter how bad things seem or how tough it can be, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. There’s always something for you at the end of it. No matter how hard you work, there’s always something for you.”
**Professional soccer player James Norwood will wrestle on September 18th for an event hosted by the International Pro Wrestling League.
**Mandy Rose talked about life after wrestling during an interview with Metro.
**KUSHIDA debuted for 205 Live last night and teamed with Jack Gallagher to defeat Brian Kendrick and Akira Tozawa.
**NXT’s Mansoor told Esquire Middle East that he truly believes women will one day compete in a wrestling ring in Saudi Arabia.
**Mojo Rawley joked about Rob Gronkowski joining WWE’s 205 Live roster while speaking with TMZ.
**Part two of Kota Ibushi’s interview with NJPW1972.com has been released. Ibushi shared that he wants to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 14 and the following day at the second of two Tokyo Dome shows, he wants to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. (https://www.njpw1972.com/59338)
**Former CZW Tag Team Champions Beaver Boys (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) were the opponents of Heavy Machinery on the 9/10 edition of SmackDown Live at Madison Square Garden.
**DS Shin of Ring The Belle sat down with WWE Hall Of Famer Torrie Wilson for an exclusive interview. Wilson talked being on the road with her late father Al Wilson and recalled when her father asked Vince McMahon for a ride from the hotel to the venue of WWE’s show for that day and McMahon gave Wilson a ride: “Thankfully, he was only there the day of TVs. I didn’t really travel with him that much, but it was terrifying because he didn’t understand the politics backstage and one time he asked Vince McMahon if he could have a ride in his limo to the building, from the hotel.” Wilson said. “Yes, he did ask him. He got a ride. So I was constantly worried like, ‘Is dad going to embarrass me tonight?’ On a side note, it was just so fun to have that experience with him and to be able to give him that experience.” She concluded.
**Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE) has an event in Taiwan on September 14th and on that show, Michael Nakazawa and Yuka Sakazaki are set to take on Kenny Omega and AEW Women’s World Title contender Riho.
**Ben Brasch of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote a piece about professional wrestling in the city of Atlanta and the current state of the wrestling business. Names such as Cody Rhodes, Diamond Dallas Page, Billy Corgan, Dave Lagana, and Brandi Rhodes were interviewed for the story.
NJPW Road To Destruction Results (9/11/19)
* Young Lion Cup League Match: Clark Connors def. Yota Tsuji
* Young Lion Cup League Match: Ren Narita def. Alex Coughlin
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura def. Satoshi Kojima, Michael Richards & Karl Fredericks
* Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Tomoaki Honma def. Jado, Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
* Chase Owens, El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori def. Toa Henare, Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles
* Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger, SHO & YOH def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.
* Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI def. Hirooki Goto, Rocky Romero & Kazuchika Okada
* EVIL & Tetsuya Naito def. Gedo & Jay White
**Natalya’s latest piece for the Calgary Sun had to do with her reflecting on some of her fondest moments as a part of the SmackDown roster. Natalya expressed that she felt like she was in “the big leagues” while a part of the blue-brand.
**Major League Wrestling is returning to Orlando on November 9th to present their ‘Blood & Thunder’ TV taping at GILT Nightclub.
**Three years ago today at WWE’s Backlash pay-per-view, Becky Lynch became the first-ever SmackDown Live Women’s Champion and Heath Slater and Rhyno became the inaugural SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions.
**Simon Dean spoke with former WWE referee Kevin Keenan on the ‘Smarks & Stripes’ podcast. Dean addressed the comments that were made about him by CM Punk during Punk’s stage show at Starrcast III. Punk recalled when he had a back-and-forth with Tony Atlas and stated that Simon Dean, who worked in talent relations at the time couldn’t wait to go back and tell the higher-ups in the company what had happened between Punk and Atlas: “I will say this: Phillip Brooks, has always lived in his own world, good or bad. Its given him the edge to accomplish what he has wanted to accomplish in life, but its also made him come up with verbose statements like that. I didn’t believe it when you told me. You [Podcast host/former WWE referee Kevin Keenan] texted me and said, ‘Hey, check this out bro’. I had to call you up, and I said, ‘This can’t be real’, and you’re like, ‘No it’s real. He name-dropped you at his…’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute… this guy, who is one of the enigmatic guys of the last decade — strange, brood kind of fellow — does his own thing — finally they drag him out of the mothballs to do an interview and my name is gonna come out of his mouth, about the head of developmental — so I get that.” Simon Dean stated. “So I text Mike [Johnson]. I’m like, ‘Mike!’. Mike’s like, ‘No, no, no. I said I liked you’. I said, ‘No heat on you Mike, but did this guy really say this?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah’. So then I see it in print on the internet. Now again, if you’re listening to this, this is where every single syllable that came out of Phillip’s mouth after this, has to be proven as not only a lie, but a complete made-up fantasy.”
“The man stated, ‘Nova couldn’t wait to get to the office’ and that I and Al Snow tried to fire him and the Major Brothers. That’s out of his mouth. This is not fictitious. This is not five years down the road. The man said it two weeks ago.” Dean continued, “You can go look at it. Go look it up online. Those words came out of CM Punk Phillip Brooks’ mouth and again, I’m gonna preference this: I don’t like Punk, I don’t dislike Punk. I have no feeling towards Punk at all. The guy who pumped my gas today at Shell, when I was inside and I paid him for it — he meant more to me today than probably CM Punk ever did. That’s just the fact of reality. We had a couple mutual friends, we never hung out, we didn’t interact, that’s it. I was never Punk’s boss.” He said. “Let me let you in for a shock guys, CM Punk never had a boss, except for Vince McMahon. When he was on the independents, he was his own boss. When he was in Ian Rotten’s, he booked his own sh*t and he was his own boss. When he was at Ring Of Honor, he was his own boss. He answered to no one. He did his own angles. I’m sure Gabe and Rob and all the other guys will tell you different but we all know how this works, and don’t get me wrong, it worked for him because he did great stuff. When he was in the developmental system, you [Kevin Keenan] were there, did he have a boss?” Keenan responded by saying not to his knowledge. Simon continued, “No. You know what he did? He used to sit around with Paul and [Brent] Albright and all the other guys who were actually showing that they wanted to learn more about the business. They were sitting around writing the TV show, making the signs for the fans to have in the audience to cheer this one or that one, so that the WWE writers and the people behind the scenes would see all this stuff and say, ‘Wow, that person is really over’ or ‘that person has a lot of heat. Let’s do something with em’. I don’t fault any of this. They saw the opportunity and took it, but I was never CM Punk’s boss. It doesn’t even make any sense.”
Simon Dean also addressed Punk’s remarks about himself and Al Snow lobbying to get Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins fired: “The whole Tony Atlas thing and I’ve heard about this over and over again and like you said, ‘You weren’t even there Nova’. I wish I had been there Keenan. I would’ve stopped it.” Simon said. “If I had been there because you can say whatever you want about Tony, I still respect him and Punk has his views. He wasn’t going to be silenced. He can say his thing, but I would’ve tried to stop that however, I could because who called me the next day? Was it you? Danny Davis and Al Snow both called me and told me what happened and I just remember saying, ‘Really man?’ And then I saw Punk a week later and I just remember going up to him and saying, ‘Really dude? You had to get into it with Tony Atlas? You couldn’t let it go?’ He said, ‘F*ck Tony Atlas. I’m letting nothing go’. I said, ‘Alright man’ — never spoke to him again about it. So not only you — you the listener who is listening to this right now — not only was I not in the building, I couldn’t go wait to tell the office? I was sitting in the office! Did I run to call myself? It doesn’t even make any sense when you listen to it, and then the boomerang on that — the other part of it that’s flying back right now [is] that myself and Al Snow couldn’t wait to fire The Major Brothers. Did I not send you, irrefutable proof from said Major Brothers that said, ‘Nova, this never happened. You were great to us. You treated us like gold’. So, again… I’m going to give Phillip the benefit of the doubt — whole wrestling career, all those years, the beatings that he took in those UFC fights. All that together, I’m gonna say that he has a lapse in judgment and he just forgot about it and he has no idea what true history was. I’m going to give him one-up on that and say, ‘Hey Phillip, do it over’. I did reach out to one or two of his friends and said, ‘Hey man, you might want to tell him to maybe revise this a little bit’ and I got the old wink, wink, brother, brother — ‘Hey man, I can’t tell him. He’s my friend’. Sure brother, no problem. Have a nice day. But, I’m going to assume he has revisionist history. It’s what he can live. I do not speak to Punk, I do not see him — well let me take that back, I saw him at Matt Cappotelli’s funeral about a year ago, walked right by him, ‘Hey Phillip, what’s up?’ ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Shook his hand.” Simon Dean concluded.
**IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada was profiled as a part of a special that aired on TV Asahi’s ‘Get Sports’ in Japan on September 1st.
**TMZ Sports released another portion of their chat with Ric Flair and Flair revealed that he has signed a deal with Adidas.
**Ethan Page documented Santana and Ortiz’s last IMPACT Wrestling television tapings.
**Tyler Breeze conducted an interview with Dave Bautista about Bautista’s character in Gears 5. Breeze FaceTimed Xavier Woods after the interview and he and Batista joked about Woods “big leaguing” them.
*****
RASD 9/10/19: Shane vs. Gable in KOR, Major cuts at AXS, Raw drops 15%
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Shane McMahon replaced an injured Elias to face off with Chad Gable in a King of the Ring semi-final match.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/11/rasd-9-10-19-shane-vs-gable-in-kor-major-cuts-at-axs-raw-drops-15/
*****
RAR 9/9/19: Steve Austin at MSG, Anthem-AXS TV purchase
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Steve Austin’s return to Madison Square Garden, King of the Ring Semi-Finals, and a tag team match involving The Four Horsewomen. Plus, we discuss Anthem’s majority purchase of AXS TV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/10/rar-9-9-19-steve-austin-at-msg-anthem-axs-tv-purchase/
*****
POST Puroresu: September 2019 Edition
John Pollock & WH Park chat their final thoughts on the G1, the Royal Quest streaming issues, Destruction & KOPW cards, Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix, N-1 Victory & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/09/post-puroresu-final-g1-notes-royal-quest-destruction-kopw-cards/
*****
UFC 242 POST SHOW: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier
John Pollock & Phil Chertok review the UFC 242 pay-per-view featuring Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier for the UFC lightweight title & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/07/ufc-242-post-show-khabib-nurmagomedov-vs-dustin-poirier/
*****
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/
*****
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