POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Wai #44 is out today with Wai Ting and I reviewing the 2017 Royal Rumble. This was selected by Espresso Executive Producer Joshua Martin. Today also marks the tenth anniversary of the first-ever Review-A-Wai we recorded in September 2009. To mark this occasion, we were joined by Brad Copping a.k.a. “The Archivist” to run through our top ten shows we have done and share his own memories and stats from the show. In addition, we have a complete rundown of the 2017 show, headlines from that week, and your feedback to the show. The show is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**The Café Hangout is also available with Jimmy Korderas joining to the show to preview WWE’s Clash of Champions, share his thoughts on the recent Rev Pro incident involving referee Aaren Wilde, and look at the upcoming schedule with NXT to the USA Network, AEW on TNT, and Impact Wrestling moving to AXS TV. Plus, your phone calls and lots more.
**This week’s installment of Five Questions with Phil Chertok focuses on Khabib Nurmagomedov’s standing among the top fighters after his win over Dustin Poirier, the future of Poirier, Donald Cerrone vs. Justin Gaethje, and Todd Duffee’s comments on fighter pay and the media’s role on the subject.
**Wai Ting and I will be LIVE this Sunday night immediately after the conclusion of Clash of Champions. Our POST Show will be available live for Double Double, Iced Capp, and Espresso members of the Café.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s Raw house show that was scheduled to take place from the McKenzie Arena on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus has been postponed due to a water outage affecting the campus. The WWE confirmed to POST Wrestling that tonight’s show is off and will be rescheduled for January 19, 2020. The issue began Thursday night when a water main broke with an estimated 30,000 people affected. Numerous buildings have been shut down, including the University campus where the WWE show was set to take place. The Raw crew is set to work a show in Macon, Georgia on Saturday and then head to Charlotte for Sunday’s pay-per-view.
**Impact executives Scott D’Amore and Don Callis were guests on Friday’s edition of Talk is Jericho to discuss Anthem’s purchase for majority control of AXS TV and HDNet Movies. In the discussion, Callis seemed to confirm Dave Meltzer’s report that talks began in late 2018 and they always viewed the Pursuit Channel as a short-term stopgap. Regarding viewership on Pursuit, Callis said: “they certainly weren’t what we would have liked”. It was also noted that Impact president Ed Nordholm spent hundreds of hours working on this deal and deserves a lot of the credit behind-the-scenes.
**It was also noted in the interview that one hurdle for them is taking their expanding digital audience and monetizing it to the degree that television viewership can be.
**Cain Velasquez spoke with ESPN this week regarding his future in professional wrestling. When asked about the comparisons between WWE and AEW and his own tastes, he said:
I love them both. I think obviously WWE is the powerhouse. They’ve had the biggest stars come from there and it’s the most watched wrestling in the U.S. for sure. I love the backstories and the drama, but their wrestling to me — I like more of the lucha stuff. I like the athleticism, and we do see some in WWE, but as far as wrestling goes, it’s not my favorite organization just as far as the wrestling.
I think AEW is doing some great stuff. I like the talent that they’ve brought in. They have a mix of lucha, which I think is pretty cool, and something fans are really liking these days. They’re doing a great job in giving the fans what they want as far as the wrestling and I love that they’re doing that.
I like them both for what they are, but I love the way AEW is going, the path they are going. I see big things for them in the future. … If I can, I’d love to do something with them.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 10 pm Eastern on Pursuit and Twitch:
*Sami Callihan & Jake Crist vs. Tessa Blanchard & Tommy Dreamer in a Street Fight
*Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Texano Jr.
*Ace Austin vs. Eddie Edwards
*Desi Hit Squad vs. Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa
**On Saturday night, Game Changer Wrestling will present Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport II from The Showboat in Atlantic City, New Jersey and streaming on Fite TV at 8 pm Eastern. The first version of Bloodsport was promoted under Matt Riddle’s name by GCW in April 2018 in New Orleans and was a unique concept. The second version from this past year’s WrestleMania weekend under Barnett’s name was a big hit over the weekend. It was highlighted by a tremendous 30-minute draw between Barnett and Minoru Suzuki and was unlike any other wrestling show that weekend. Game Changer has been tremendous at coming up with great concepts that sell themselves with unique match pairings, settings and marketing those shows effectively. This show doesn’t have the benefit of running over the busiest weekend of the year and is an experiment to see how the themed event can perform on its own. Below is the card:
*Josh Barnett vs. Chris Dickinson (a replacement for Jon Moxley, who had to pull out of the show to the MRSA infection he is rehabbing)
*Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Timothy Thatcher
*Filthy Tom Lawlor vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (Lawlor was unable to work the Bloodsport show this past April due to his MLW commitments and this type of show seems like a perfect for him)
*Zachary Wentz vs. Anthony Henry
*Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) vs. Simon Grimm
*Nick Gage vs. Killer Kross
*Allysin Kay vs. Nicole Savoy
*Lindsay Snow vs. Sumie Sakai
*Rory Gulak vs. Matt Makowski
*Erik Hammer vs. JR Kratos
**Impact is holding their “Victory Road” event on Saturday night from Enid, Oklahoma and making it free for Impact Plus subscribers. The show streams at 8 pm Eastern with the following matches: Stephan Bonnar vs. Moose, Taya Valkyrie vs. Rosemary for the Knockout’s title, The North vs. Rich Swann & Fuego Del Sol for the tag titles, Michael Elgin vs. TJP, Sami Callihan vs. Hawk, Eddie Edwards vs. Rohit Raju, and Kiera Hogan vs. Desiderata.
**With 48-hours until the AAA/Impact Wrestling “Invading New York” card at the Hulu Theatre, it is hard not to view this show as a missed opportunity by the promotion and running a major market in the United States. There are currently four matches advertised and minimal buzz for the show that will be airing on traditional and streaming pay-per-view. In Canada, Rogers is carrying the pay-per-view at $39.99 and Fite TV lists it for $14.99 (U.S). The card currently has the following listed:
*Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr.
*Rey Fenix & Pentagon Jr. vs. Ortiz & Santana for the AAA tag titles
*Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya Valkyrie for the Reina de Reinas championship
*Cain Velasquez, Brian Cage & Psycho Clown vs. Black Taurus, Rey Escorpion & Texano Jr.
**New Japan’s Road to Destruction tour stops in Yamaguchi on Saturday headlined by Tetsuya Naito & EVIL vs. Jay White & Gedo along with Clark Connors vs. Michael Richards and Shota Umino vs. Yuya Uemura in the Young Lion Cup. On Sunday, the Destruction in Beppu card streams on New Japan World at 4 am Eastern with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the British heavyweight title and the Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi for the IWGP tag titles in the top matches.
**DAZN officially announced that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev will fight on Saturday, November 2nd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight was first reported by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic and sets up a huge night of combat sports. In addition to the huge Canelo fight, there will be a championship fight on ESPN between Miguel Berchelt and Jason Sosa, plus the UFC 244 pay-per-view with Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal. This is also the night that MLW will hold their inaugural pay-per-view with Saturday SuperFight from Cicero Stadium in Illinois with Jacob Fatu vs. L.A. Park in the main event.
**New Japan World has added all three nights of the Super J-Cup with Japanese and English commentary. I watched the Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red match from Tacoma on the first night and it was stellar. It was clear how hot the audience was for the match, but I didn’t feel it fully translated on video. Given they had never worked together, and it was Red’s first match in months, made it even more impressive even if one half was the leading candidate for top wrestler of 2019. There was a tremendous spot where Ospreay landed a running dropkick over a table on the floor and drilled Red. The closing sequence from Ospreay is fantastic as he can play with all his established moves for added drama with the Storm Breaker as the established maneuver that everyone stays down from. It was an excellent match and hopefully, I’ll have time to watch more of the tournament over the next week. It is unfortunate these shows couldn’t air live because the attention span for a hot match or show is limited and then it’s onto the next wave of shows that great stuff gets forgotten because of the pace of today’s industry.
**EVOLVE has announced that WALTER will face JD Drake next Friday in Brooklyn, New York at EVOLVE 135. The following night, WALTER faces Kassius Ohno in Queens, New York. The UK title will not be on the line for either match.
**Angelina Love turns 38 today and Baron Corbin is 35.
MMA NEWS
**Tonight appears to be the end of an era with the final edition of AXS TV’s Friday Night MMA programming. The LFA 76 card from Wichita, Kansas is expected to be the final broadcast of the series, which has been the home for regional mixed martial arts for years. AXS reporter Phoenix Carnavale noted this past week it would be their final broadcast as a result of the sale to Anthem. AXS TV, previously HDNet made their mark through mixed martial arts with the popular Inside MMA news show that was hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten and later Mauro Ranallo taking over the hosting duties. The series ran for nine seasons and ended in 2016 after producing 433 episodes. The television property dabbled with their fight promoting running HDNet Fights as its own brand in 2007 but later focused on licensing other promotions for content and getting the U.S. broadcast rights for the likes of DREAM, K-1, and countless others.
When POST Wrestling contacted AXS TV for clarification on the status of the series, we were told that Anthem had not made any decisions about current programming.
**The big card of the weekend is the UFC Fight Night show from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia with a strong main card. The main event could be one of the best fights of the year between Donald Cerrone and Justin Gaethje. Since Cerrone’s return to lightweight, he has gone 2-1 and is coming off a loss to Tony Ferguson from this past June. Gaethje has put together some of the most exciting fights in UFC history since entering the promotion in 2017. He has a reckless style that is entertaining but also puts out a blueprint for those figuring him out. He is coming off wins over James Vick and Edson Barboza and stands to leap near the top of the division defeating someone at Cerrone’s level. While Ferguson should be the next one to fight for the title, this fight could set up a perfect scenario for Conor McGregor to come back and fight. Gaethje has already pushed for that fight with McGregor while Cerrone and McGregor have been linked together for years and either would be big enough to headline on pay-per-view.
This show is streaming on ESPN+ and will air on TSN 2 in Canada. Below is the full card and results from Friday’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (8 pm Eastern on ESPN+, TSN 2 in Canada)
*Donald Cerrone (155.5) vs. Justin Gaethje (155.5)
*Glover Teixeira (204.5) vs. Nikita Krylov (205.5)
*Todd Duffee (244.5) vs. Jeff Hughes (251)
*Michel Pereira (172*) vs. Tristan Connelly (169.5)
*Uriah Hall (184) vs. Antonio Carlos Junior (185.5)
*Misha Cirkunov (205.5) vs. Jim Crute (205)
PRELIMINARY CARD (5 pm on ESPN+)
*Augusto Sakai (258) vs. Marcin Tybura (257.5)
*Cole Smith (135) vs. Miles Johns (135.5)
*Hunter Azure (135.5) vs. Brad Katona (135)
*Chas Skelly (146) vs. Jordan Griffin (145)
*Ryan MacDonald (135.5) vs. Louis Smolka (135.5)
*Kyle Prepolec (155) vs. Austin Hubbard (156)
**Michel Pereira missed weight and was fined 20% of his purse, according to MMA Junkie. The site added he was given an additional hour to lose the extra pound but opted not to and accepted the fine.
**KSW has a card Saturday afternoon at 1 pm Eastern from the SSE Arena in London, England with Phil De Fries fighting Luis Henrique for the KSW heavyweight title. The top fights include a light heavyweight title fight between Tomasz Narkun and Przemyslaw Mysiala and an interim lightweight title fight between Norman Parke and Marcin Wrzosek.
**The UFC has announced that Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson will fight Vicente Luque at UFC 244 on November 2nd at Madison Square Garden. It’s interesting that Thompson’s last win was in MSG in November 2017 when he defeated Jorge Masvidal, who is headling UFC 244 against Nate Diaz. Since the Masvidal win, Thompson has been defeated by Darren Till and Anthony Pettis. Luque has one of the more under-appreciated UFC records going 10-2 since coming off the Ultimate Fighter in 2015. He has won his last six fights, including wins over Bryan Barberena, Derrick Krantz, and Mike Perry in 2019.
**Another fight that is set is a light heavyweight bout between Jan Blachowicz and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. The two will meet on November 16th when the promotion returns to Sao Paulo, Brazil. This would remove Blachowicz from the list of potential challengers to fight Jon Jones for the light heavyweight and leaves all the top contenders at light heavyweight either booked for a fight or injured. Thiago Santos is injured and fought Jones back in July, Anthony Smith is out with a hand injury and also lost to Jones this year, Dominick Reyes is fighting Chris Weidman next month, Corey Anderson is fighting Johnny Walker, and Alexander Gustafsson retired. Blachowicz has won five of his last six fights and is coming off a knockout win over Luke Rockhold in July. “Jacare” is moving up from middleweight after losing by decision to Jack Hermansson this past April.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #44: WWE Royal Rumble 2017
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Royal Rumble 2017 headlined by John Cena vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship and the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match. To celebrate 10 years of reviews, The Archivist counts down his Top 10 Review-A-Wai episodes.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29930429
*****
CAFE HANGOUT – Sept. 12, 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by former WWE referee / Aftermath co-host Jimmy Korderas to discuss a recent incident involving a RevPro referee getting injured in a controversial unplanned spot. Plus, Jimmy helps us preview Sunday’s WWE Clash of Champions PPV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/12/jimmy-korderas-talks-revpro-ref-injury-clash-of-champions-preview-cafe-hangout/
*****
upNXT 9/12/19: 4-Life
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are back to chat this week’s WWE NXT featuring Shayna Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley, Johnny Gargano reveals his fate, Pete Dunne vs. Angel Garza, more match announcements for next week’s first LIVE edition of NXT… and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/12/upnxt-9-12-19-4-life/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW S3 Ep. 7 & 8, Road to AEW on TNT, Pollock’s ??? Review
On this edition of the Double Shot, John and Wai review Episodes 7 & 8 of GLOW Season 3, Road to AEW on TNT Ep. 2, and a special surprise review from John that fans of 90’s nostalgia will love.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/12/double-shot-glow-s3-ep-7-8-road-to-aew-on-tnt-pollocks-review/
*****
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/
*****
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