POST IT NOTES
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with Wai Ting and I reviewing Monday’s show from the Chase Center in San Francisco. On the show, we also discuss Kevin Sullivan (the producer) leaving Impact Wrestling, the Lacey Evans story from Canada this weekend, Kenny Omega’s comments on Being the Elite, and GLOW being renewed for one final season. Plus, the announcement of our new schedule at POST Wrestling that goes into effect next week.
**Wai Ting and I are back with Rewind-A-SmackDown late tonight discussing SmackDown, Impact Wrestling on Tuesdays, the New Japan cards, and taking your feedback & questions.
**Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski will join us on Rewind-A-Wai this Friday to share his live experience of attending the August 1986 WWF card from Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. This show will be available for members of the POST Wrestling Cafe.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Wednesday: The FINAL Double Shot (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout (Live at 3 pm Eastern for Double Double+ members)
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai #45: WWF “The Big Event” (Patreon)
*Friday: ROH Death Before Dishonor POST Show with John Pollock & Mike Murray
*Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton “Get Smart” (2008)
POST WRESTLING YOUTUBE
WRESTLING NEWS
**Impact Wrestling confirmed its move to Tuesdays next month with the first episode of Impact airing October 29th at 8 pm Eastern. In the four-weeks leading up to the premiere, AXS TV will be airing several pay-per-views from 2019 starting October 1st and a special titled “This is Impact” on October 22nd. We are still awaiting word what the Canadian schedule will look like on Fight Network and Game TV, which are both properties of Anthem Sports and Entertainment and carry Impact weekly.
With the move to AXS TV, there is stability and not a pressure to hotshot or drive numbers up to keep the broadcaster happy as they are now the supply and the demand of the equation. The goals will be centered around growing their audience and monetizing the property through pay-per-view, live events, and other ancillary income. By going this route, they have chosen, they have given up the option of Impact securing television rights fees from another outlet, which has been so lucrative for WWE, UFC, and Bellator.
The success of the move to AXS TV will be hard to quantify as the network doesn’t subscribe to Nielsen and therefore, their numbers won’t be known, although the increase in visibility alone guarantees more eyes than with Pursuit. It’s a different landscape than even one year ago with so much product on a weekly basis that having a great wrestling show alone won’t ensure a large audience, much less one that will be willing to spend money, which is the goal of attracting viewers. Impact is moving to a familiar slot for wrestling fans, of which typically 2-2.5 million have been watching SmackDown on Tuesday nights since July 2016.
When you add up WWE, AEW, Impact, New Japan, Ring of Honor, and MLW’s weekly programming on U.S. television, we are now looking at fourteen hours of original programming in the United States on a weekly basis. That number greatly increases when you include all the digital offerings on a weekly basis from all the promotions out there. My impression has always been that WWE will be a priority for most with AEW carving out their own audience and everyone else will be fighting for the spot among fans that find more time in the week and will sample here and there. Another major area is talent retention for Impact, ROH, and MLW and how aggressively they play in the market when talent’s deals are up and if they can compete with the inevitable offers made.
New Japan is in an interesting position with its U.S. strategy going into this weekend’s shows in the Northeast. Aside from the Guerrillas of Destiny working the Summer Supercard show in Toronto this past August, there has been little to no crossover between Ring of Honor and New Japan. On paper, it makes a lot of sense for New Japan and Impact Wrestling to be working together but it also made a ton of sense for New Japan and AEW to sort out their problems and that has not happened.
**WWE is at the Chase Center in San Francisco for the second straight night with the SmackDown & 205 Live tapings. They have announced the following for tonight:
*Shane McMahon invites Kevin Owens to sort out their lawsuit – this should end up with the match announcement for the two
*Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan “clear the air”, which sounds very environmentally conscious
*A sit-down interview with Kofi Kingston
*Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair & Carmella
*Drew Gulak & Tony Nese vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch on 205 Live
*Humberto Carrillo vs. Angel Garza on 205 Live
**NXT has added a second title match for the October 2nd episode of the USA Network. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish will defend the NXT tag titles against The Street Profits at Full Sail University. This joins the previously announced women’s title match with Shayna Baszler defending her title against Candice LeRae. The show will be going head-to-head that night with the launch of All Elite Wrestling on TNT in the same timeslot.
**WWE made a lot of announcements for next week’s season premiere of Raw from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. Next week’s Raw will feature the following:
*Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio for the Universal title
*Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss
*An appearance by Brock Lesnar ahead of the match with Kofi Kingston on Fox that week
*Miz TV with guests Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan
**Last month’s “Fighting Back” fundraising event that C*4 Wrestling put on in Ottawa raised over $60,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.
**Ring of Honor returns to pay-per-view this Friday with the Death Before Dishonor card from Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are running consecutive nights in the arena with the television tapings on Saturday. This show comes at a time when the pulse on ROH is low among the fanbase. It is a show where I feel they need to come out with a great card and get some buzz going for the product because it is down and there is no arguing from a perception standpoint. On paper, this could be a very good show and we will have a review of the card on Friday night with Mike Murray joining me. Below is the full lineup with the show airing at 9 pm Eastern on pay-per-view:
*Matt Taven vs. Rush for the ROH title
*The Briscoes vs. Mark Haskins & Bandido for the ROH tag titles
*Shane Taylor vs. Tracy Williams vs. Flip Gordon for the ROH Television title
*Kelly Klein vs. Angelina Love for the Women of Honor title
*PCO vs. Kenny King in the No. 1 Contender Tournament
*Marty Scurll vs. Colt Cabana in the No. 1 Contender Tournament
*Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham
*Silas Young & Vinny Marseglia vs. The Bouncers in a Barroom Brawl
*Jeff Cobb vs. Brody King on the pre-show at 8:30 pm Eastern
**The WWE stock dropped 3.6% on Tuesday and closed at $69.00.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced Shota Umino and Ren Narita are leaving overseas excursions. Narita is going to Los Angeles and will train at the L.A. Dojo under Katsuyori Shibata while Umino will be going to the U.K.
**WOW (Women of Wrestling) will return for its second season on Saturday, October 5th at 8 pm Eastern on AXS TV. The second season is scheduled for 24 episodes.
**The latest names added to the NWA’s television tapings next week are Thunder Rosa, Marti Belle, and Ashley Vox. The tapings are taking place from GPB Studios in Atlanta next Monday and Tuesday.
**Stardom’s annual 5* Grand Prix finished up this past Sunday with the finals at Korakuen Hall. In the finals, A Block winner Hana Kimura defeated B Block winner Konami to win the Grand Prix. Konami defeated Jungle Kyona by forfeit earlier in the show to end with 11 points in the block ahead of Bea Priestley (10), Jamie Hayter (10), Kagetsu (9), Arisa Hoshiki (9), Andras Miyagi (7), Utami Hayashashita (6), Jungle Kyona (6), and Natsuko Torah (4).
In the A Block, Kimura defeated Hazuki to win the block with ten points and advance on the tiebreaker past Tam Nakano and Momo Watanabe, who also had ten points followed by Mayu Iwatani (8), Hazuki (8), Avary (8), AZM (8), Saki Kashima (6), and Sumire Natsu (4). (Credit: http://www.purolove.com/)
**All Japan’s next major card is Thursday, August 24th at Korakuen Hall and will feature the following title matches on the show:
*Kento Miyahara vs. Jake Lee for the Triple Crown championship
*Ryoji Sai & Zeus vs. Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman for the World tag titles
**Jake Lee’s title match against Kento Miyahara came as a result of the final between the two in the Oudou tournament that wrapped up on Monday. Earlier in the card, Miyahara defeated Zeus and Lee defeated Shuji Ishikawa in the semifinals with Lee pinning Miyahara in the final.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH’s card on November 2nd will be headlined by Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC championship against Kenou, who won the N-1 Victory tournament. The same card features The Great Muta facing Naomichi Marufuji and Hayata defending the junior heavyweight title against YO-HEY.
**MLW is going to hold their “Fightland” television taping at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Saturday, February 1st, 2020 with tickets going on sale next Monday. The promotion is gearing up for their first pay-per-view event on Saturday, November 2nd from Cicero Stadium in Illinois that will be headlined by Jacob Fatu defending the MLW title against LA Park.
**Bet Online has released odds for the top two matches at Hell in a Cell next week. The outlet is listing Bray Wyatt as a minus 500 favorite to beat Seth Rollins and Sasha Banks is a -300 to beat Becky Lynch in the two Hell in a Cell matches.
**Stephanie McMahon-Levesque turns 43 today and Sonya Deville turns 26 and Shane Thorne is 34.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC’s final event of 2019 takes place on Saturday, December 21st from South Korea and it has a main event. The promotion has announced that featherweights Chan Sung Jung and Brian Ortega will fight on the card from Busan at the Sajik Arena. It will be over one year since Ortega last fought in December 2018 where he unsuccessfully challenged Max Holloway for the featherweight title. Ortega could not continue after the fourth round of their championship fight at UFC 231 in Toronto was the first loss of his professional career. Jung a.k.a. “The Korean Zombie” is coming off a victory over Renato Moicano in 58 seconds this past June. Jung is one of the most exciting fighters in the promotion, earning bonuses in six of his seven fights with the UFC.
**On Saturday, there are shows from the UFC in Denmark, New Japan in New York, and Bellator in Inglewood, California. The schedules work out that there is virtually no overlap with the UFC undercard starting at 11 am Eastern and the main card at 2, New Japan doesn’t air on New Japan World until 7 and the Bellator 228 main card begins at 10.
**The UFC card this Saturday is the promotion’s first in Denmark and will be an afternoon show airing on ESPN+ and will air on Fight Pass for Canadians and international viewers. Below is the full lineup for Saturday:
MAIN CARD (2 pm Eastern on ESPN+, Fight Pass)
*Jack Hermansson vs. Jared Cannonier
*Mark Madsen vs. Danilo Belluardo
*Gilbert Burns vs. Gunnar Nelson
*Ion Cutelaba vs. Khalil Rountree Jr.
*Ovince Saint Preux vs. Michael Oleksiejczuk
*Alex Oliveira vs. Nicholas Dalby
PRELIMINARY CARD (11 am on ESPN+, Fight Pass)
*John Phillips vs. Alen Amedovski
*Alessio Di Chirico vs. Makhmud Muradov
*Ismail Naurdiev vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
*Giga Chikadze vs. Brandon Davis
*Lina Lansberg vs. Macy Chiasson
*Marc Diakiese vs. Lando Vannata
*Jack Shore vs. Nohelin Hernandez
**The following video has emerged involving the scuffle between Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens from the fighter hotel on Sunday following their no contest the night prior in Mexico City and it does contain graphic language:
*****
RAR 9/23/19: Fatal Five-Rey, Lacey vs. Canada, POST’s new schedule
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring a Fatal Five-Way to become #1 contender and more details about next week’s Raw Season Premiere. Plus, we reveal the new fall schedule at POST Wrestling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/24/rar-9-23-19-fatal-five-rey-lacey-vs-canada-posts-new-schedule/
*****
NJPW Destruction in Kobe POST Show (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW’s Destruction in Kobe featuring Tetsuya Naito defending the IWGP Intercontinental title against Jay White and a major angle involving Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Minoru Suzuki.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/23/njpw-destruction-in-kobe-2019-post-show/
*****
upNXT’s EVOLVE 135 & 136 POST Show
Davie Portman is back to chat all about this weekend’s two EVOLVE cards taking place from Brooklyn and Queens, New York with Jesse from the Six and John Siino.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/21/upnxt-9-21-19-evolve-135-136-post-show/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the fifteenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). We discuss James Gunn’s sequel to his 2014 surprise hit, the comedic talents of Dave Bautista as Drax, Yondu’s fantastic babyface turn, the incredible emotive abilities of a CGI raccoon, and how Awesome Mix Vol. 2 stacks up against the original.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30096101
*****
CAFÉ HANGOUT – Sept. 19th, 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined live in-studio by upNXT’s Braden Herrington and Davie Portman (The BDE) to discuss last night’s NXT debut on USA and their recently launched Patreon.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/cafe-hangout-nxt-debuts-on-usa-w-upnxt
*****
THE DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW Season Finale, Bloodsport 2, WWE Chronicle
On this week’s Double Shot, John Pollock & Wai Ting review Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 2, WWE Chronicle: Sasha Banks, and Episodes 9 & 10 (Finale) of GLOW Season 3.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/double-shot-glow-s3-finale-bloodsport-2-sasha-banks/
*****
upNXT 9/18/19: The Prohecy Fulfilled on USA
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are back to chat about the very first Live episode of WWE NXT on the USA Network with Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/upnxt-9-18-19-the-prophecy-fulfilled-on-usa/
*****
BWE 9/18/19: Daniel Makabe interview
Martin, Benno & Jamesie are back to review OTT Road To 5th Anniversary (David Starr vs. Scotty Davis), NJPW Super J Cup (Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red) & Breed Pro Wrestling. Daniel Makabe joins them to discuss his career, influences and his debut in the UK.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/18/bwe-9-18-19-ott-road-to-5th-anniversary-daniel-makabe-interview/
*****
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