POST IT NOTES
**Tonight, Wai Ting and I are back with Rewind-A-Raw discussing tonight’s show from Bakersfield, California. We will also go through all the news items from today, take your feedback, and preview the upcoming week on the site.
**Our WWE Hell in a Cell POST Show is available to download wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for POST Wrestling. Wai Ting and I shared our thoughts on the terrible main event, a cold show, the two positive matches that kicked off the main show and took lots of phone calls and feedback. For Double Double, Iced Capp, and Espresso members of the Café, we go live after every Sunday night WWE pay-per-view.
**There is a feedback thread on the POST Wrestling Forum for this week’s Rewind-A-Wai episode covering the WWF’s Royal Rumble 1994 card. The review of the Royal Rumble drops Tuesday night for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**This weekend, we will have NWA Vice President David Lagana on the show to chat about the first episode of NWA Power they launch Tuesday night at 6:05 pm eastern.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai #46: WWF Royal Rumble 1994 (Patreon)
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Café Hangout at 3 pm ET (Live for all Café members)
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown – WWE Draft night one (Patreon)
*Saturday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock & WH Park
*Sunday: The POST Interview with David Lagana
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of Raw takes place from the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, California and will feature Tyson Fury to shoot his angle. While we don’t have it confirmed all signs point to Fury working the Crown Jewel event in some form with Braun Strowman. They have announced the following matches for tonight’s show:
*Randy Orton vs. Rusev
*Natalya vs. Lacey Evans in a Last Woman Standing match
*The Kabuki Warriors vs. Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch
*Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler vs. Viking Raiders
*Miz TV with Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch
**We were informed at POST Wrestling that Bray Wyatt and Sasha Banks are not medically cleared for tonight’s Raw following their matches on Sunday. No timelines were provided for us, so there is no indication that either injury is serious.
Tonight, the emphasis needs to shift to the upcoming draft. The way it has been hinted on television is something closer to the draft of July 2016 where selections are made as opposed to talent moved at random or the Superstar Shakeup, which has proven to be the least effective and a tired concept. Hopefully, the structure of the draft is explained tonight such as the ruling on champions moving shows, tag teams as units or individuals, and when the moves take effect because you’re bound to have an inter-promotional scenario with Team Hogan vs. Team Flair at Crown Jewel if ten people are part of that match.
**The finish to the Hell in a Cell card will go down as one of the worst in the promotion’s history on pay-per-view. The idea behind the finish was described to me as a Vince McMahon idea, which has also been reported by Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful. We were told there was another finish discussed that would also end with a non-finish but that was scrapped for the idea they went with and resulted in one of the worst reactions to a show I can recall. Everything has been discussed why it didn’t work, it came down to the fact they booked a match they couldn’t pay off.
It was flawed from the start because there was no desire to beat either Seth Rollins or Bray Wyatt. On top of that, they felt the need to put this inside the Hell in a Cell because that’s the event apparently, they were bound and determined to have two cell matches like they always do. The whole reason the cell was once a great drawing attraction was that it signified a violent match and a definitive winner and loser with no compromise. Because of that good faith they built, it became a draw on its own and climaxed in 2012 when CM Punk defended the WWE title against Ryback with the long title reign versus the unbeaten streak and everyone was intrigued because they believed they had to be a winner and a loser inside the cell. They skirted through that one with heel referee Brad Maddox and it was the first sign of prostituting the match. Last night should end any good faith when it comes to the cell match because fans are now conditioned that this match is not immune to b.s. finishes.
This match never should have been in the cell nor booked. A non-finish between the two in a regular match would still be criticized but nowhere to this degree. On top of that, it could have been presented in the middle of the show, hold your nose for the bad finish and hopefully, the show recovers while ending with a strong match from Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, which is the one and only cell match on the show.
This did damage to Seth Rollins because he came off so poorly, was booed by the audience, and was associated with this awful idea. One thing worth stating outright is that there was no one, past or present, that could have overcome this match layout and the two performers are going to be marred by this match. In the long-term, this may just be a blip, but it did no favors for Rollins as a babyface with the latest presentation of your top protagonist coming off as anything but in a company that shows a great inability to create babyfaces at a top-level. For the Fiend, the character is so strong that hopefully, they can overcome this and not be written off. My belief is, The Fiend will be fine as he moves onto another program but it illustrates the hurdles one must overcome if there is a well thought out character that gets over to a massive level and then has this type of a match thrown at them to get over.
**WWE is positioning the ending to the Hell in a Cell as a match stoppage rather than a disqualification. In the same structure that was popularized by the King of the Ring match in 1998, they went with a stoppage due to a sledgehammer shot.
**Fox and the Dish Network have ended their impasse that saw subscribers with Dish and Sling without access to Fox’s properties. On Sunday, they announced a multi-year carriage deal. The deal affected those with FS1, FS2, BTN, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Deportes, and certain local affiliates covering 17 markets and 23 states.
**Fox issued a release over the weekend touting the performance of Friday Night SmackDown from the Staples Center. In the release, it stated the peak audience was 4,217,000 viewers for the first 15-minutes of the program involving The Rock, Becky Lynch, and Baron Corbin. They listed the overall audience at 3,999,000 when you tally Fox, Fox Deportes, and their streaming platform figures.
**Sports TV Ratings noted that the premiere of Friday Night SmackDown had a median age of 47.6, which would be the lowest among the English language broadcast networks for the night.
**All Elite Wrestling has added a number one contender’s match between Darby Allin and Jimmy Havoc to this week’s episode. The winner of the match will challenge Chris Jericho for the AEW championship on October 16th on TNT on the show from Philadelphia. Jericho is set to defend the AEW title against Cody on the “Full Gear” pay-per-view on November 9th in Baltimore.
**AEW is going to Texas for “Dynamite” on Wednesday, December 11th. The episode will take place from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas with tickets going on sale this Friday at Noon eastern. The promotional poster features Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, The Lucha Bros., and Dustin Rhodes.
**NWA Power will release its first episode on Tuesday night at 6:05 pm eastern on the promotion’s YouTube and Facebook platforms. The episodes were taped last week at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia with a retro-style set design. The show is formatted for 60 minutes with the company not dealing with any time restrictions. The first episode will feature a rematch between NWA champion Nick Aldis and Tim Storm.
**WWE has named James Rosenstock as its new Executive Vice President of International and will report to company co-president Michelle Wilson. Rosenstock will handle the business out of the U.S. and manage its global television partners. Rosenstock previously worked with Sony, Discovery, and served as the President of Viceland International.
**Impact Wrestling announced that Kylie Rae is scheduled for the “All Glory” card they are holding on October 19th in conjunction with Warrior Wrestling and Zelo Pro Wrestling. The event takes place from Merrionette Park, Illinois on the night before Bound for Glory. Rae was set to be one of the standout female stars in AEW but requested her release after deleting several social media accounts. It is unknown the reason for Rae’s departure from the promotion, but she did return to wrestle in September on short notice for Freelance Wrestling out of Illinois as a late substitution for Shotzi Blackheart. After the return match, Rae’s trainer Booker T. commented on her return.
**Ring of Honor has added Joe Hendry vs. Silas Young to their Honor United card on Sunday, October 27th in Bolton, England. The same show will also feature Rush vs. Jeff Cobb for the ROH title and Speedball Mike Bailey taking on Flamita (who is a sub for the injured Bandido). They have also added a match between Kelly Klein and Lana Austin for October 26th in Newport, Wales.
**Jake Atlas, who has become one of the most sought after unsigned talents, has been booked by Black Label Pro for a card in November. Atlas is set to face Jake Something (Cousin Jake in Impact Wrestling) on Saturday, November 16th in Crown Point, Indiana at the RDS Gym at 1260 Arrowhead Crescent.
**Starrcast has added The Great Muta to the convention’s lineup next month in Baltimore over “Full Gear” weekend.
**The newest edition of WWE Chronicle focuses on Bill Goldberg’s return over the summer for the match with Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. He also discusses the match with The Undertaker falling apart in Saudi Arabia this past June.
**MLW has signed 23-year old Gino Medina to a multi-year deal that the promotion says is exclusive. Medina is the son of El Sanguinario and has spent time training at Booker T’s school in Houston, Texas.
**The WWE stock closed at $69.35 on Monday.
**Roman Reigns did a segment with GQ Sports on ten things he cannot live without.
**PW Torch journalist Will Cooling sat down with David Starr over the weekend for Cooling’s political podcast “It Could Be Said” discussing politics on a worldwide level.
**MLW held a media call with Filthy Tom Lawlor on Monday promoting the November 2nd Saturday SuperFight pay-per-view. He stated he has received offers to fight again in mixed martial arts and is not shutting the door on fighting again.
**DEFY Wrestling is returning to Washington Hall in Seattle, Washington with a card featuring CIMA, Amazing Red, and Matt Sydal.
**WOW: Women of Wrestling will have a booth at the LA Comic-Con this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. They will be se up at Booth #103 from Friday-Sunday with WOW owner Jeanie Buss, founder David McLane, and wrestlers Tessa Blanchard, Keta Rush, The Dagger, The Beast, Cowgirl Casey Dakota, Adriana Gambino, the Dixie Darlings, Chainsaw, Angelica Dante, Teal Piper, Exodus, and Genesis appearing over the course of the weekend. There will also be a match between The Beast and The Lionness on Saturday at 3 pm on the convention floor. There is a 12% discount with the code WOW19 if you buy tickets.
**Game Changer Wrestling has added a show on Sunday, December 8th from The Basement East in Nashville, Tennessee that will stream on Fite TV.
**A GoFundMe has been launched in memory of the late Rick Bognar, who died last month. The campaign is raising funds for a meditation bench to be purchased in his name to overlook the river in Calgary. The funds would also be used to donate to a center for challenged youth.
**The final five minutes of the WWE Watch Along are amazing to watch. The panel included Sean Waltman and Natalya reacting in real-time to the ending of the Hell in a Cell match.
**Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Nyla Rose, Kia Stevens, and Jungle Boy spoke on a panel with Yahoo’s BUILD series about the launch of AEW Dynamite, the audience numbers from the debut, and their position in the industry. When asked how he landed in AEW, Moxley said it was Jericho that first alerted him that the company even existed. Moxley said he didn’t tell anyone in WWE, including friends, he was leaving other than his wife and Jericho was the first person he told, and Jericho said he needs to come to AEW. Shortly after, Moxley was on the phone with Cody and brought up to speed on AEW and called it great timing more than any other factor with the added bonus that Double or Nothing was in his hometown of Las Vegas.
MMA NEWS
**On Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, it was confirmed that Tito Ortiz and Alberto Rodriguez a.k.a. “Alberto El Patron” are set to fight on Saturday, December 7th for Combate Americas. Ortiz, 44, last fought in November 2018 knocking out career rival Chuck Liddell in the first round of their fight on the lone Golden Boy MMA show. Rodriguez is 42 and has a legitimate background in Greco-Roman wrestling and holds a 9-5 record in mixed martial arts. He fought for the DEEP organization and famously fought Mirko Cro Cop on the inaugural Pride Bushido event in October 2003 while wearing his mask. His last fight took place in February 2010 for Cage of Combat in Spain prior to joining WWE.
Helwani reports that the fight will be contested at 210 pounds and takes place from the Payne Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. The card will air on pay-per-view for $39.99 the same night UFC is running a free card on ESPN from Washington, D.C. headlined by heavyweights Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris.
**Coming out of Saturday’s UFC 243 card, the UFC announced the attendance at 57,127 at Marvel Stadium and a gate of $5,470,000. The Fight of the Night bonus went to Brad Riddell and Jamie Mullarkey while the Performance of the Night bonuses went to Israel Adesanya and Yorgan De Castro for $50,000 each.
**In response to Dan Hooker’s call-out on Saturday after his win against Al Iaquinta, Dustin Poirier said he’s “I’m fighting the Irishman next. You’re close but not yet buddy keep punching.” Hooker came back and said, “Quit chasing leprechauns, let’s scrap”. For Hooker, it’s a smart fighter to challenge but there is little incentive for Poirier to pursue such a fight. The problem for Hooker is he’s a dangerous opponent for anyone at lightweight but doesn’t come with a lot of name recognition so it’s a minimal reward and maximum risk if you’re ranked above Hooker. The two candidates I see for Hooker are Donald Cerrone and Paul Felder, which would be adequate steps up for Hooker in terms of ranked fighters at lightweight. Cerrone will accept anything thrown his way but the reality was we saw Cerrone look less effective in his last fight with Justin Gaethje and would seem like a fight booked strictly to build up Hooker. For Felder, he may be more strategic in the fight he accepts next as he’s close to getting a top-shelf lightweight and would do more for Hooker than Felder.
**Josh Gross of The Athletic reports that Bellator is set to announce a card for Japan later this week. Gross reports that a December 29th date is set with the main event between Quinton Jackson and Fedor Emelianenko, which will be promoted as Fedor’s final fight in Japan. The announcement is expected to be made this Wednesday.
**Bellator 229 did 301,000 viewers on the Paramount Network this past Friday night going up against the second hour of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox. The show was headlined by Lorenz Larkin defeating Andrey Koreshkov by decision after three rounds. This was the first live Bellator card on the Paramount Network since August, which was a show headlined by Matt Mitrione vs. Sergei Kharitonov that did 285,000 viewers. The Bellator 227 card from two weeks ago aired on Paramount on a slight tape delay with Benson Henderson vs. Myles Jury and that show averaged 276,000 viewers.
**Here are the results from the Bellator 229 card from this past Friday night in Temecula, California and aired on the Paramount Network and DAZN:
*Tony Johnson def. Joe Schilling by knockout at 2:07 of Round 3
*Keri Taylor Melendez def. Mandy Polk by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Goiti Yamauchi def. Saad Awad by armbar at 1:40 of Round 1
*Lorenz Larkin def. Andrey Koreshkov by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
After losing his first two fights in the promotion, Larkin has now won three straight fights.
**Bellator is holding a card in Milan, Italy this Saturday that will be broken up into three different shows. “Bellator Milan” is their latest event from their European series and is headlined by Melvin Manhoef taking on Yannick Bahati that runs on Channel 5 in the U.K. Then, there is a Bellator 230 portion that will air on DAZN and the Paramount Network with Rafael Carvalho facing Vadim Nemkov in the main event of that show. Plus, they are doing a Bellator Kickboxing card from the arena with Gabriel Varga defending the featherweight title against Cristian Faustino.
**Bellator’s next major show in the United States is October 25th and 26th with Bellator 231 and 232 on back-to-back nights in Uncasville, Connecticut. The first night sees Frank Mir and Roy Nelson in a rematch from their fight in May 2011. This card also features Jake Hager, now with AEW, fighting for the third time as he takes on Anthony Garrett. The second night features Rory MacDonald defending the welterweight title against Douglas Lima in the finals of the Welterweight Grand Prix.
**James Lynch from The Score spoke with Randy Couture to preview this Friday’s PFL event in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. Couture also spoke about his opinion of UFC welterweight Colby Covington.
*****
WWE Hell in a Cell POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Hell in a Cell headlined by Seth Rollins vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the WWE Universal Championship in one of the wackiest finishes in Hell In A Cell history.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/07/wwe-hell-in-a-cell-2019-post-show/
*****
UFC 243 POST Show: Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok for the UFC 243 POST Show featuring Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya from Melbourne, Australia.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/06/ufc-243-post-show-robert-whittaker-vs-israel-adesanya/
*****
RASD: “That’s Gotta be Cain”, The Fox Era Begins
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the debut edition of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox featuring the arrival of Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar’s defeat of Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/05/rasd-10-4-19-thats-gotta-be-cain-the-fox-era-begins-patreon/
*****
Cafe Hangout: AEW vs. NXT Week 1
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss the fall-out from Week One of the “Wednesday Night Wars” as AEW Dynamite debuts against WWE NXT. We take your phone calls reacting to both shows as we receive its ratings live on-air. Andrew Thompson for a live report from last night’s AEW Dynamite in Washington, DC.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/03/aew-vs-nxt-week-1-ratings-reaction-cafe-hangout/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 10/2/19: AEW debuts on TNT
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the debut episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT featuring Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/03/rewind-a-dynamite-10-2-19-aew-debuts-on-tnt/
*****
upNXT 10/2/19: The Wednesday Night War Begins
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about this week’s WWE NXT in the first episode of the Wednesday Night War.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/03/upnxt-10-03-19-the-wednesday-night-war-begins/
*****
BWE 10/2/19: Riptide Bank Holiday, OTT Martina’s Gaff Party, Fight Club Pro
Martin & Jamesie are joined by Will Cooling of Pro Wrestling Torch to review OTT Martina’s Gaff Party (Terry Thatcher vs. Timothy Thatcher), Riptide Bank Holiday Wrestling (Schadenfreude vs. Medusa Complex) & Fight Club Pro Project Mayhem 8 (Schadenfreude vs. Team Fight Club Pro). They also discuss AEW on ITV and the controversy around the scheduling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/02/bwe-10-2-19-riptide-bank-holiday-ott-martinas-gaff-party-fight-club-pro-aew-itv/
*****
ASK-A-WAI (Ask Us Anything!) – October 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the October 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/01/ask-a-wai-ask-us-anything-october-2019/
*****
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