POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown following the show in Philadelphia. This show will be up late tonight and available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**On this week’s British Wrestling Experience, there is a big review of the latest Progress Wrestling card along with ICW’s Fear & Loathing event. Plus, a discussion on Jimmy Havoc’s role in AEW, Walter’s recent tag match with Daisuke Sekimoto for Big Japan, the debut of ROH on Fight Network UK, and the return of Andy Ogden for the ‘Going Undergraps’ segment.
**The latest edition of the Café Hangout features Wai Ting and I running through all the news, chatting with Andrew Thompson about his on the ground coverage of Starrcast IV and AEW’s Full Gear with lots of live notes from the two events. Plus, lots of phone calls and I squeeze in a review of Arthur Christmas.
**On Saturday, Nate Milton will be joined by Andrew Thompson on this month’s edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show as the two review ‘Planet 51’ starring Dwayne Johnson.
**This Sunday, WH Park is all over the site with the latest edition of Thunderstruck as he welcomes Emily Pratt from UPROXX to discuss Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman from SuperBrawl II in 1992. Then, on Sunday night it’s POST Puroresu with WH and yours truly going through all the major news in Japan and reviewing recent shows from NOAH, Big Japan, and All Japan.
**In this week’s edition of Five Questions with Phil Chertok, it’s a discussion involving a potential return by Nick Diaz, Phil’s reaction to KSI vs. Logan Paul, ‘Jacare’ moving up to light heavyweight this weekend, and the UFC cutting Gilbert Melendez.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Patreon)
*Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton & guest Andrew Thompson (Planet 51)
*Sunday: Thunderstruck Ep. 4 with WH Park & guest Emily Pratt (Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman, SuperBrawl II)
*Sunday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock & WH Park
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown takes place from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the talent returning from this past week’s European tour. The following matches have been announced for the show at 8 pm eastern on Fox, as well as 205 Live immediately following SmackDown:
*Kofi Kingston & Big E. vs. The Revival for the SmackDown tag titles
*Bayley vs. Nikki Cross in a non-title match, if Cross wins she gets a spot on the Survivor Series team
*Mustafa Ali & Shorty G vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode with the winning team having spots on the men’s Survivor Series team
*Daniel Bryan appears on Miz TV
*Lio Rush & Raul Mendoza vs. Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari
*Angel Garza vs. Jack Gallagher
*Samir Singh vs. TBA for the 24/7 title
**There will also be NXT involvement in tonight’s episode. We were told there will be male and female NXT talent on the show.
**During Friday’s NXT UK television tapings, they announced NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II for January 2020. Wrestling INC is reporting that the show is set for Saturday, January 11th.
**Here are the matches for Saturday night’s episode of MLW Fusion at 9 pm eastern on beIN Sports:
*Tom Lawlor vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
*Marshall Von Erich vs. Ikuro Kwon
*The Dynasty vs. Douglas James & Dominic Garrini
**There will also be some Bellator footage featured on MLW Fusion to promote the arrival of Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal. It is interesting that both MLW and AEW will be featuring Bellator fighters in prominent positions with Lawal and Jake Hager. While AEW has adopted Hager’s knee to the balls from the Anthony Garrett fight, they never aired footage from the fight on TNT.
**On Wednesday night, MLW CEO Court Bauer issued a statement indicating that Tom Lawlor was wrapping up with the promotion and gave a glowing review of working with Lawlor. Lawlor’s deal is coming due, although we have not confirmed when he is free to sign elsewhere. Lawlor is still advertised for MLW’s next set of tapings on December 5th at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York. It is expected that Lawlor’s final date with MLW will be at the Opera Cup show on December 5th. Lawlor noted on Friday that he won’t be taking bookings beyond 2019.
**MLW has also announced that they have re-signed MLW heavyweight champion Jacob Fatu to a new deal. The company didn’t give a specific length of the deal but classified it as a ‘long-term multi-year deal’. Fatu won the MLW title this past July from Tom Lawlor and is part of the CONTRA Unit faction with Simon Gotch, Josef Samael, and Ikuro Kwon.
**The first two tournament matches for the Opera Cup have been released with Alex Hammerstone taking on MJF and Brian Pillman Jr. facing TJP in the opening round on December 5th.
**NWA Power has at least two more episodes that will air before the December 14th ‘Into the Fire’ pay-per-view. We were told that there is one ‘floating episode’, so there is a chance that there could be a third episode and that would air on December 3rd. Fite TV is listing the pay-per-view at $19.99 U.S.
**The Raw crew has one more European show with a card on Saturday in Dusseldorf, Germany. The SmackDown crew will head to Washington, D.C. on Saturday night for a show at the Capital One Arena, which was the site of the inaugural edition of AEW Dynamite last month.
**The WWE stock closed at $57.66 on Friday.
**For those in Canada, the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz is scheduled to air tonight at 8 pm eastern on TSN 3.
**The third season of ‘Toys That Made Us’ was released today on Netflix. The subjects of the four-episode season are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, My Little Pony, and Professional Wrestling.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling launches its World Tag League tournament on Saturday morning in Kanagawa and streams at 4:30 am eastern on New Japan World. The tournament dates to 1980 under various naming conventions and began as the MSG Tag League. EVIL & Sanada have won the last two years and would be among the favorites to win again this year. It is not an inspiring tournament on paper with the major names booked for the Tokyo Dome not having spots in the tag league for logical reasons. Typically, the winning team receives the IWGP tag title show at Wrestle Kingdom and that would be expected this year, especially with back-to-back nights at the Tokyo Dome. WH Park has a great preview of both the New Japan and All Japan tag leagues that close out 2019 for the groups.
Below is the card for Saturday morning’s New Japan show:
*Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks
*Colt Cabana & Toru Yano vs. Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls
*Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shingo Takagi & El Terrible
*Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. KENTA & Yujiro
*Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
*Jay White & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi in a non-tournament match
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
*Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
**Following the first three shows of the AJPW Real World Tag League, Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama and Odinson & Parrow are tied for first with four points each. Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura, Tajiri & KAI, and Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta have two points each. The remaining teams have zero points, which include Jun Akiyama & Joe Doering, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi, Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard, Joel Redman & Yoshitatsu, and Zeus & Ryoji Sai. The tournament resumes on Monday in Sapporo with the following matches:
*Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama vs. Joe Doering & Dylan James
*Parrow & Odinson vs. Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman
*Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura vs. Zeus & Ryoji Sai
**IPW in the U.K. has decided to end its tenure as a live event promotion. The company, which has been in operation since 2004, issued the following statement on Friday:
IPW can confirm that after several internal discussions, the company will cease being a live wrestling events promotion at the end of 2019.
The company has a rich history of over 15 years, however with many changes in the British wrestling climate in the last 2 years, it has been decided that this is an appropriate time to draw an end to live events.
Therefore, the IPW World Championship will be defended for the last time at Undisputed III, taking place at Mote Hall in Maidstone on December 15th, where we plan to celebrate IPW’s successful years of live events.
This is not the end of IPW, and its rich history will continue to be promoted and celebrated into the future, with more information on this to be announced soon.
There will also be a major announcement made at Unit Nine in Milton Keynes on December 4th regarding the future of wrestling in the venue going in to 2020.
Whilst this is a difficult decision, it is not the end for IPW and is a new phase for everyone involved.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH is holding a card from Korakuen Hall on Saturday morning and will stream it free at 4 am eastern on their YouTube channel. Below is the card:
*Katsuhiko Nakajima, Go Shiosaki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.
*Atsushi Kotoge vs. Daisuke Harada
*Kaito Kiyomiya, Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69 vs. Kenou, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura
*Hayata, Yo-Hey & Tadasuke vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Chris Ridgeway
*Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm vs. Masao Inoue & Akitoshi Saito
*Minoru Tanaka, Junta Miyawaki & Jun Kumano vs. Kazma Sakamoto, Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada
**Saturday’s episode of WOW: Women of Wrestling will include the following matches at 8 pm eastern on AXS TV:
*Abilene Maverick & The Disciplinarian vs, Stephy Slays & Keta Rush
*Amber O’Neal & Jessie Jones vs. The Dixie Darlings
*Faith the Lioness vs. Khloe Hurtz
*Havok & Hazard vs. Adrenaline & Fire vs. Holidead & Siren the Voodoo Doll in an Elimination match
**An X Division title match between Ace Austin and Trey has been added to Impact Wrestling’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view on January 12th in Dallas, Texas. The match was set up after Trey won a six-person match on this week’s episode. The pay-per-view will be headlined by Sami Callihan defending the Impact title against Tessa Blanchard.
**After winning a match on the European tour, Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins will challenge the Viking Raiders for the Raw tag titles this Monday in Boston, Massachusetts.
**John Hennigan is the latest pro wrestler to undergo stem cell therapy in Colombia. The BioXcellarator facility put out a video of Hennigan praising the therapy and procedure he underwent. In September, it was reported that Hennigan had signed with WWE for a pending return to the company. Hennigan, 40, joins a list that includes Rey Mysterio, Kevin Nash, Ryback, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam, Brian Cage, Matt Hughes, Ken Shamrock, Chuck Liddell, Gilbert Melendez, and others that have undergone the treatment in Colombia.
**AIW (Absolute Intense Wrestling) has announced a card for Friday, December 27th that will be called ‘Baby It’s 2 Cold Outside’ featuring 2 Cold Scorpio. The event will take place at The Odeon at 1295 Old River Road in Cleveland and will stream on Fite TV.
**The UFC will hold a Fight Night event from Sao Paulo, Brazil on Saturday headlined by Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza moving up to light heavyweight against Jan Blachowicz. Outside of the main event, the most interesting stories involve Charles Oliveira looking for his sixth consecutive win, with all stoppage victories during this streak. As well, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua is back just days before he turns 38 and meets Paul Craig, who is coming off a win over Vinicius Moreira. Since 2015, Shogun has won four of his five fights and last fought in December 2018 where he stopped Tyson Pedro. Below is the full card:
MAIN CARD (8 pm ET on ESPN+, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Jan Blachowicz vs. Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
*Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua vs. Paul Craig
*Charles Oliveira vs. Jared Gordon
*Antonio Arroyo vs. Andre Muniz
*Markus Perez vs. Wellington Turman
PRELIMINARY CARD (5 pm ET on ESPN+)
*James Krause vs. Sergio Moraes
*Ricardo Ramos vs. Eduardo Garagorri
*Bobby Green vs. Francisco Trinaldo
*Randy Brown vs. Warlley Alves
*Renan Barao vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade – this could be it for Barao in the UFC as the former champion has gone 1-6 since July 2015 and hasn’t won a fight in over three years
*Isabella de Padua vs. Ariane Lipski
*Tracy Cortez vs. Vanessa Melo
**UFC 91 took place on this date in 2008 where Brock Lesnar defeated Randy Couture for the lineal heavyweight title. This was Couture’s return to the UFC after failing to get out of his promotional contract. The company never stripped Couture of his title but did create an interim title in his absence. The two sides came back together and set up Lesnar’s biggest fight to date, stopping Couture and winning the title in the second round. This card began a stretch of pay-per-views from the company that did phenomenal business with UFC 92 in December (Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir, Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva) and UFC 94 in January 2009 (Georges St-Pierre vs. BJ Penn) to follow.
**The late Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) would have turned 67 years old today.
**Fox released a behind the scenes video following CM Punk in the hours leading up to his walk-on appearance for WWE Backstage. They went to the extent of putting a scarf around his head to conceal his identity as he entered the Fox lot. They kept a lot of people in the dark, including the panel members on stage except Renee Young:
**Chris Jericho taped this interview with Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole immediately after Dynamite this past Wednesday in Nashville where Jericho wrestled in the main event:
POST WRESTLING VIDEO
*****
BWE 11/15/19: Progress Chapter 97, ICW Fear & Loathing 12, Rev Pro
Martin & Benno are back with Jamesie to review Progress Chapter 97 (O.J.M.O vs. David Starr), ICW Fear & Loathing 12 (Joe Coffey vs. Stevie Boy) and Rev Pro making their debut in Sheffield. Andy Ogden is also back with his regular segment Going Undergraps!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/15/bwe-11-15-19-progress-chapter-97-icw-fear-loathing-12-rev-pro/
*****
Café Hangout: Phone Calls, Andrew Thompson & more
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Andrew Thompson to discuss his coverage of AEW Full Gear and Starrcast IV in Baltimore, MD. Plus your calls about the week in wrestling and MMA news, CM Punk, this week’s NXT & AEW ratings and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/14/live-link-for-todays-cafe-hangout-3-pm-et/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 11/13/19: Sky2J, CM Punk-WWE Backstage
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite coming out of the Full Gear pay-per-view featuring a shocking main event result involving Chris Jericho.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/14/rewind-a-dynamite-11-13-19-sky2j-cm-punk-wwe-backstage/
*****
upNXT 11/13/19: Mama MIA!
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat this week’s NXT featuring a ladder match, CM Punk on Backstage, Jordan Myles, Disney+ & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/14/upnxt-11-13-19-mama-mia/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Thor – Ragnarok (2017)
Wai Ting and Film & TV-industry veteran Daniel Perry review the seventeenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/12/post-movie-review-thor-ragnarok-2017/
*****
RAR 11/11/19: Trick Me Baby One More Time
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Lana’s secret. Plus, John provides a review of the NJPW Showdown in San Jose show from this past weekend.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/12/rar-11-11-19-trick-me-baby-one-more-time/
*****
upNXT 11/11/19: EVOLVE 139 & 140 REVIEW
Davie Portman is back to chat all about this weekend’s two EVOLVE cards taking place from Queens and Brooklyn, New York. Davie is joined by John Siino to talk all about EVOLVE 139 and Jesse From The 6 to discuss EVOLVE 140.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/11/upnxt-11-11-19-evolve-139-140-review/
*****
NJPW SHOWDOWN IN SAN JOSE POST SHOW
WH Park is joined by Australian wrestler Davis Storm for a special NJPW Showdown in San Jose POST Show covering Saturday’s card.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/10/njpw-showdown-in-san-jose-post-show-with-wh-park-davis-storm/
*****
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