POST IT NOTES
**Late tonight, we will have the latest edition of Rewind-A-Wai as Wai Ting and I review the Heroes of Wrestling event from October 1999. This was selected by our Espresso Executive Producer Brandon from New Jersey, who will join us to justify this decision and play the trivia gauntlet from that week. We will also take your feedback on Heroes of Wrestling at the end of the show. This show will be available to all members of the POST Wrestling Café and below is the card from that night in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi:
*Yokozuna & Jake Roberts vs. King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart
*Jimmy Snuka vs. Cowboy Bob Orton
*Abdullah the Butcher vs. One Man Gang
*Tully Blanchard vs. Stan Lane
*The Bushwhackers vs. The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff
*2 Cold Scorpio vs. Julio Fantastico
*Greg Valentine vs. George ‘The Animal’ Steele
*Marty Jannetty & Tommy Rogers vs. The Samoan Swat Team
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw features a big review of Raw from Boston, the promos from Rey Mysterio & Paul Heyman, the invasion continues, several strong matches with weak finishes, the latest in the Lana/Rusev story, and lots more. Plus, we discuss the Randy Orton/Tony Khan interaction, AEW’s news for Dynamite in January, SmackDown’s final number from last Friday, The Great Muta added to Spring Break IV, and we take your feedback.
**On Wednesday, we will have both Rewind-A-Dynamite and upNXT on the site following Wednesday night’s loaded lineups from both groups. Davie Portman and Braden Herrington will also join us on Thursday at 3 pm eastern for the Café Hangout to preview the weekend.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The major show tonight is not one with any wrestling matches but rather, CM Punk’s first official episode of WWE Backstage where he will serve as an analyst. Punk’s appearance last week occurred in the final moments of the show where the former wrestler walked onto the set and announced he would be back the following week. Fox went to great lengths to keep his appearance a surprise with those on the panel unaware he was showing except Renee Young, who had to introduce him. Tonight’s show should see a gigantic leap in viewership from the paltry numbers the last two shows have generated with 49,000 and 100,000 respectively.
Tonight’s show will be an interesting look to see what is covered with Punk and more importantly, what is avoided. You would think this episode should be treated as their version of the Art of Wrestling interview from 2014 with Punk being interviewed and discussing his fallout with the company and why he agreed to join this show, which he has pointed out is a deal with Fox and not WWE. Punk’s tweet from Monday hinted that he’ll be giving his thoughts on what he’s missed over the past five-years.
**Ember Moon and David Arquette will also be guests on WWE Backstage tonight.
**NXT has added a triple threat match involving Pete Dunne, Damian Priest, and Killian Dane. The winner of the match will challenge Adam Cole for the NXT title this Sunday at the Survivor Series. There will also be a tag match this Wednesday at Full Sail University with Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. The Revival. Below are the cards for both programs on Wednesday night:
UPDATE: WWE has since announced that the Dunne vs. Priest vs. Dane match will now take place on Saturday at TakeOver: War Games instead of Wednesday’s episode of NXT, which they originally stated.
NXT on the USA Network
*Adam Cole vs. Dominik Dijakovic in a ladder match for the War Games number’s advantage
*Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. The Revival
AEW Dynamite on TNT
*Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix
*Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin
*Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz
*Diamond Dozen Battle Royal
**Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the buys for AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view are expected to land in the range of 90-100,000. In contrast, the May 2019 Double or Nothing show did approximately 110,000 and August’s All Out show did about 100,000. The promotion started with an exceedingly high baseline, so in that sense, it’s a very good number but doesn’t suggest that television has added anything to the audience they already had attracted that was willing to spend money on their pay-per-views.
**On Monday night, Randy Orton and Tony Khan got into an exchange on Twitter, which is going to be common as this battle continues between the two sides. After CM Punk’s initial tweet regarding his research for WWE Backstage and stating that ‘no one is safe’. Khan responded with,
‘No one is safe? Sounds like a plane full of wrestlers in Saudi Arabia!’
That led to Randy Orton linking to an October 2018 article about Khan’s father, Shahid being investigated for corruption and writing, ‘What’s that whole thing about glass houses and stones?’ and Khan’s response was
‘I thought you only tagged me in your posts when you were grasping for leverage. That article’s over a year old + is about baseless claims made about my dad years ago. That’s the best you can do, nothing. Meanwhile in the time since that was written you used the N word on Twitch’
The latest response from Orton include him referring to Tony as ‘Jacksonville Dixie’ and that if he had wanted to talk business, he would have called Tony’s father.
**The Raw women’s team at Survivor Series will consist of Charlotte Flair, Natalya, the Kabuki Warriors, and Sarah Logan with the Logan announced on the company’s website after Raw. SmackDown will feature Sasha Banks, Carmella, Dana Brooke, Nikki Cross, and Lacey Evans while the NXT team has not been announced.
**Impact Wrestling’s Josh Alexander is dealing with a partially torn biceps following Friday’s Pro Wrestling Revolver card in Dayton, Ohio. Alexander was part of a 4-on-4 elimination match and Alexander caught a dive and sustained the injury. He had it checked it out and it revealed a partial tear but isn’t expected to miss any time, although he will deal with discomfort for the next month. Alexander noted the injury on Twitter and was already doing squats today.
**Alexander did sit out Saturday’s Black Label Pro show after sustaining the injury the night prior.
**MLW has added a big six-man tag to the Opera Cup show on Thursday, December 5th at the Melrose Ballroom. MLW champion Jacob Fatu will team with CONTRA Unit teammates Simon Gotch and Ikuro Kwon against CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie.
**NWA Power’s latest episode will be released at 6:05 pm eastern on their YouTube and Facebook channels and they have announced the following matches for the show:
*Nick Aldis vs. Trevor Murdoch
*Allysin Kay & Ashley Vox vs. Marti Belle & Thunder Rosa
*The Question Mark vs. Ricky Starks
**Tonight’s episode of AEW Dark will be released at 7 pm eastern with Dustin Rhodes joining Excalibur on commentary and the following matches taped in Nashville last week:
*The Young Bucks vs. El Lindaman & T-Hawk
*Private Party vs. Best Friends
*Riho & Britt Baker vs. Big Swole & Kris Statlander
*Cody interviews Justin Roberts
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 8 pm eastern on AXS TV from the tapings in Windsor, Ontario:
*Brian Cage vs. Michael Elgin vs. Tessa Blanchard vs. Rich Swann vs. Moose vs. Daga in an Elimination Challenge
*Taya Valkyrie & John E. Bravo vs. Jordynne Grace
*Wentz & Dez vs. Rohit Raju & Raj Singh vs. The Deaners vs. Reno Scum
**Tonight’s episode of Total Divas will cover the Hall of Fame induction ceremony where Bret Hart inducted Jim Neidhart, as well as WrestleMania 35. It will be interesting if they choose to include or avoid the fan that attacked Hart at the Hall of Fame.
**TSN has finalized their programming schedule for December and all episodes of AEW Dynamite will air on TSN 2 next month. There is no episode on Wednesday, December 25th due to Christmas.
**The WWE stock rose 3% on Tuesday and closed at $60.45.
**The NWA has announced a promotion called ‘The Circle Squared’, which is essentially an open call for wrestlers seeking a contract with the group. The digital series is asking talent to send in a two-paragraph outline about their story of being a wrestler, a photo that highlights their character and personality, as well as uploading a match and promo to YouTube. The wrestlers chosen will be brought in for their next weekend of tapings in Atlanta from December 14-16 and the first episodes of ‘The Circle Squared’ will be filmed that weekend. Submissions will be airing on upcoming editions of NWA Power.
**PWG has released the card for its final show of 2019 with ‘The Makings of a Varsity Athlete’ on Friday, December 20th at The Globe Theatre in Los Angeles:
*Tony Deppen vs. Orange Cassidy
*Mick Moretti vs. Paris De Silva
*JD Drake vs. David Starr
*Blake Christian vs. Jake Atlas
*Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Aramis & Rey Horus in a non-title match
*Rey Fenix vs. Jonathan Gresham
*Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido for the PWG title
**Tommaso Ciampa spoke to Yahoo about the neck surgery that forced him to relinquish the NXT title and his recent return. While he was injured, the WWE’s PC YouTube account ran some incredibly emotional videos profiling Ciampa and his family, which he spoke about in the article:
At first, there wasn’t too much thought put into it, I’ll be honest. I just knew that after the ACL surgery a couple of years prior, I kind of disappeared from social. This time, knowing the network was releasing these pieces on YouTube and stuff that looked into my personal life, I felt less closed off and felt that I could let people in a little.
“After I posted the first video, seeing the response, it told me, OK, this is affecting people in a different way. My Instagram took on a life of its own and became very different from my Twitter. I never used Instagram to post. I’m into fitness, I used it to follow a few people in the fitness world to see exercise ideas and or nutrition ideas. All of a sudden I felt like I was a part of that community. I was letting people into different baby-step methods of rehab and training by sharing my experience. It took on a life of its own. It’s really a blessing. It’s been cool to see people from all parts of the world reach out.
**Mick Foley was a guest on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show to promote his one-man shows. Foley noted that he had a hip and knee replacement two years ago but still isn’t walking great, but it has helped with mobility. He was not surprised that CM Punk returned last week but noted he was kept in the dark as he was a guest on the show last Tuesday and joked that no one remembers his appearance. In an interesting note, he was asked how he would adapt to today’s environment of professional wrestling and feels that the best talent would find a way to adapt and make it in any generation, however, he added that he would have needed to become a better athlete to stand out in the current climate.
**On Monday’s New Japan show, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks and saw KENTA come out and attack Goto after the match. In the tournament match involving Colt Cabana & Toru Yano defeating Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki, it was Yano that pinned the IWGP United States champion to win the match. The World Tag League resumes Thursday in Yamanashi and is headlined by Shingo Takagi & El Terrible vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi.
**R-Truth defeated Samir Singh for the 24/7 title on a YouTube exclusive video on Monday and then lost the title on Tuesday at a WWE Employee Town Hall event. R-Truth ran into a wall, allowing the employee ‘Michael’ to pin R-Truth for the title.
**A No Disqualification match between Curt Stallion and Anthony Greene has been added to EVOLVE 141 on December 7th in Livonia, Michigan. The following night in Chicago, the group has added a match between Timothy Thatcher and Arturo Ruas. In addition, there will be meet-and-greets on both nights involving WALTER, Tommaso Ciampa, Reina Gonzalez, Shotzi Blackheart, Babatunde, and Arturo Ruas.
**MLW sent out a press release announcing they have re-signed Josef Samael of CONTRA Unit to a new multi-year deal.
**During Charlotte Flair’s media tour in India, she spoke with Times Now News about her career. In the Q&A, she stated that her dream opponent at WrestleMania would be with Stephanie McMahon and her dream program involving the males on the roster would be Seth Rollins and Andrade.
**FOX 46 in Charlotte interviewed Paul Levesque and Adam Cole about the WWE Performance Center and its role in developing new talent.
**The next edition of WWE Chronicle will focus on Cain Velasquez and airs this Saturday night following the NXT TakeOver special. Fight Network in Canada recently produced a similar concept style show on Velasquez and followed him ahead of his match for AAA at The Hulu Theatre in September.
**The All Japan Real World Tag League has a show this Thursday that will stream live at 4:30 am eastern from Korakuen Hall and has the following lineup:
*Jun Akiyama & Joe Doering (2) vs. Parrow & Odinson (6) in the Real World Tag League
*Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi (0) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard (0) in the Real World Tag League
*Koji Iwamoto vs. Fuminori Abe in the first round of the tournament to crown the new AJPW junior heavyweight champion
*Black Menso-re vs. Hikaru Sato in the other opening-round match
*Shuji Ishikawa, Suwama, Gianni Valletta & Zeus vs. Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman
*Takao Omori, Masa Fuchi & Great Kojika vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuo Momota
*Yusuke Okada & Hokuto Omori vs. Atsushi Maruyama & Dan Tamura
**The WWE ‘24’ special on Trish Stratus will premiere on Sunday, December 1st immediately following the Starrcade event.
**Next week’s episode of Raw from the Allstate Arena in Chicago will feature AJ Styles defending the United States title against Humberto Carrillo.
**Congratulations to Greg Oliver of SLAM Wrestling, who will be receiving the James C. Melby Historian Award next year at the Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion in Las Vegas. Oliver, who is one of the foremost authorities on the history of professional wrestling has just released his latest book alongside Steven Johnson entitled ‘The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Storytellers’. Oliver wrote a piece on the news that he will be receiving the award next year.
**The Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers is returning with a show in Toronto on Friday, December 6th at the Tranzac Club. The card will feature Anthony Kingdom James defending the UIPW title against Space Monkey, Holden Albright vs. Bob Anger, The Bar Breakers vs. Rip Impact & Travis Moore, Shane Sabre vs. Lionel Knight, Roscoe Black vs. Eric Carnie, and The Dream Crushers vs. Fight or Flight. The show will take place at 292 Brunswick Avenue at 8 pm.
**Smash Wrestling is holding ‘Remix You A Merry Christmas’ on Sunday, December 15th at the London Music Hall in London, Ontario. Andrew Everett and Rosemary will be on the show, which has a bell time of 4 pm.
**Alpha-1 Wrestling has added a King of the Mountain match (the TNA gimmick match) for their card on December 15th. The match will see Gregory Iron defend the Alpha Male title against Kobe Durst, Mark Wheeler, Ricky Shane Page, and Justin Sane. The show takes place at 222 Queenston Road in Hamilton, Ontario at 4 pm.
**Regarding Ben Askren’s hip replacement surgery, he told Ariel Helwani on Monday that it’s the left hip that needs to be replaced. He received an MRI on October 10th, which was just over two weeks before the fight with Demian Maia and made the decision this week to retire from the sport.
VIDEOS
**Game Changer Wrestling announced that The Great Muta will be at Joey Janela’s Spring Break IV next April over WrestleMania weekend in Florida. Tickets for Spring Break go on sale this Friday at Noon Eastern for the event on Friday, April 3, at The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida. Below is the excellent video they produced to announce Muta’s involvement:
**The WWE has released a clip of Sunday’s interview that Steve Austin conducted with The Undertaker for the Broken Skull Sessions. In this clip, The Undertaker discusses how he thought he would be the surprise to come out of the egg at the Survivor Series in 1990.
**Billy Corgan announces ‘The Circle Squared’ series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_RKnzXY47o
**The full interview with Mick Foley from Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday:
POST WRESTLING VIDEOS
*****
RAR 11/18/19: Knock-knock-knockin’ on Aleister’s Door
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the go-home WWE Raw before Survivor Series. We also discuss the return of Bash At The Beach and Tony Khan vs. Randy Orton on Twitter.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/19/rar-11-18-19-knock-knock-knockin-on-aleisters-door/
*****
POST PURORESU: NJPW of America, Bushiroad-Stardom, NOAH review
John Pollock & WH Park discuss the formation of NJPW of America, Bushiroad’s purchase of Stardom, a review of NOAH’s Sumo Hall card, the Tokyo Dome line ups & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/17/post-puroresu-njpw-of-america-bushiroad-stardom-noah-review/
*****
THUNDERSTUCK #4: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman (SuperBrawl II)
WH Park and Emily Pratt, a freelance writer for With Spandex at Uproxx, go all the way back to February 29, 1992, to WCW’s Superbrawl II where Jushin Thunder Liger battles Flyin’ Brian Pillman over the WCW World Light Heavyweight Title.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/17/thunderstruck-4-jushin-liger-vs-brian-pillman-2-29-92-w-emily-pratt/
*****
TRMPS #11: Planet 51 (2009) w/ Andrew Thompson
Nate Milton welcomes POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson into the theater to break down one of Dwayne Johnson’s most forgettable feature films, the 2009 animated classic, Planet 51!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/16/trmps-11-planet-51-2009-w-andrew-thompson/
*****
RASD 11/15/19: Bryan, The Witch & The Wardrobe
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown featuring Team SmackDown vs. Team NXT. Daniel Bryan challenges Bray Wyatt on MizTV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/15/rasd-11-15-19-bryan-the-witch-the-wardrobe/
*****
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/
*****
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