POST IT NOTES
**Braden Herrington and Davie Portman have a 90-minute review of the NXT TakeOver: War Games show that is free on the site and available to watch on their YouTube channel.
**Tonight, we will have a big Survivor Series POST Show that will begin at approximately 11:30 pm Eastern. On tonight’s show, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will join Wai Ting and for a full rundown of the show from Chicago. Double Double, Iced Capp, and Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café can tune into the live stream at 11:30 pm and call in with feedback. The podcast version will be out Monday morning for everyone.
**The latest edition of Thunderstruck was released today with WH Park joined by Matt McEwen to review the October 1996 match involving Jushin Thunder Liger and The Great Muta. This match featured the first appearance of ‘Kishin Liger’, which re-surfaced the alter ego of Liger earlier this year during the feud with Minoru Suzuki.
**The latest Rewind-A-SmackDown was released Saturday with a review of the ‘go-home’ show featuring talent from Raw, SmackDown & NXT on the show. Plus, Wai and I discussed Jim Cornette’s address of his NWA departure, the ROH-Kelly Klein story, ACH receiving his WWE release, and taking your feedback.
**Wai Ting and I also joined Braden & Davie on their Patreon to conduct a special Survivor Series Draft.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight, is the 33rd annual Survivor Series taking place from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois and WWE’s third of four shows at the building this weekend.
The injection of NXT has added a lot of interest to this year’s event, which has been watered down to Raw vs. SmackDown over the years, which is a rivalry the audience doesn’t buy into. NXT is viewed separately and most importantly, provides fresh faces, matches, and situations. The handling of NXT during its involvement on Raw and SmackDown has shown extra care for preserving the brand as the ‘cool alternative’ from the design of their t-shirts, the babyface entrance at the end of SmackDown, the only brand with a mouthpiece in Triple H, and booked equal if not stronger than their counterparts throughout.
Time will tell if the past three weeks will see the Wednesday audience inflate without the promotion of main roster talent appearing at Full Sail University. From watching the television, it’s clear that the top acts have been The Undisputed Era, Shayna Baszler, Keith Lee, and Rhea Ripley. Lee, who is at best the number four babyface on NXT, has been positioned very strong including the close of SmackDown and the faceoff with Braun Strowman.
The NXT men’s team won’t be announced for tonight’s show until the kickoff show.
Below is the full card for tonight, including the addition of the women’s NXT team that was announced after TakeOver:
*Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred Match for the WWE title
*The Fiend vs. Daniel Bryan for the Universal title
*Adam Cole vs. Pete Dunne for the NXT title
*Becky Lynch vs. Bayley vs. Shayna Baszler
*AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Roderick Strong
*Viking Raiders vs. New Day vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish
**Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens & Ricochet) vs. Team SmackDown (Roman Reigns, King Corbin, Shorty G, Mustafa Ali & Braun Strowman) vs. Team NXT (TBA)
*Team Raw (Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Kabuki Warriors & Sarah Logan) vs. Team SmackDown (Sasha Banks, Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, Carmella & Dana Brooke) vs. Team NXT (Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai, Candice LeRae, Bianca Belair & Toni Storm)
**The NXT broadcast team will be represented by Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix. On Saturday’s media call, Paul Levesque had stated all three members of the NXT team would be on the show but we are told Mauro Ranallo won’t be on the show tonight.
**I was told that there will probably be two matches added to the show, which are likely for the kickoff show.
**Due to Toni Storm’s addition to the Survivor Series card, she was replaced by Millie McKenzie on Sunday’s Progress Wrestling Chapter 98 card against Jinny Couture.
**The next NXT TakeOver special will be on Sunday, February 16th in Portland, Oregon. The show was announced on Saturday’s broadcast and will be the first time TakeOver takes place on a Sunday night. There will not be a TakeOver over Royal Rumble weekend with a World Collide event scheduled in its place. Paul Levesque noted on Saturday’s media call that there would be a TakeOver over WrestleMania weekend in April.
**After a big article was released by Newsweek covering the Kelly Klein story involving Ring of Honor and speaking with several unnamed sources with the company, TK O’Ryan has come out on the record in an interview with Fightful to share his experiences with ROH dealing with his recent concussion. In the Newsweek article, one of the major topics centers around the promotion’s protocol in the event of a talent suffering a concussion. ROH maintains there has been a policy in place since 2016, although did not provide details to Newsweek. Klein countered that she was not aware of any protocol and even if there is an actual procedure in place, the talent isn’t aware of it. This ties to Klein’s concussion sustained on the Honor United tour during an October 26th match where Klein suffered one. One of the issues was that Klein was stopped from going to work a match in South Africa because of the concussion per the urging of Joey Mercury (Adam Birch), who had quit the company the day prior and there was no person in place to provide care for Klein after the injury.
In speaking to Fightful, O’Ryan shared his own experience and defended the company:
I was concussed a few months ago in a match. When I woke up on Monday morning I felt really in rough shape. I made one phone call and then was sidelined as per my request because I knew I needed some time. I knew I was concussed as soon as the match was over. Nothing egregious happened it was just an accident. When I brought it up that I was hurt I got an immediate response. Ring of Honor has been wonderful in checking in on me and making sure that I was ok. I’m not anti-Kelly or anti-Joey (Mercury). I am pro-RoH. That’s an important distinction. No one really needs to go after her. A person can stand by what they believe in without condemning someone else. I feel like any adult can understand that. Experiences may vary. I will leave it at that.
As I said on Rewind-A-SmackDown, regardless of whether ROH has had a protocol in place since 2016 or not, after this series of events, that concussion protocol will have to be made clear and every talent will know that protocol down to the letter. In defense of ROH, they have denied the assertions that no protocol is in place or that they run shows without medical personnel on-site. The entire Newsweek article can be read at the link and contains statements from ROH addressing both those topics, along with Newsweek’s reporting in speaking with Kelly Klein, Adam Birch, and other unnamed sources within ROH.
**There was an interesting cut away shot at the conclusion of Saturday’s War Games match involving the men’s talent. Following the Air Raid by Tommaso Ciampa to Adam Cole off of the cage, it cut to a close-up of Cole’s girlfriend Britt Baker seated in the crowd and she was identified by Mauro Ranallo. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful asked Paul Levesque about the cutaway shot on the post-TakeOver media call and Levesque explained it wasn’t designed on purpose. He noted that they cut to her because of the shocked look on her face and felt it would be silly not to acknowledge her once she was shown. He added that he never wants to put someone in that position where they could get heat for something like that with their employer and Levesque had no issue on his end.
**Fightful reported on Saturday that Friday Night SmackDown had a timing issue at the end of the show, which was supposed to end with a huge spot involving Mustafa Ali delivering a Spanish Fly to Lio Rush onto the floor. They did the spot, but it didn’t air because of the timing. SmackDown does have to end before 10 pm Eastern hits because there is a commercial set before the top of the hour leading into the local news on the affiliates and that’s why SmackDown goes off a few minutes prior.
**The overnight number for Friday Night SmackDown saw an increase with the show averaging 2,600,000 viewers on Fox. It was a rebound after last week’s figure, which was their lowest on Fox since the move in October. The final number will be out on Monday.
**Justin Barrasso of SI.com spoke with Nick Nemeth about his movie project ‘HEEL’ that he is attempting to raise $65,000 to fund. He has written the script and has raised 80% of the goal with one week remaining to fund the project.
**The Motley Fool looks at WWE’s business and status of their popularity.
**Immediately following the Survivor Series, the WWE Network will be airing the Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin interviewing The Undertaker.
**The next edition of WWE’s ‘Day Of’ series will air this Friday and focus on the Crown Jewel match between Natalya and Lacey Evans from last month in Saudi Arabia.
**Shannon Moore recently spent a week as a guest coach at the WWE Performance Center.
**The following was sent into us from a correspondent following New Japan’s World Tag League with their recommendations and notes from Saturday’s show in Kanagawa. The most notable news item was Lance Archer cutting a promo on Jon Moxley and teasing that match for one of the Tokyo Dome shows.
Worth a watch:
– FinJuice vs Shingo & Terrible (3.25*). This match was very fun with an interesting roll-up by Finlay, it’s interesting to note that Finlay is also picking up wins for the team and it’s not only Juice, they noted it themselves in the interview after the November 21st show.
– Tanahashi & Henare vs Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI (3.75*). This was great. Henare and Tanahashi are doing a lot of combination moves that look good.Notes:
– Honma mentioned wrestling Cabana in ROH in the 2000s and said he is exactly the same as back then.
– KENTA got busted open under his eye during his match.
– Juice Robinson had a bandage above his eye during the match, and during the post-match interview his whole face looked like a mess.
– During his post-match interview, Lance Archer called out Jon Moxley and told him: “You can’t play in the States, cool, I’m here. Come here, I’ll fuck you up too [referring to Juice and Finlay]. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care that the internet loves you. I fucking hate you…”
It was a really good promo.
– NJPW World started uploading some of the WTL matches with English commentary, so far they uploaded the main events from nights 1&2.
**Below is Monday’s lineup for the World Tag League show, will be up on New Japan World on delay:
*Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (6) vs. Colt Cabana & Toru Yano (8)
*Juice Robinson & David Finlay (10) vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (2)
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare (4) vs. Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls (8)
*Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki (6) vs. Shingo Takagi & Terrible (6)
*Guerrillas of Destiny (6) vs. Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks (4)
*Jay White & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi in a non-tournament match
*Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi (10) vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (6)
*KENTA & Yujiro (6) vs. EVIL & Sanada (10)
**Following today’s All Japan card, the team of Jun Akiyama & Joe Doering are the point leaders in the Real World Tag League with eight. The teams of Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama, Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura, and Odinson & Parrow are tied with six points apiece in second.
**All Japan’s Real World Tag League resumes Tuesday with two tournament matches. Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura will take on Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman and Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi will face Zeus & Ryoji Sai.
**Congratulations to Tony Nese as he and his wife had a baby boy this weekend.
**All Elite Wrestling released it’s latest ‘Road to’ video leading into this Wednesday’s show at the Sears Centre. This series remains one of the best of its kind in the industry with clear-cut stories, tremendous interviews, and driving you to tune into this week’s show. Cody is the star of this video, but I thought Dr. Michael Sampson was great in his own way as the medical professional. The summation is that Cody is speechless over MJF’s actions but he will have something to say this Wednesday with a live microphone and is also going to wrestle at Dynamite this week.
**AAA’s next big show is on Saturday from Veracruz with Psycho Clown, Pagano & Puma King vs. Chessman, Black Taurus & Averno in the main event. The card will stream on AAA’s Twitch channel at 9 pm Eastern next weekend in Spanish and English.
**Renee Young appeared on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday during the Edmonton Oilers vs. Vegas Golden Knights game:
**Below is a preview of Steve Austin’s interview with The Undertaker discussing the change to the ‘American Bad Ass’ character when he returned from injury in June 2000:
**The latest edition of MLW Fusion features a Falls Count Anywhere match between Mance Warner and Jimmy Havoc:
PAY-PER-VIEW REWIND
WWE Survivor Series 2018
Sunday, November 18
Los Angeles, California at the Staples Center
*Team SmackDown (The Usos, New Day, Eric Young, Killian Dane, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Primo & Epico) over Team Raw (The Revival, Chad Gable, Bobby Roode, The B Team, Lucha House Party & The Ascension)
*Team Raw (Sasha Banks, Nia Jaz, Bayley, Tamina & Mickie James) over Team SmackDown (Asuka, Mandy Rose, Naomi, Carmella & Sonya Deville)
*Seth Rollins over Shinsuke Nakamura
*The AOP over Cesaro & Sheamus
*Buddy Murphy over Mustafa Ali to retain the Cruiserweight title
*Team Raw (Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler) over Team SmackDown (The Miz, Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy)
*Ronda Rousey over Charlotte Flair by DQ
*Brock Lesnar over Daniel Bryan
POLL RESULTS
What was the best match at NXT TakeOver: War Games? (632 votes)
Women’s War Games – 51%
Men’s War Games – 40%
Finn Balor vs. Matt Riddle – 7%
Pete Dunne vs. Killian Dane vs. Damian Priest – 2%
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES POST SHOW
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back reviewing NXT TakeOver: War Games III from the Allstate Arena featuring two War Games matches.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/23/nxt-takeover-war-games-iii-post-show/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. The Great Muta (October 20, 1996)
WH Park and Matt McEwen discuss Jushin Liger vs. The Great Muta from October 20, 1996 featuring the first appearance of Kishin Liger.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/24/thunderstruck-5-jushin-liger-vs-the-great-muta-10-20-96-w-matt-mcewen/
*****
Cafe Hangout: WWE Survivor Series & NXT TakeOver: War Games Preview
On today’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by The BDE to preview Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames and Survivor Series. Plus, your calls discussing Jim Cornette, CM Punk and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/21/the-bde-in-studio-for-todays-cafe-hangout-3-pm-et/
*****
upNXT 11/20/19: Seth’s Not Cool!
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about this week’s go-home edition of NXT, Raw & SD talent appearing, CM Punk on WWE Backstage & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/21/upnxt-11-13-19-seths-not-cool/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin. We also discuss the Jim Cornette NWA Powerrr controversy.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/21/rewind-a-dynamite-11-20-19-moxley-vs-allin-cornette-out-of-nwa-cm-punk-fs1/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #49: Heroes of Wrestling (Patreon)
For the third and final time, John Pollock and Wai Ting begrudgingly watch and review Heroes of Wrestling (1999), a show widely considered to be the worst wrestling event ever created.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/31709394
*****
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/
*****
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