POST IT NOTES
**First off, I want to thank Andrew Thompson for his excellent work over the past two weeks while I was away.
**I’ll be solo for Rewind-A-Raw tonight going through the show from Lexington, Kentucky and catching up on the latest news. I’ll also chat about the NXT UK TakeOver card, which I got to see and most of the Impact pay-per-view. I’ll also take feedback at the end of the show. This will likely be the format for Friday’s Rewind-A-SmackDown for Café members.
**Nate Milton, Brian Mann & Andrew Thompson review Hard to Kill and discuss the Tessa Blanchard story in-depth.
**A special edition of the British Wrestling Experience with Benno & Jamesie joined by JP Houlihan & Joe Lemon from the GRAPPL Spotlight Podcast to review NXT UK TakeOver from Blackpool.
**On Wednesday, I’ll be joined by Damian Abraham for Rewind-A-Dynamite with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman covering NXT on upNXT.
**Also, one of the most popular shows we do each year, The MMA Prediction Show with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani will be coming out this Thursday.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Damian Abraham
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: The 2020 MMA Prediction Show with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
*Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton & guests Kris from L.A. and Hanzi (“Faster” starring Dwayne Johnson)
*Saturday: UFC 246 POST Show with John Pollock & Phil Chertok
*Sunday: Thunderstruck with WH Park & guest JP Houlihan (Jushin Liger vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru from July 2004)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw is a big show with plenty announced in advance. They are facing big football competition with the College Football Championship game taking place between LSU and Clemson. Last year’s championship game going against Raw topped twenty-four million viewers to put into perspective what they are up against. To combat the game, the following matches were set up on last week’s show for tonight in Lexington, Kentucky at the Rupp Arena:
*An appearance by Brock Lesnar
*Seth Rollins & AOP vs. Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe & Big Show in a ‘Fist Fight’
*Bobby Lashley vs. Rusev
*Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy
*AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton
**Here is my bio on the life and career of Kazuo Sakurada a.k.a. Kendo Nagasaki, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 71.
**Ring of Honor has announced that Jay White has been added to the Supercard of Honor show on Saturday, April 4th in Lakeland, Florida. The news comes on the week that tickets will be going on sale for ROH’s annual WrestleMania weekend show. The show is taking place at the RP Funding Center, which is about forty minutes away from the Amalie Arena where TakeOver takes place that same night. This is the first major name that New Japan has sent over for a Ring of Honor show in some time.
**Tessa Blanchard addressed the crowd in Dallas after ‘Hard to Kill’ went off the air following her win over Sami Callihan.
‘Nobody in this life is perfect. We’re all human and it doesn’t matter what you say about me, it doesn’t matter what you call me, I have one of the strongest minds that I’ve ever known. So, whenever you come for me you come for all these people and I am now the standard bearer of Impact Wrestling and man or woman, pound for pound, I am one of the best in the world and I am now your world champion.’
At the start of the video, there is a chant of ‘you deserve it’ along with an audible ‘no, you don’t’ response from several in attendance. She didn’t outright react to the accusations levied against her this past weekend, but it seemed evident it was what she was referring to. Time will tell if this story grows or if it dies down, which based on the booking of the main event seems to be the impression Impact has and were not going to change the long-planned coronation of Blanchard in the eye of the storm. For Blanchard, I don’t see how you ignore what has been put out there and would be wise to address the accusations and if they are true, then provide an apology rather than ignore. That said, since returning to WWE television in 2018, Hulk Hogan has never apologized on a WWE platform and it’s not like he is booed or treated any less than a legend when he makes his appearances or received any notable backlash when it was announced he would go into their Hall of Fame again this April.
**Fight Network in Canada was following Tessa Blanchard this weekend for a future edition of ‘Diary’, which will be really interesting to see if the weekend’s story is addressed or they just focus on Blanchard winning the Impact title and the lead up to it.
**The female wrestler that was allegedly called the n-word by Blanchard, La Rosa Negra spoke to the Contralona outlet about the incident from April 2017 but doesn’t name Blanchard. In this video, which is subtitled in English, she explains that an apology isn’t necessary indicating that she moved on from it but appreciated the support of fellow female wrestlers this past weekend:
**There was a lengthy series of tweets posted by Gabe Sapolsky on Monday responding to David Starr, who has made several statements regarding EVOLVE and whether they pay certain performers on their shows. In the tweets, which Sapolsky has since deleted, he ran down Starr but acknowledged he kept 1-3 spots on shows where rising talent could have a spot but did not get paid. He defended this practice citing his longevity in the game and that they don’t eliminate paying spots, they are created in addition to those that are booked.
**On Monday, MJF stated he had wrapped up with MLW following this past Saturday’s Fusion tapings in Texas. MJF started with the group in 2017 and quickly rose to become one of the top promos in the industry. He was MLW’s inaugural middleweight champion when the belt was introduced in July 2018 and held the MLW tag titles with Dynasty member Richard Holliday. He had been working for both MLW and All Elite Wrestling up until this point.
**Christopher Nowinski was at the Ring of Honor show on Sunday in Concord, North Carolina to give a presentation backstage on concussions, the effects of CTE, and brain health. The company had received criticism over the past few months when Kelly Klein was vocal about the lack of a concussion protocol following her injury in the UK back in October. ROH was asked about a protocol and stated there was one but did not share it when inquiries were made.
**Mike Johnson of PWinsider.com reports that Bret Hart was recently in Los Angeles to film an upcoming edition of the ‘Broken Skull Sessions’ with Steve Austin. Guests for the series since it launched include The Undertaker, Bill Goldberg, and Kane.
**New Japan and CMLL’s Fantasticamania cards resume this Thursday with the start of four straight nights at Korakuen Hall that will air on New Japan World.
**Impact Wrestling has announced a match between Joey Ryan and Johnny Swinger for Tuesday’s episode on AXS TV along with Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes celebrating Van Dam’s win over Daga at the pay-per-view.
**Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder of The Revival recently applied to try and trademark ‘Shatter Machine’ for wrestling and merchandise purposes. The news was first reported by PWinsider.com.
**Impact Wrestling announced their next pay-per-view will be Rebellion at Terminal 5 in New York City this April. No specific date was listed that month.
**Big Show (Paul Wight) spoke to SI.com about his return on Raw last week and wrestling his first match since November 2018. Wight insisted it be kept a surprise where he was kept hidden all day in Oklahoma City prior to his reveal in the main event six-man tag. In the interview, he credits learning the most from The Undertaker and the difference in the culture behind-the-scenes at WCW when he started out ion 1995.
**WrestleCon added ten names to their convention on April 2-5 in Tampa, Florida over WrestleMania weekend. Brodie Lee (the former Luke Harper), Will Ospreay, Nick Aldis, Bandido, Taya Valkyrie, Shane Douglas, Francien, Charly Caruso, Zoe Lucas, and Celeste Bonin have been added to the convention at George M. Steinbrenner Field from 9 am to 4 pm over the four days.
**Jacob Cohen has a comprehensive list of the WrestleMania week shows that have been announced and it is insane.
**EVOLVE is running Ybor City, Florida this Friday and Orlando on Saturday. Friday’s EVOLVE 143 show is headlined by Josh Briggs vs. Anthony Greene in a non-title match with no disqualifications. They have also added Liam Gray to a match with Stephen Wolf, Anthony Gutierrez, and Leon Ruff that night. The Saturday card has Josh Briggs taking on Dexter Lumis (the former Sam Shaw in TNA) for the EVOLVE title, Mansoor vs. AR Fox, and Joaquin Wilde vs. Leon Ruff.
**The WWE stock closed at $61.40 on Monday.
**The first edition of UFC Embedded for Saturday’s UFC 246 card in Las Vegas:
**Below is Ariel Helwani’s full interview he recently conducted with Conor McGregor ahead of this Saturday’s fight against Donald Cerrone:
******
IMPACT HARD TO KILL POST SHOW
Brian Mann & Nate Milton are joined on the Satellite Of Hate by POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson. The guys break down the latest news from AEW and ROH, discuss the latest Twitter-fueled wrestling controversy, and review Impact Wrestling’s first PPV of the year!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/13/impact-hard-to-kill-post-show-a-keep-it-2000-special/
*****
BWE 1/12/20: NXT UK TAKEOVER BLACKPOOL 2 POST SHOW
Benno and Jamesie are joined by Benno’s co-hosts on the GRAPPL Spotlight podcast, JP Houlihan and Joe Lemon to discuss the third NXT UK TakeOver, from Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom. They chat all the highs and lows from the show with a top to bottom review and talk about the current state of NXT UK as it goes into the BT Sport era.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/12/bwe-1-12-20-nxt-uk-takeover-blackpool-2-post-show/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: JUSHIN LIGER VS THE GREAT SASUKE (4/16/1994)
WH Park and Jamesie of The British Wrestling Experience talk for the first time to discuss one of Jushin Liger’s most famous matches as he faces The Great Sasuke during the Super J-Cup from April 16, 1994.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/12/thunderstruck-12-jushin-liger-vs-the-great-sasuke-4-16-94-w-jamesie/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 1/10/20: A Game of Family Roode
John Pollock is joined by WH Park from Japan to review Friday Night SmackDown featuring The Usos vs. King Corbin & Dolph Ziggler.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/10/rasd-1-10-20-a-game-of-family-roode-w-wh-park/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 1/8/20: “Poppin’ Bottles” w/ upNXT
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman fill in for John & Wai once more as they review the January 8th edition of AEW Dynamite featuring Kenny Omega & Hangman vs. Private Party.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/09/rewind-a-dynamite-1-8-20-poppin-bottles-w-upnxt/
*****
THE WORST OF 2019 SHOW
It’s POST Wrestling’s WORST OF 2019 SHOW as John Pollock & Wai Ting and upNXT’s Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review the very worst that professional wrestling had to offer this past year.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/09/the-worst-of-2019-show/
*****
upNXT 1/8/20: “Johnny Promo”
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are back to chat all about the January 8th edition of WWE NXT featuring a Fatal Four Way match to determine the Number 1 Contender for the NXT North American Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/09/upnxt-01-08-2020-johnny-promo/
*****
POST PURORESU: New Beginning Cards, Giant Baba Memorial Exhibit
John Pollock & WH Park have a special bonus show chatting their trip to the Giant Baba Memorial Exhibit and the New Beginning match announcements.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/08/post-puroresu-new-beginning-cards-giant-baba-memorial-exhibit/
*****
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