POST IT NOTES
**POST Wrestling’s annual Royal Rumble Pool is officially open and is free to enter. You can submit your picks up until this Sunday at 3 pm Eastern and the winner(s) will be revealed on the January 29th edition of Rewind-A-Dynamite. All of the information to enter is up at http://www.postwrestling.com/rumble.
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with Wai Ting back from his trip and going through Raw from Wichita, Kansas. In addition to Raw, the two of go through all the latest news including Ring of Honor’s next pay-per-view and ‘Past vs. Present’ concept, the Chris Jericho Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea, the fallout from UFC 246, the options for Conor McGregor and how this week turned out for him, as well as catching up on other news items from the past week.
**We are back with the first Rewind-A-Wai of 2020 tonight for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. On Rewind-A-Wai #53, we are looking back at All Japan Women’s Dream Slam I card from April 2, 1993. This was among the best shows of its era highlighted by Akira Hokuto and Shinobu Kandori having one of the best matches that year along with a phenomenal tag match with Cutie Suzuki & Mayami Ozaki vs. Kyoko & Takako Inoue. We will be joined by Chase Clause, who was our Espresso Executive Producer to looks back at this show, this era of Joshi, and why the period is less remembered than others.
**On Wednesday night, we are back to the regular schedule with Wai Ting and I hosting Rewind-A-Dynamite while Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will have a new edition of upNXT.
**Our friends at WrestleZone are doing a live stream this Sunday at 3 pm Eastern called the ‘Fast Food Royal Yumble’ through their website and on Facebook Live. The concept is fast food mascots battling it out in a video game ring to crown a winner. They are also releasing a Fast Food Royal Yumble t-shirt with proceeds going to the Central Fire Authority of Victoria, Australia. The t-shirt is available through TeePublic by searching for ‘Fast Food Royal Yumble’.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Wai #53: AJW Dream Slam I (Patreon)
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown & NWA Hard Times POST Show (LIVE at 10:30 pm Eastern for Patrons)
*Friday: British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Jamesie & Benno – Top Matches & Moments of the 2010s
*Saturday: Worlds Collide POST Show with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Sunday: WWE Royal Rumble POST Show (LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso Patrons)
VIDEO
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE and Channel 5 in the UK have struck a deal that will see edited versions of Raw and SmackDown run on the over-the-air broadcaster as part of its weekend programming. Earlier this year, WWE left their long-time home of Sky and moved to BT Sport, which is in far fewer homes and seen as a step down in exposure for the company. This deal will see a one-hour version of SmackDown air on Saturdays at 10:30 am and a one-hour version of Raw in the same timeslot on Sundays. The deal also sees NXT UK receive a slot on the Paramount Network Wednesdays at 12 am and additional digital content on their streaming service My5. The deal goes into effect on February 2nd.
**A United States title match between Andrade and Humberto Carrillo has been added to the Royal Rumble this Sunday at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Here is the updated card:
*The Fiend Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan in a Strap Match for the Universal title
*Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin in a Falls Count Anywhere match
*Becky Lynch vs. Asuka for the Raw women’s title
*Bayley vs. Lacey Evans for the SmackDown women’s title
*Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo for the United States title
*Sheamus vs. Shorty G
*Men’s Royal Rumble match (Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Braun Strowman, Elias, Heavy Machinery, Dolph Ziggler & King Corbin)
*Women’s Royal Rumble match (Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, and Sarah Logan)
**The season-finale of NWA Power will air tonight at 6:05 pm Eastern leading into the ‘Hard Times’ event this Friday night. It’s a special 90-minute edition of the show airing tonight with the following advertised:
*Nick Aldis vs. Ricky Morton for the NWA title
*Thomas Latimer vs. Trevor Murdoch in the Television title tournament
*Tasha Steelz vs. Thunder Rosa
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of AEW Dark at 7 pm Eastern that was taped in Coral Gables, Florida last week:
*Big Swole vs. Britt Baker
*Jurassic Express vs. CIMA, T-Hawk & El Lindaman
**Impact Wrestling will begin airing the episodes from Mexico City tonight at 8 pm Eastern on AXS TV. Below is a preview of tonight’s show:
*Tessa Blanchard opens the show
*Moose vs. Rhino vs. Taurus
*Jessicka Havok vs. Rosemary
*Willie Mack speaks
**Due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the ratings are delayed this week for the UFC 246 prelims from the weekend and Monday’s edition of Raw.
**On the first day of Chris Jericho’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea, it was announced that the next one will take place February 1st – 5th of 2021 leaving Miami for the Bahamas once again.
**They are taping the matches for Dynamite on the cruise today to air Wednesday night on TNT. The following matches are scheduled to air on Dynamite this week from the cruise:
*Jon Moxley vs. PAC with the winner receiving an AEW title match
*Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz vs. The Jurassic Express
*Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Kenny Omega & Hangman Page for the AEW tag titles
*Britt Baker vs. Priscilla Kelly
*Joey Janela vs. MJF
**Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported on Tuesday that AEW is filming Dynamite tonight on two master tapes and flying them in two separate airplanes to Atlanta. The reason is that if there is an issue with one flight then there is a backup to ensure the show airs on TNT on Wednesday night.
**Becky Lynch will be the guest on tonight’s edition of WWE Backstage at 11 pm Eastern on FS 1. It will also feature CM Punk on the panel. They will also be doing a retrospective look at the Street Fight between Triple H and Cactus Jack from Royal Rumble in January 2000 that propelled Hunter’s career to the next level with comments from both men on the show.
**Daniel Bryan spoke with My San Antonio, which is where Friday Night SmackDown takes place this week and gave an in-depth look at his program with The Fiend Bray Wyatt. In the interview, he acknowledged how much he was enjoying the environmentalist version of his character and then was getting set to sink his teeth into the Sami Zayn program. What he liked about the Zayn issue was the crossroads of Bryan either reverting to the ‘Yes’ version of himself or moving forward. He felt there was unfinished business with that story and wasn’t clamoring to go back to the ‘Yes’ version of himself:
I think it varies depending on the person and the situation. I honestly wasn’t really ready to go back to the ‘yes’ chants yet. I was really enjoying the stuff that I was doing as the ‘Planet’s Champion’ and environmentalist type of stuff. But sometimes you do what duty calls for, right? There’s the switch, and I still enjoy doing that. But it’s weird, because it almost feels a little bit unfinished. We were starting a story with me and Sami Zayn, and to me that was very compelling. It was, ‘Do you want to go backward with these people and go back to being the ‘yes’ guy, or do you want to go forward with us?’ And to me, that’s a very interesting real question in my life and in my career. Do you want to go back to this? It’s easy to get reactions as the ‘yes’ guy and be the guy who goes out there and does the ‘yes’ chants. Or do I want to push things forward? Which is more interesting to me creatively? In this particular instance, it was kind of like, ‘OK, we’re ready as a company for the ‘yes’ guy to be back.’ And I really enjoy doing that. I do. But, I like to also push my own creative boundaries, and so one of the things that I’m trying to do with this, although I haven’t necessarily done a great job of it yet, is evolving the ‘yes’ character from what it had been before.
With Wyatt, the idea to cut his hair came about after Bryan suggested cutting his beard and then it ended with his hair being cut off, which he did not want to do. The story sounded insane as he described being pulled underneath the ring and having his hair cut beneath the ring with barbers and a producer present. The fact that Bryan wasn’t visible or his haircut revealed until another episode makes this one sound so strange that they wouldn’t use prop hair for Bray to grab rather than cutting his actual hair at that moment.
**WALTER was interviewed by Metro to promote the Worlds Collide show this weekend and spoke about his experience at the Survivor Series this past November. WALTER was a member of Team NXT with Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle, Keith Lee & Dominik Dijakovic and was notably eliminated in three minutes. He shared the following reaction to his participation in the match that included teams from Raw and SmackDown:
I wasn’t invested in that. I didn’t care. I care about my guys, my group, I care about the sport, but I don’t care about all those people being angry each other. It was a weird match too – three five-men tag teams, and always three guys in the ring. That’s when wrestling turns from competition to putting acrobats in a circus to do a show.
**MLW has announced that Low Ki will take on Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal at the Fightland tapings on Saturday, February 1st in Philadelphia. Dan Lambert will be accompanying Lawal and looks to have a regular role alongside Lawal as Lambert was also in attendance earlier this month for the tapings in North Richland Hills, Texas.
**The second match is official for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III over WrestleMania week in Florida. Game Changer Wrestling has announced that Minoru Suzuki will return to the themed card and take on Chris Dickinson joining the previously announced match between Barnett and Jon Moxley. Suzuki worked Matt Riddle’s iteration of the concept in 2018 and defeated Riddle. Suzuki would return in 2019 for the show in New Jersey and went to a 30-minute draw with Barnett. The show takes place on Thursday, April 2nd at The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida.
**There will be a pre-show match between NXT UK women’s champion Kay Lee Ray and Mia Yim prior to the Worlds Collide event this Saturday at 6:30 pm Eastern. The pre-show will be available on the WWE Network, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The main card begins at 7 pm with five matches scheduled.
**Stardom held a show at Korakuen Hall on Sunday and will be airing on Samurai TV this weekend. In the main event, Mayu Iwatani retained the World of Stardom title over Momo Watanabe and was said to be great. Arisa Hoshiki retained the Wonder of Stardom title against Utami Hayashashita, and there was one title change as Bea Priestley & Jamie Hayter defeated Jungle Kyona & Konami to become the new Goddesses of Stardom champions. The Tokyo Cyber Squad unit of Kyona & Konami had held the titles since July of last year. Stardom returns with a card in Osaka this Sunday at the smaller Edion Arena.
**In a video promoting his upcoming dates, comedian Gabriel Iglesias is listing appearances for April 3-4 in conjunction with WrestleMania, April 5th in Tampa (the site of WrestleMania that day), and April 6th for Raw.
**PCO appeared on the Dave Morissette Live program in Montreal and put the host through a table.
**Jordynne Grace has been added to the Pancakes & Piledrivers show on Saturday, April 4th at 11 am at The Ritz in Ybor City as part of WrestleCon.
**Chris Jericho is set to do an autograph session at WrestleCon on Saturday, April 4th at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
**The WWE stock closed at $61.93 on Tuesday.
**All Elite Wrestling release a ‘Road to The Bahamas’ video ahead of Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite that is being taped today:
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 1/20/20: New Tag Champions, Royal Rumble Go-Home
John Pollock and the returning Wai Ting go through the go-home edition of WWE Raw leading into the Royal Rumble.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/21/rewind-a-raw-1-20-20-new-tag-champions-royal-rumble-go-home/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK #13: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (July 10, 2004)
WH Park and JP of The GRAPPL Spotlight get together to discuss Jushin Liger’s match where he defends the GHC Jr Heavyweight title against then NOAH wrestler, Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/19/thunderstruck-13-jushin-liger-vs-yoshinobu-kanemaru-7-10-04-w-jp/
*****
UFC 246 POST SHOW: McGregor vs. Cerrone
John Pollock & Phil Chertok present the UFC 246 POST Show recapping Saturday’s card from the T-Mobile Arena featuring Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/19/ufc-246-post-show-mcgregor-vs-cowboy/
*****
TRMPS #13: Faster (2010) w/ Kris Ealy & Hanzi
On this installment of TRMPS, Nate Milton welcomes “The Professor” Kris Ealy and friend of the program/former Stern Show contributor Hanzi to review “Faster”.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/18/trmps-13-faster-2010-w-kris-ealy-hanzi/
*****
THE 2020 MMA PREDICTION SHOW WITH ARIEL HELWANI
John Pollock welcomes ESPN’s Ariel Helwani for their annual Prediction Show as they look ahead to what the year 2020 has in store for MMA.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/16/the-2020-mma-prediction-show-with-ariel-helwani/
*****
POST BONUS: UFC 246 PREVIEW WITH JOHN POLLOCK
John Pollock previews this Saturday’s UFC 246 card headlined by Conor McGregor taking on Donald Cerrone, a rundown of the entire card, and notes from Wednesday’s press conference.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/16/post-bonus-ufc-246-preview-with-john-pollock/
*****
RAD 1/15/20: BASH AT THE BEACH W/ DAMIAN ABRAHAM
John Pollock is joined by Damian Abraham from Turned Out a Punk to review AEW Dynamite, discuss their TNT renewal, the passing of Rocky Johnson & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/16/rad-1-15-20-bash-at-the-beach-w-damian-abraham/
*****
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