POST IT NOTES
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with Wai Ting and I going through the post-Rumble edition of Raw from San Antonio, Texas and discussing the major angle with Edge and Randy Orton to end the show. Plus, we discuss ‘Mania plans, injury updates, and all the latest news items and the results of the annual POST Wrestling Royal Rumble Pool with the top point-getters.
**We are back with the monthly ASK-A-WAI mailbag show with two hours dedicated to questions and we covered a wide range of subjects on this one that you will want to check out. The show will be up later tonight for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**On Wednesday night, we will have Rewind-A-Dynamite discussing the show from Cleveland and Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will be releasing a new edition of upNXT.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: ASK-A-WAI mailbag show (Patreon)
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Café Hangout w/ guest Gareth Hodgson from GRAPPL (Live at 3 pm ET for all Patrons)
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
*Sunday: Thunderstruck with WH Park & guest Rich Kraetsch of Voices of Wrestling (Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask III, 1/4/1994 at the Tokyo Dome)
*Sunday: New Beginning in Sapporo POST Show (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**The post-Rumble edition of Raw averaged approximately 2,400,000 viewers built around Edge’s appearance at the end of the show. It was Raw’s highest number of 2020 but didn’t top the December 30th show that featured the wedding between Bobby Lashley and Lana, which did 2,433,000 viewers and retained a higher number of viewers in the final hour.
Monday’s program saw 2,541,000 viewers tune in for the first hour, then fell 4% in the second hour to 2,441,000 viewers and declined another 9% in the final hour with 2,224,000 viewers.
In the demographics, with 18-49s they averaged a 0.76 and were down 8% from last week’s episode. There was a big drop with women from last week with females 12-34 down 21% and 18-34s down 17% (the female demos were also way up last week so both demos were still up from two weeks ago). The increase was among males 12-34 up 14% and adults over 50 up 6%.
Compared to 2019 for the post-Rumble edition of Raw, the show was down 11%. It was a decrease of 29% from the post-Rumble episode of 2018 that featured Ronda Rousey appearing on the show after her debut that year.
Below is the breakdown of the key demos with comparisons to last week’s numbers and the difference between the first and third hours on Monday night:
PEOPLE 18-49
This week: 0.76
Last week: 0.83 (-8%)
Hour 1-3: -11%
FEMALES 18-49
This week: 0.49
Last week: 0.59 (-17%)
Hour 1-3: -11.5%
MALES 18-49
This week: 1.04
Last week: 1.08 (-4%)
Hour 1-3: -11%
PEOPLE 18-34
This week: 0.54
Last week: 0.57 (-5%)
Hour 1-3: +3%
FEMALES 12-34
This week: 0.29
Last week: 0.37 (-21%)
Hour 1-3:
MALES 12-34
This week: 0.66
Last week: 0.58 (+14%)
Hour 1-3: -17%
PEOPLE 25-54
This week: 0.91
Last week: 0.98 (-7%)
Hour 1-3: -11%
PEOPLE 50+
This week: 1.09
Last week: 1.03 (+6%)
Hour 1-3: -12%
**The WrestleMania card is taking shape following the Royal Rumble. It was confirmed on Raw that Brock Lesnar will defend the WWE championship against Drew McIntyre after McIntyre declared his challenge after the Royal Rumble win. The major angle on Raw saw Randy Orton attack Edge’s neck and sets that program in motion. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler is scheduled for WrestleMania, although there was no hint of that on Raw nor does it make sense until Charlotte Flair makes her decision with Lynch as a storyline possibility. The plan for Flair is to face Rhea Ripley pending any changes but that is the match right now. Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com added that Flair is expected to be in Orlando this Wednesday to appear on NXT. Ripley still has her title match against Bianca Belair on February 16th at TakeOver in Portland and Belair was put over huge in the Royal Rumble this past Sunday.
**On Tuesday morning, WWE confirmed the wellness violation of Andrade (Manuel Oropeza), who has been suspended for thirty days and goes into effect today. Andrade was written off during Monday’s episode of Raw when Humberto Carrillo delivered a hammerlock DDT to Andrade on the cement. They did not take the United States title off Andrade even though it would have been easy to do so. The company issued a brief statement on the matter:
WWE has suspended Andrade (Manuel Oropeza) for 30 days effective immediately for a first violation of the company’s talent wellness policy.
**Marty Scurll appeared at New Japan’s New Beginning USA card on Monday night in Durham, North Carolina and issued a challenge to Jay White for Supercard of Honor. White had previously been announced by Ring of Honor for their WrestleMania weekend card in Lakeland, Florida that takes place Saturday, April 4th at the RF Funding Center.
**The NWA kicks off its third season of ‘Power’ tonight at 6 pm Eastern from the tapings this past weekend at GPB Studios in Atlanta. Their next pay-per-view is the Crockett Cup and will take place in April at a larger venue. They have not announced the date or location yet.
**Riddick Moss made his Raw debut on Monday night as the new sidekick to Mojo Rawley. Moss played football at the University of Minnesota and has been with WWE since 2014. He had not been used much over the past year and had last been managed by Robert Straus (now Robert Stone) but had not been on NXT television. On the Main Event tapings on Monday night, Moss defeated Cedric Alexander.
**Impact Wrestling has added Scott Steiner and Chris Harris to their ‘TNA: No Place Like Home’ event on Friday, April 3rd at WrestleCon in Tampa. They join D-Lo Brown, Mr. Anderson, and Chris Sabin on the show. Harris wrestled for TNA from 2002 until 2008 primarily teaming with James Storm as America’s Most Wanted and was thought to be a breakout star at one time. They did try to launch him into a singles act, but his success was with Storm. He had a cup of coffee with WWE in 2008 for an unspectacular run as Braden Walker and was gone within months. He did return to TNA briefly in 2010 for an ill-fated run with Matt Hardy as a team that went nowhere.
**Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,448,000 viewers on Fox last Friday going into the Royal Rumble and down 4.5%. The show did a 0.7 with the 18-49 demographic and a 0.4 with 18-34s, which were both tops among network programs on Friday.
**WWE has announced three new additions to the Performance Center from India. Gurvinder Singh and Sukhwinder Grewal are both trainees of The Great Khali and are being billed at over seven feet. The other recruit is Laxmi Kant Rajpoot, who has a background in Taekwondo and javelin throwing.
**The New Japan cards in the U.S. resume Thursday night in Miami at the Charles F. Dodge City Center and the tour ends Saturday in Atlanta at the Coca-Cola Roxy. The final night is headlined by David Finlay & Juice Robinson defending the IWGP tag titles against the Guerrillas of Destiny.
**The latest addition to MLW’s Fightland card in Philadelphia this Saturday is a match between El Lindaman and Zenshi at the 2300 Arena. The top matches include Jacob Fatu vs. CIMA for the MLW title, Alex Hammerstone vs. T-Hawk for the National title, Tom Lawlor vs. Killer Kross, and Low Ki vs. Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal.
**Ring of Honor is holding a pre-sale on Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern for their 18th Anniversary pay-per-view on March 13th and the ‘Past vs. Present’ show on March 14th with both shows at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas. The pre-sale code is ROHVegas2020.
**The WWE stock closed at $60.43 on Tuesday.
**Here are the matches for AEW Dark tonight at 7 pm Eastern:
*Dark Order vs. Sonny Kiss & Brandon Cutler
*Nyla Rose vs. Shanna
*Kip Sabian vs. QT Marshall
**Below are the matches set for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 8 pm Eastern on AXS TV from the Mexico City tapings:
*Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards in Match #1 of a Best-of-Five series
*Jordynne Grace vs. Kiera Hogan vs. Madison Rayne in a #1 contender’s match
*Daga & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Reno Scum
*Josh Alexander vs. Vikingo – that sounds really great on paper
*Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Pagano & Murder Clown
**New Japan’s Road to New Beginning tour continues Wednesday in Aomori with the following card prior to the two shows in Sapporo this weekend:
*Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
*El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Gabriel Kidd
*Togi Makabe & Toa Henare vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi
*Roppongi 3K & Tomoaki Honma vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Tiger Mask vs. Shingo Takagi, EVIL & Bushi
*Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles vs. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Douki
*Tetsuya Naito, Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi vs. KENTA, Jay White & Gedo
**DEFY Wrestling is holding a card this Friday at Washington Hall in Seattle to kick off the promotion’s third year of operations. The show will feature Killer Kross, The Jurassic Express, and Strong Hearts trio of CIMA, T-Hawk & El Lindaman. SCHAFF defends the DEFY title in a ladder match against Artemis Spencer, and Jacob Fatu & Josef Samael defend the DEFY tag titles on the show.
**Sheamus turns 42 years old today and Sanada turns 32.
**AEW has released a ‘Road to Cleveland’ video including Brandi Rhodes seeking therapy:
**WWE’s alternate footage of Edge’s arrival in the Royal Rumble and spear delivered to Dolph Ziggler:
*****
RAR 1/27/20: Edge Speaks, WrestleMania Takes Shape
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Royal Rumble fallout and the return of Edge. Plus, today’s news and the results of our 2020 Royal Rumble Pool!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/28/rewind-a-raw-1-27-20-edge-speaks-wrestlemania-takes-shape/
*****
WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 2020 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by Mike Murray to review WWE Royal Rumble 2020 featuring 30-Man Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble matches, Becky Lynch vs. Asuka, and Daniel Bryan vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/live-link-for-tonights-wwe-royal-rumble-2019-post-show-1130pm-et/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani (3/17/1996)
WH Park and Martin Bushby of The British Wrestling Experience discuss a classic match between Jushin Liger and one of his greatest opponents, Shinjiro Otani. This match for the IWGP Jr. heavyweight title took place on March 17, 1996.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/thunderstruck-14-jushin-liger-vs-shinjiro-otani-3-17-96-w-martin-bushby/
*****
upNXT 1/25/2020: Worlds Collide POST Show
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back reviewing Worlds Collide 2020 from Houston, Texas featuring Imperium taking on The Undisputed Era.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/upnxt-01-25-2020-worlds-collide-2020/
*****
RASD 1/24/20: SmackDown, Hard Times & Royal Rumble Preview
John Pollock & Wai Ting have a special live show to review Friday Night SmackDown & NWA Hard Times, plus a preview of Worlds Collide and Royal Rumble, and your calls.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/25/rasd-1-24-20-smackdown-hard-times-royal-rumble-preview/
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE: The Best of the 2010s
Martin is back with Benno and Jamesie to discuss their favorite matches, moments and memories from the 2010s of European wrestling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/24/bwe-1-24-20-best-of-the-2010s/
*****
upNXT 1/22/20: “We’re Not On A Boat”
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are back to chat all about the Worlds Collide “Go-Home” edition of WWE NXT featuring Roderick Strong vs. Keith Lee for the North American Championship, TWO tag team matches in the semi-Finals of the Dusty Classic, Shotzi Blackheart vs. Shayna Baszler, and Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/23/upnxt-1-22-20-were-not-on-a-boat/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 1/22/20: “I’m On A Boat”
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite on tape from Chris Jericho’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/23/rewind-a-dynamite-1-22-20-im-on-a-boat/
*****
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