POST IT NOTES
**On this month’s POST Puroresu, it’s WH Park and Dylan Fox of the Eastern Lariat Podcast. Unfortunately, I was unable to be on the show today but the two of them did two hours chatting about the recent New Beginning shows, the new G1 dates, the return to Madison Square Garden, All Japan’s recent show at Korakuen Hall, Champion Carnival, CyberAgent purchasing NOAH and lots more covered on this show.
**Wai Ting and I will have an announcement regarding WrestleMania week on this Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw.
**Wai Ting and I are back later tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will be discussing all the news from today, a review of tonight’s show from Vancouver, and taking your feedback at the end of the show.
**A new edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show will be up Saturday with Nate Milton. This month, he welcomes Joey Lewandowski and Joey Two from the ‘2 Fast 2 Forever’ podcast chatting ‘Fast Five’ starring Dwyane Johnson.
POST’S WEEKEND SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Patreon)
*Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton & guests Joey Lewandowski and Joe Two (“Fast Five”)
*Sunday: Thunderstruck with WH Park & guest Will Cooling
*Sunday: NXT TakeOver: Portland POST Show with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown takes place from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia for the Valentine’s Day edition of the show. Below is what has been announced for the show:
*John Morrison & The Miz vs. Roman Reigns & TBA
*Bayley vs. Carmella for the SmackDown women’s title
*Otis and Mandy Rose go out on a date
**WWE has added that Hulk Hogan is set to appear on tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
**After Monday’s angle that seemingly wrote Matt Hardy off, he is returning this Monday for a No Holds Barred match against Randy Orton. Given how severe the angle was, and the fact Edge has been off television for weeks from the same attack, it does look odd having Hardy return seven days later. It was noted in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Hardy’s segment with Orton this past Monday added 221,000 viewers. It had previously been reported by Mike Johnson that Hardy’s deal is set to expire on March 1st.
**It was reported by Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone that The Undertaker is scheduled to wrestle AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36. Styles has been out of action since the Royal Rumble with a shoulder injury he sustained when taking a spear from Edge and flipped over to take it. He is advertised to return on February 27th at Super ShowDown for a gauntlet match with Andrade, R-Truth, Erick Rowan, and Bobby Lashley with the winner receiving the Tuwaiq Trophy. It would be The Undertaker’s first match since last July when he teamed with Roman Reigns against Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon at the Extreme Rules event.
**Tickets went on sale today for AEW’s Double or Nothing card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, May 23rd.
**The Bella Twins and Jushin Thunder Liger are expected to be part of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. The news was first reported by the WrestleVotes Twitter account. Liger did one match with WWE in August 2015 wrestling Tyler Breeze at the first NXT TakeOver card from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Liger retired last month at Wrestle Kingdom 14 losing in a tag match with Naoki Sano to Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee. They join the previous announcements of Batista and the original N.W.O. (Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash) for this year’s induction ceremony that takes place Thursday, April 2nd at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
**Ring of Honor revealed that Flamita suffered a torn meniscus during a tag match at the Free Enterprise event this past Sunday in Baltimore. Flamita was teaming with Bandido against The Briscoes on the show. The company has taken Flamita off the February 28th card in Nashville and February 29th in St. Louis. In Nashville, PJ Black & Brian Johnson will replace Flamita & Bandido in a four-way tag and Bandido has been added to a match with Slex and Marty Scurll. In St. Louis, it was set to be a six-man tag title match with Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defending the titles and that’s been switched to Bandido & Horus vs. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham, which will be a Proving Ground match if Lethal & Gresham retain the tag titles the night prior in Nashville.
**Ring of Honor has also announced that Adam Brooks will debut for the company at the 18th Anniversary pay-per-view on March 13th in Las Vegas.
**Delirious will team with Grizzly Redwood against Dalton Castle and Joe Hendry at the ROH ‘Past vs. Present’ show on Saturday, March 14th in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town Live.
**Sumie Sakai is the first entrant into the 16-woman tournament for the vacant women’s title that begins on April 24th in Philadelphia.
**The WWE stock closed at $44.93 on Friday after opening at $44.00.
**MLW has signed Kevin Ku to a deal and he is expected to begin with the company at Intimidation Games on April 18th at Cicero Stadium in Chicago. Ku has been a regular partner of Dominic Garrini under the name ‘Violence is Forever’. Garrini is part of the Team Filthy faction in MLW.
**The XFL revealed that their championship game will be played at TDECU Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. The game is scheduled for Sunday, April 26th at 3 pm and will be broadcast on ESPN. The ten-week season will be followed by the Eastern and Western final on April 18th and 19th with the two winners meeting the following weekend. The stadium is listed at a capacity of 40,000 plus standing room only space. The stadium opened in 2014 and is where the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks play.
**David Bixenspan has a story posted on a meeting between officials from WWE and a firm representing the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia from 2018. The meeting occurred on March 29th to discuss the following month’s Greatest Royal Rumble event, which was the first show since the two sides entered into a ten-year contract.
**Here are the matches for Saturday night’s episode of MLW Fusion at 9 pm Eastern on beIN Sports with the theme of The Dynasty serving as executive producers:
*Ross & Marshall Von Erich vs. MJF & Richard Holliday for the MLW tag titles
*Alex Hammerstone vs. Drago for the MLW National Openweight title
*Gino Medina vs. Septimo Dragon
**Allysin Kay has been added to Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III on Thursday, April 2nd at The Cuban Club in Ybor City.
**The Long Island Herald has a feature on the late John Mair, who wrestled as Crusher Doogan. He started out training under the Malenkos and re-located back home to the state of New York where he was involved with the NYWC and helped train the likes of Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, and Tony Nese.
**Wednesday’s episode of Miz & Mrs. did 457,000 viewers on the USA Network. They had a five-minute overrun from NXT as a lead-in. It was higher than their premiere two weeks ago but lower than last week’s average of 475,000.
**BetOnline has released odds for Sunday’s TakeOver: Portland card. In the main event, Adam Cole and Tommaso Ciampa are both listed at minus 110, so that one is even. Rhea Ripley is a big favorite at -850 to retain the NXT women’s title, as is Keith Lee at -1000 to keep the North American title. Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne are -150 favorites to beat Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish. Finn Balor and Dakota Kai are moderate favorites to win their matches against Johnny Gargano and Tegan Nox respectively.
**The latest additions for the WrestleCon convention from April 2nd to 5th include Minoru Suzuki, Ken Shamrock, Stu Bennett, Ricky Starks, Matt Taven, The Headbangers, Billy & Austin Gunn, Diamante, Kiera Hogan, PCO, Marty Scurll, Flip Gordon, Allysin Kay, Kris Statlander, The Nasty Boys, Salina de la Renta, Rebel, Vickie Guerrero, and Bill Apter.
**Nick Aldis will be defending the NWA championship at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow on Thursday, April 2nd against an opponent of his choosing. The show takes place at The Ritz in Ybor City.
**Ethan Page’s Body Guy Extravaganza is set for Friday, April 3rd at The Ritz in Ybor City with the following matches announced: Brian Cage vs. Scott Steiner in a 3 Stages of Hell match, Jordynne Grace vs. John Silver, Jody Fleisch vs. Anthony Henry, Chris Dickinson vs. Erick Stevens vs. Josh Alexander vs. Jake Something, a ‘Body Part Scramble’ featuring Joey Ryan, and The Rascalz vs. The Boddities.
**The following matches have been announced for Joey Ryan’s Penis Party on Saturday, April 4th at 7 pm at The Ritz:
*Minoru Suzuki, Ken Shamrock & Tom Lawlor vs. Joey Ryan, Colt Cabana & Grado
*Chris Brookes & Maki Itoh vs. Konsuke Takeshita & Miyu Yamashita
*Taya Valkyrie, Ivelisse & Amale vs. Kylie Rae, Shazza McKenzie & Gisele Shaw
**Fight Network has released its latest episode of ‘Diary’ focusing on Tito Ortiz and Alberto El Patron in the lead-up to their fight last December for Combate Americas. The feature includes appearances from Chavo Guerrero Jr., Jorge Masvidal, Thunder Rosa, Melissa Santos, and others.
**The WWE PC YouTube account has been releasing a great series on Tegan Nox’s comeback this week in the lead-up to her street fight with Dakota Kai at TakeOver this Sunday. Part 1 and Part 2 can be viewed with the third episode of the series below (these definitely should have aired on NXT over the past few weeks):
**Ronda Rousey has formed a partnership with Facebook Gaming and will launch her own streaming channel next Tuesday. All proceeds from the channel will go towards aid for the Australian bushfire recovery. Rousey told TMZ:
Gaming has always been a huge part of my life, and I can’t wait to share that passion with my millions of fans on Facebook Gaming. Through my streams, people can hang out with the real me, not the ‘character’ version of myself they’re used to seeing, though the ‘Rowdy One’ can’t always be contained.
MMA NEWS
**For the fourth time in his UFC career, Ray Borg missed weight for his scheduled flyweight fight on Saturday night in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Borg came in on Friday at 128 pounds, missing the mark by two pounds for his fight with Rogerio Bontorin. The fight will go on with Borg losing 30% of his purse as the two will fight at a catchweight. The rest of the fighters made weight for the show.
Below is the card for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card airing on ESPN+ and TSN 5 in Canada.
MAIN CARD (8 pm Eastern on ESPN+, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Jan Blachowicz (206) vs. Corey Anderson (205) – this a rematch from September 2015 that Anderson won by unanimous decision. If either fight wins in impressive fashion, it will strengthen their case for a title fight against Jon Jones but hardly guarantees it. There are too many questions regarding what Jones does next from a rematch with Dominick Reyes to a fight at heavyweight but certainly the winner of this fight will be in that conversation.
*Diego Sanchez (171) vs. Michel Pereira (170) – This will be the 31st UFC fight for Diego Sanchez, who won the middleweight contract on the first season of TUF in 2005. Since returning to welterweight, he has gone 2-2 and is coming off a decision loss to Michael Chiesa. Pereira is super exciting to watch but blew all his energy against Tristan Connelly in his last fight and I would expect a smarter strategy after that loss.
*Mara Romero Borella (125) vs. Montana De La Rosa (126) – Montana and her husband Mark De La Rosa are fighting on the same together
*Kazula Vargas (156) vs. Brok Weaver (156)
*Ray Borg (128*) vs. Rogerio Bontorin (126)
*Yancy Medeiros (155) vs. Lando Vannata (156)
PRELIMINARY CARD (5 pm Eastern on ESPN+)
*Tim Means (171) vs. Daniel Rodriguez (171)
*John Dodson (133.5) vs. Nathaniel Woods (136)
*Jim Miller (156) vs. Scott Holtzman (156)
*Devin Clark (205) vs. Dequan Townsend (202)
*Casey Kenney (135.5) vs. Merab Dvalishvili (136)
*Macy Chiasson (135) vs. Shanna Young (134)
*Raulian Paiva (126) vs. Mark De La Rosa (126)
**Ray Borg posted the following statement after missing weight on Friday:
Wish I had an excuse but I don’t, my camp knows that this is the most disciplined I have ever been during camp, weight was good all camp and all week. I stayed in contact with the crew at the UFC PI all week and followed all their protocols. The more we started cutting the less that started to come off, we were dedicated to making the weight and took the extra hour they gave us and did what we could with it. We asked for more time with all the intentions in the world to make the weight but unfortunately they only allowed us an hour. We still have a fight to win tomorrow and all my focus is on that, I was so confident in my ability to make weight that I even vowed to retire if I missed weight again, which is a subject that currently is not on my mind at the moment . I will put on a good show for my home town tomorrow night, thank you to my team for all the help along with my manager and the rest of my crew that was apart of this camp. Sorry to my opponent and his Team for the unprofessionalism and hope to put on a good show tomorrow.
*****
POST PURORESU: New Beginning, MSG, Miyahara vs. Aoyagi
WH Park is joined by Dylan Fox of the Eastern Lariat Podcast to discuss the New Beginning cards, NJPW at MSG, Champion Carnival, CyberAgent buys NOAH & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/14/post-puroresu-new-beginning-msg-miyahara-vs-aoyagi/
*****
CAFÉ HANGOUT: WrestleMania 37 in LA, XFL w/ Marcus Vanderberg
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Marcus Vanderberg (Yahoo Sports, The Kings of Sport podcast) to chat about WrestleMania going to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in 2021, XFL Week 1 and the latest in wrestling news.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/13/live-link-cafe-hangout-your-calls-marcus-vanderberg/
*****
upNXT 2/12/20: “Bro, Where’s My Car?”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to review the NXT TakeOver: Portland “go-home” edition of WWE NXT featuring KUSHIDA vs. Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano vs. Cameron Grimes, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/13/upnxt-2-12-20-bro-wheres-my-car/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 2/12/20: Chronic Palatal Abscess, Eye for an Eye
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring an “Eye for an Eye” main event between Jon Moxley and Santana, Riho defends her title against Nyla Rose, and Chris Jericho debuts Inner Circle’s hitman.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/13/rewind-a-dynamite-2-12-20-chronic-palatal-abscess-eye-for-an-eye/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW – Black Panther (2018)
Wai Ting and Nate Milton (The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Kings of Sport) review the eighteenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Black Panther (2018).
https://www.patreon.com/posts/33945784
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 2/10/20: Becky the Vampire Slayer
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Shayna Baszler’s bloody attack. Plus, WrestleMania 37 goes Hollywood, Brandi Rhodes speaks about her exit from The Nightmare Collective, and Simone Johnson reports to the WWE PC.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/11/rar-2-10-20-becky-the-vampire-slayer/
*****
NJPW New Beginning in Osaka 2020 POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the NJPW New Beginning in Osaka card from this past weekend as Tetsuya Naito makes the first defense of the Double Championship against KENTA, plus Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki, and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryu Lee.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/02/09/njpw-new-beginning-in-osaka-2020-post-show/
*****
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