POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-Raw to discuss tonight’s episode and all the latest news.
**We have our interview posted with Jon Moxley discussing a bunch of topics including his role in the upcoming film ‘Cagefighter – Worlds Collide’ that will premiere on Fite TV on May 16th. We got into the recent Empty Arena match with Jake Hager with what he liked and what he might have changed, his debut for New Japan last year against Juice Robinson, wrestling Toru Yano in the G1, the thought put into his walkout, and wanting to wrestle for OTT after Scrappermania was canceled in March.
**The latest edition of Total Recall is available for members of the POST Wrestling Café. Wai Ting and Pauline review the last two episodes of Total Bellas titled ‘Bellas Without Borders’ and ‘Playing Favorites’. This is a new bi-weekly show on the Café that drops every other Sunday.
**Andrew Thompson has a big interview coming out on Tuesday with Christian (Jay Reso).
**On Tuesday, Rewind-A-Wai #60 will be released for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will be reviewing the WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event special that ran on October 29th, 1988, from the Baltimore Arena, and feedback can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum. This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer Daniel Holmes, who will share his thoughts on the show and why he chose it. Plus, we will look back at this week in history from 1988 and hold the Trivia Gauntlet segment. The following matches occurred on this edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event:
*Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts
*Demolition vs. The Hart Foundation for the WWF tag titles
*Hulk Hogan vs. King Haku
*Dino Bravo vs. Ken Patera
*Big Bossman vs. Jim Powers
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai – WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event from 10/29/1988 (Patreon)
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Café Hangout – LIVE at 3 pm ET for Patrons
*Friday: The British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Jamesie & Benno
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
*Sunday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock & WH Park
POST VIDEO
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE is taping two episodes of Raw today at the Performance Center with tonight’s show and next Monday, which will be the last Raw before the Money in the Bank show. Tonight’s show will feature a contract signing between Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins for their WWE title match on the pay-per-view. They have also announced Nia Jax vs. Asuka vs. Shayna Baszler for tonight.
**Ryan Satin at Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that Samoa Joe is at the Performance Center for the Raw tapings today. The site notes Joe will be added to the commentary team for at least one of the episodes, if not both of them. Joe’s last match was on the February 10th edition of Raw and was suspended for 30 days after the company announced a wellness policy violation on February 24th.
**The May 1st and May 8th episodes of Friday Night SmackDown were taped this past Saturday at the Performance Center that takes them into Money in the Bank.
**Episode 201 of Being the Elite was released on Monday with Nick Jackson stating his ‘health’ is down to 15% and won’t be returning to the ring anytime soon. The Bucks are sitting in Nick’s backyard when they see an image in the sky, which is revealed at the end to be the letters ‘FTR’ and the start of the tease towards former Revival coming in:
**2K released several news items on Monday regarding the WWE 2K franchise. They are developing a game called WWE 2K Battlegrounds that will feature ‘arcade-style action and over-the-top Superstar designs, environment, and moves’ that is being developed by Saber Interactive, who also did NBA Playgrounds.
When addressing WWE 2K20 and the critical reception the release received, they acknowledged the ‘hundreds of reported concerns’ and that they are aware people want more from the franchise. They will forego a release this fall. Visual Concepts will be the development team for the next game with Patrick Gilmore hired to become Executive Producer to oversee the WWE 2K development and comes with 25 years of experience in the gaming industry.
Below is a teaser for the WWE 2K Battlegrounds game out this fall:
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reports that Jeff Hardy’s next appearance in court was pushed back due to the coronavirus. Hardy was set to appear in Moore County Court on Monday for his October 2019 DWI charge, but it’s been moved to July 16th. Hardy’s problems have been the focus of a series of videos airing on SmackDown over the past three weeks, although they have avoided mentioning the incidents that occurred in 2019. Hardy was arrested last July for public intoxication in South Carolina before the October arrest. After being out of action since April 2019, Hardy had his first match back on March 13th on the first empty arena edition of SmackDown defeating King Corbin.
**The WWE stock closed at $44.08 on Monday.
**Taynara Conti posted a video discussing her WWE release and her plans to stay in wrestling and confirming the report that she had requested her released earlier this year:
I was with the company for three years and a half years or so. Honestly, it was the most crazy and amazing opportunity of my whole life. I will always be grateful because WWE changed my life, and for the better. I had no idea what wrestling was before, and after two years, I was in a WrestleMania ring. Do you have any idea? I was the first Brazilian to be signed with WWE, the first one to step in a WrestleMania ring, so I had so many cool moments and so many good feelings that I’m just grateful. I met so many good people that I will have for my whole life, so it was good.
But, in the last couple of months, I wasn’t feeling that anymore. I wasn’t happy. As you guys know, I have a background in Judo, so I was competing with myself and I need to feel that I’m growing, that I have space to grow, that I’m useful and I was not feeling like that anymore. I talked to them, we tried to figure it out and I just wasn’t happy. When I’m not happy, I try to change, if I can’t change, ‘let’s go, move on’. I asked for my release about three months and they were not able to give it to me by then and I had no option but to try again. And then, in the middle of the pandemic, I was home and got a call ‘Hey Tay, Bye’. They released me.
Of course, it was a shock, I was upset, I was nervous but now that I’ve figured it out, I’m happy because I want to have good feelings about WWE in my heart. I want to learn more; I want to know about wrestling more because I just know WWE and wrestling is much bigger than that. I really want to achieve a couple of dream-like go to Japan and wrestle in other places, so I’m really excited for the future.
**Mike Mooneyham’s weekly column focused on the recent passing of Joe Pedicino, who died on April 12th. The column features comments from former wrestling newsletter reporter Steve Beverly along with other online tributes that poured in for Pedicino when news of his passing was revealed last week. This included memories from Steven Prazak (who got his start in the business alongside Scott Hudson through Pedicini), GWF announcer Jon Horton, Sean Waltman (his matches in the GWF as the Lightning Kid with Jerry Lynn got the two of them on people’s radar with the ESPN exposure), and an excerpt from an interview SLAM Wrestling conducted with Paul Heyman in 2011 describing the impact of the ‘Joe Pedicino block’ of wrestling programming on WATL in Atlanta.
**Paige recently hosted a stream on Twitch with Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, The IIconics, Natalya, and Renee Young. This was the stream that featured Nia Jax’s comments about going to management to discuss someone injuring Bliss repeatedly that gained traction a few weeks back. In some other notes, Nia Jax noted that she was cleared to return in November after double knee surgery following WrestleMania in April 2019. Natalya shared that along with her Mom, they have made 100 masks to distribute. She spoke about her concerns about the asymptomatic spread and her mother having an irregular heartbeat and whether that places her at greater risk. The guests shared their concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic but did not delve into WWE’s continuation of running shows. Natalya also spoke about the farting gimmick she was given in 2012 that she didn’t like but went along with it because she wanted to be a team player. She said the character came before the women’s division went through its changes in 2015 and beyond and today, she would be more comfortable saying ‘no’ to an idea like that. She was also frustrated because the gimmick was dropped when she was told people didn’t like it and therefore, she was taken off television and missed that year’s WrestleMania (WrestleMania 28 in Miami).
**On his latest podcast, Jerry Lawler addressed the backlash to his comment about Akira Tozawa using a ‘Ramden Noodle Moonsault’ on the April 13th episode of Raw. Lawler stated it came out of his time working with Mauro Ranallo on SmackDown in 2016 and the terminology that Ranallo would use describing moves. Lawler would not know the names of the moves and made up some names that he thought would be funny to respond when Ranallo identified certain moves such as ‘Ramen Noodle Moonsault’ and then have Ranallo shut down Lawler for a comedic spot. He said with others like Jim Ross and Michael Cole, they had the chemistry to make Lawler sound like a fool for misidentifying the move but with Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips, they don’t have that chemistry yet and the two didn’t acknowledge his comment during the Tozawa match. He said the joke was supposed to be on him like other heel commentators would do such as Bobby Heenan and Jesse Ventura.
**Superstar Billy Graham shared the unfortunate news that his daughter Capella and son-in-law appear to have COVID-19. His daughter is 47-years old and her husband is a first-responder paramedic in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is 49. Graham found out over the weekend and said his daughter has a fever, feels very weak, is constantly coughing, and has lost 18 pounds. He did not mention if both have been tested for the virus but that his daughter is displaying all the symptoms. Below is his post from Sunday:
Hello fans, I hope all of you are healthy and covid-19 free However, that is not the case with my daughter and her husband who is a paramedic in Southern Florida. My daughter Capella is indeed in the throws of a full blown covid-19 attack. This fine photo of her and my granddaughter is just about a year old. Capella is only 47 years old and very healthy. She waited 5 days to tell me and we did a video cell phone call yesterday. She is extremely weak, has ran a very high temperature for about 3 days, constantly coughing, can’t sleep, pressure on her upper chest and does in fact have all 7 of the CDC symptoms. She has lost about 18 pounds and is isolated in her downstairs basement spare bedroom. Her husband as I mentioned is a first responder paramedic for the city of West Palm Beach, Fl. He, at only age 49 unfortunately gave the virus to her. Believe me it is one thing to write about the covid-19 virus but an all together different thing to write that your daughter has it and brutally shocking to see her gasping for air, pale and gaunt. They must now protect my grandchildren. I will keep you posted on her battle. Not that it matters at all but I may be the first WWE Hall of Fame inductee to have the covid-19 hit their immediate family. You must stay safe my good friends.
**ESPN reports that the Baltimore Ravens are expected to sign more than twenty undrafted rookies with Bronson Rechsteiner (the son of Rick Steiner) being among them. Rechsteiner is a fullback at Kennesaw State and led the team in rushing last season. It will be tough for Rechsteiner to make the team as the team’s current fullback is Pro Bowler Patrick Ricard.
**Impact Wrestling will be airing the second part of their Rebellion special on Tuesday at 8 pm Eastern. The following has been advertised for Tuesday’s show, which was part of the recent Nashville tapings:
*Rosemary vs. Havok in a Full Metal Mayhem match
*Suicide vs. Trey vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju
*Joseph Ryan vs. Cousin Jake
*An interview with Tessa Blanchard
*The future of the Impact Wrestling title is revealed
**AEW Dark on Tuesday night will feature Jimmy Havoc vs. Shawn Dean and Best Friends taking on Lee Johnson & Musa at 7 pm Eastern on their YouTube channel.
**For those in Canada, AEW Dynamite is listed for TSN1 and TSN2 this Wednesday at 8 pm Eastern.
**On TSN3 that night at the same time, they are airing the 2014 film ‘Million Dollar Arm’ that is based on the true story of current NXT wrestler Rinku Singh as well as Dinesh Patel. The role of Singh is played by Suraj Sharma in the film. Singh signed with WWE in 2018 and was recently introduced on television along with Saurav Gurjar with manager Malcolm Bivens.
**All Japan is back with a card this Thursday morning that will be streaming at AJPW.tv with the following card:
*Black Menso-re vs. Yuma Aoyagi
*Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto vs. Zeus & Izanagi
*Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada vs. Jun Akiyama & Tajiri
*Suwama & Hikaru Sato vs. Yoshitatsu & Dan Tamura
*Takao Omori & Hokuto Omoro vs. Shotaro Ashino & X
*Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Kento Miyahara & Francesco Akira for the All-Asia tag titles
**The following matches are advertised for this week’s episode of SmackDown, which was taped this past Saturday:
*New Day vs. The Forgotten Sons in a non-title match
*Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match
*Mandy Rose vs. Carmella in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match
*King Corbin vs. Daniel Bryan
**The Ring of Honor YouTube channel has been adding lots of archival matches regularly. Over the past week, some of the matched added include The Young Bucks vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico from 2009, Kenny Omega vs. Austin Aries from 2010, Great Muta & Arashi vs. Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff at Final Battle 2003, KENTA & El Generico vs. Nigel McGuinness & Davey Richards from 2009, CM Punk vs. Raven’s Clockwork Orange match from their feud in 2003, and they did a watch along for Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi from the 2005 classic.
**This week’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring focuses on ‘Dr. D’ David Schultz and his incident with ABC reporter John Stossel in 1984 backstage at Madison Square Garden. This week’s documentary features original interviews with Schultz and Stossel, and it will be interesting to see the reaction of how these two come off to people. The New York Times covered the incident and included a letter dated January 23, 1985 (approximately four weeks after the incident), signed by Schultz and sent to the New York State Athletic Commission after Schultz was suspended by deputy commissioner Marvin Kohn:
I admit the allegations. I intend the commission to know that I did not intend to hurt John Stossel. I apologize to the commission and to John Stossel.
The episode also focuses heavily on an alleged incident between Schultz and Mr. T at a show in Los Angeles that ultimately led to Schultz’s dismissal by the World Wrestling Federation with Schultz’s side of the story.
After this week, the remaining episodes of the season cover Herb Abrams, The Road Warriors, and Owen Hart.
**On Tuesday night, FS1 has its five-hour block of WWE programming. At 7 pm Eastern, they will air ‘The Best of WWE: John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches’ followed by WrestleMania specials for Triple H, The Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels and a new episode of WWE Backstage at 11 pm.
**WWE has put up a video with Shawn Michaels and Tommaso Ciampa watching a match between Michaels and Triple H from the December 29, 2003 episode of Raw. This is one of the best matches the two ever had but is less remembered since it wasn’t on a pay-per-view. The match took place in San Antonio and designed for the two to come back with a rematch at the following month’s Royal Rumble:
MMA NEWS
**Yahoo’s Kevin Iole spoke with UFC president Dana White about the upcoming shows in Jacksonville, Florida. White said this will not be cheap but ‘someone has to be the first one to get out there’. They submitted a 30-page document to the Governor of Nevada about safety measures for their fighters and staff and repeated that health and safety is a high priority that they always keep high. White refused to answer the question about whether fighters would be tested for COVID-19 and doesn’t want to tell the media anything.
The pay-per-view main card on May 9th will be headlined by Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title, along with Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title, Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Jeremy Stephens vs. Calvin Kattar, and Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan De Castro. The ESPN prelims will be headlined by the rematch between Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis. The preliminary fights are expected to air on both ESPN and ESPN+.
The Jacksonville cards are set for May 9th, 13th, and 16th. White said the next card after that would be May 23rd but won’t be in Jacksonville. That last date will be going head-to-head with AEW Double or Nothing, which is on pay-per-view. White was unsure if the cards after May 9th would be on ESPN or pay-per-view.
He reiterated that they will not be any layoffs at the UFC despite Endeavor making cuts. He said they are moving forward with cards and fighters will get to fight and were working on a deal for the fighters that did lose out on fights since everything shut down.
Fight Island will not be on U.S. waters and there will be an octagon on the beach for fighters to train with other facilities. White would likely have to quarantine before he re-enters the U.S.
**On Monday’s edition of Helwani & DC, Daniel Cormier said he will be part of the broadcasting team for the UFC events on May 9th and May 13th. Cormier said after he does the shows, he will quarantine away from his family for two weeks.
**MMA Fighting is reporting that Cody Garbrandt and Raphael Assuncao are now set to fight on June 6th at an unknown location. The UFC has yet to announce this date for a fight card but has announced four shows between May 9th and 23rd. Garbrandt has already stated he plans to cut down to flyweight after this fight with Assuncao at 135 pounds. The former bantamweight champion Garbrandt lost the title to T.J. Dillashaw in November 2017 and followed with a loss in the rematch to Dillashaw and was knocked out by Pedro Munhoz in March 2019.
**Jonathan Snowden, who has written some terrific historical books including Total MMA, The MMA Encyclopedia, and Shooters has a new book out this week covering the life and career of Ken Shamrock. The release is titled Shamrock and features over 100 interviews according to the description and adds ‘These are the stories behind the headlines, a rare glimpse at what life is like for a WWE Superstar and UFC Hall of Famer including the drugs, crime, and debauchery, that almost cost Shamrock everything.’ The release date is set for this Friday through Hybrid Shoot publishing. In November 2018, Snowden wrote a lengthy feature about this project here on the POST Wrestling site.
ON THIS DATE
*****
POST INTERVIEW: AEW Champion Jon Moxley
John Pollock speaks with Jon Moxley about his role in the upcoming film Cagefighter – Worlds Collide and the state of wrestling during the crisis.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/27/post-interview-aew-champion-jon-moxley/
*****
TOTAL RECALL: Total Bellas Season 5, Ep. 3 & 4
Wai Ting and Pauline are back to review Total Bellas Season 5, Episodes 3 “Bellas Without Borders” and Episode 4 “Playing Favorites”.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/26/total-recall-total-bellas-season-5-ep-3-4/
*****”
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: “Let’s Wrap it Up, Padre”
John Pollock and Wai Ting review SmackDown and Triple H’s 25th-anniversary celebration with appearances from Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Road Dogg, and Vince McMahon. UFC and AEW announce their next shows in Florida and the latest with Velveteen Dream.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/36390423
*****
Café Hangout: WWE Q1 2020 Earnings Results
John Pollock and Wai Ting for the Café Hangout as they discuss WWE’s Q1 2020 Earnings Report and take your calls.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/24/live-link-fridays-cafe-hangout-12pm-et/
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Pat Laprade, Writer & Historian
John Pollock chats with Pat Laprade about his new book with co-author Bertrand Hebert The Eighth Wonder of the World: The True Story of Andre the Giant.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/23/post-interview-pat-laprade-writer-historian/
*****
upNXT 4/22/20: Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the April 22nd edition of WWE NXT featuring Velveteen Dream and a mystery partner vs. Undisputed Era, and three Interim Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Matches.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/23/upnxt-4-22-20-between-a-rockstar-and-a-hard-place/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 4/22/20: Flim Flam, Michael Landon & “The Last Dance”
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with the continuation of the TNT Championship tournament as Dustin Rhodes puts his career on the line against Kip Sabian and a rematch between Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/23/rewind-a-dynamite-4-22-20-flim-flam-michael-landon-the-last-dance/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Ant-Man and the Wasp
Wai Ting and John Pollock review the twentieth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/36249264
*****
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