POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown to review tonight’s episode and this week’s Dark Side of the Ring covering Dr. D David Schultz and the incident with John Stossel from 1984. This show will be available for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**On Thursday’s Café Hangout, we had a big discussion on my piece from Wednesday about television viewership since the empty arena shows began in March. We also chatted about this week’s Dark Side of the Ring and NXT episodes and took phone calls. The show closed with the AEW and NXT numbers from Wednesday night. You can watch and listen to the Hangout every Thursday at 3 pm Eastern if you are a member of the POST Wrestling Café.
**The latest edition of the British Wrestling Experience is out with Martin Bushby, Jamesie & Benno chatting the latest news, the Drake Maverick storyline on NXT, Marty Scurll’s interview on the ROH podcast, and a review of Riptide Wrestling’s ‘The Storm’ event.
**A new POST Puroresu will be out on Sunday with WH Park.
POST VIDEO
WRESTLING NEWS
**In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it reports that AEW is set to run at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville for their events in May. This includes next Wednesday’s Dynamite and the following week’s show. The episode for May 13th will either be taped next Wednesday or Thursday. They will return with another Dynamite on May 20th, the Double or Nothing event on May 23rd, and Dynamite on May 27th. Dave Meltzer added in his report that the fly-ins are expected to stay in Jacksonville from May 20th to 27th for those three shows rather than go home in between.
**ESPN has a big look at what the NBA considers necessary to resume play and finish their season. Here are some of the highlights from the piece including ideas being thrown out:
*There must be a fast, simple, and reliable test and enough public testing to avoid the NBA receiving criticism for using such testing with the number of tests needed by the league reported being 15,000
*Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested that sports could resume with weekly testing of the athletes ‘as long as they are closely watched’
*To finish the remaining games in the season and four rounds of playoffs, those participating would have to be in ‘the bubble’ for approximately three months where players and personnel are separated from their family and friends during the season – this option of being quarantined away from family has said to be ‘untenable’
*Another scenario is using two courts and playing eight games per day among the league with the regular season games completed in 33 days and the four-round postseason in 55 days max
*They estimate that the number that would be considered ‘essential’ to be spread out within this bubble would be about 1,500 to restart the regular season with possibilities of teams and personnel numbers being cut down
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown at 8 pm Eastern on Fox (which was taped last weekend at the WWE Performance Center):
*Dolph Ziggler vs. Otis in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match
*Carmella vs. Mandy Rose in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match
*King Corbin vs. Daniel Bryan
*New Day vs. The Forgotten Sons in a non-title match
**Ring of Honor announced on Friday they have canceled their shows in June, which included two shows in Texas and their Best in the World pay-per-view in Baltimore. Regarding tickets purchased for those events, the promotion included the following in their announcement:
Ticket-holders for the Dallas event will receive a refund via the credit card they made the purchase with. Anyone who purchased a ticket to the San Antonio or Baltimore events through Ticketmaster with a credit card will receive an automatic refund. Those who purchased a ticket with cash directly from the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio or UMBC Event Center box office in Baltimore will need to contact the venues about a refund.
**Total Bellas did 600,000 viewers on Thursday night and a 0.24 in the key demo. This would be the show’s highest viewership of the current season.
**Cary Silkin announced on Friday that he has closed his ticketing service, Rave Review Tickets due to the landscape and no shows to sell tickets for. This was Silkin’s main business as he funded Ring of Honor for years coming on as owner until selling to Sinclair Broadcasting in 2011.
**Pat Buck, who was part of the WWE furloughs, put out a fantastic podcast episode with advice for those navigating the independent wrestling scene. Buck, who had been a promoter and trainer prior to joining WWE in 2019, shared insight into the dos and don’ts for talent that may have never been on the independent scene or have been in WWE for a long time and it’s a different world now. Some of the notes included advice regarding using an agent or not, pricing yourself, the different arrangements from strictly wrestling to meet-and-greets, and post-show photo ops that generate a lot of revenue. Other things he added was updating your gear and photos so there aren’t any references to your name in WWE that you cannot use, getting theme music that can be cleared for promotional purposes online, and basic etiquette that will play a factor in your ability to find regular bookings. Buck also spoke on the year he spent in WWE, the great team of producers he worked with, and learned a lot under John Laurinaitis. He was unsure if he will be back because of the major question of when shows will run again with fans.
**The WWE stock closed at $43.92 on Friday.
**MLW will be streaming AAA’s empty arena Lucha Fighter show on their Facebook page on Saturday at 9 pm Eastern. MLW Fusion is airing at a special time of 10 pm on Saturday on beIN Sport. Below are the matches for Fusion on Saturday:
*Myzteziz Jr., Hijo del Vikingo & Octagon Jr. vs. Myron Reed, Kotto Brazil & Jordan Oliver
*Porder Del Norte vs. Black Destiny, Fantastick & Rayo Star
**Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) announced Friday that their events for the month of May are off. The company has started a crowdfunding site with the promotion stating its necessary to survive. Their last show was this past Sunday in Chiba. They canceled their event on Monday at Korakuen Hall.
**All Japan held a show Thursday in an empty studio that streamed on their online service. They kept the matches relatively short and it was easy-to-watch in 2 ½ hours. We will have a full review of the show on POST Puroresu this weekend. Below are the results:
*Yuma Aoyagi over Black Menso-re
*Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto over Zeus & Izanagi
*Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Tajiri over Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada
*Suwama & Hikaru Sato over Yoshitatsu & Dan Tamura – afterward, Suwama and Yoshitatsu held an impromptu match ending when Suwama was choking Yoshitatu and was disqualified
*Shotaro Ashino & Yusuke Kodama over Takao Omori & Hokuto Omori
*Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto over Kento Miyahara & Francesco Akira to retain the All-Asia tag titles
**All Japan is scheduled to hold another show next Tuesday in the same location headlined by Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa defending the All Japan tag titles against Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH is promoting a series of shows over the next ten days. On May 3rd, they are running a show with a 12-man elimination tag match. The match will feature Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Rene Dupree, Nosawa Rongai, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka taking on Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Manabu Soya, Nioh & Haoh. Their big show is May 9th that will see Takashi Sugiura defending the GHC National title against Katsuhiko Nakajima and a GHC junior heavyweight tag title match with Hayata & Yo-Hey defending against Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki. They are also scheduled for a show on May 10th with Naomichi Marufuji & The Great Muta vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Masaaki Mochizuki.
**Impact Wrestling has announced the following for Tuesday’s episode on AXS TV following the Rebellion specials:
*The North defends the Impact tag titles
*Cousin Jake vs. Joseph P. Ryan
*Sami Callihan responds after the loss to Ken Shamrock
*Locker Room Talk with Havok
**Mick Foley wrote about Nancy Benoit and his memories of meeting her in WCW and later working in ECW together. Foley recently re-connected with Nancy’s sister Sandra Toffoloni and spoke of how Nancy’s life and career need to be remembered for more than the final weekend of her life. Foley is also a proponent of Nancy going into the WWE Hall of Fame, which was suggested by Chris Jericho on the Dark Side of the Ring episode this season.
**Patrick Rishe of Washington University conducted a study for ESPN estimating that the loss of sports during this pandemic will cost at least $12 billion in lost revenue. He estimates that figure will more than double if the NFL and college football were to lose their seasons. Below is an excerpt from the study:
The numbers include everything from the price of a ticket and a hot dog to the money you spend taking your daughter to an out-of-state soccer tournament. For example, the crisis stands to wipe out more than $3.25 billion that fans would have spent on pro sports. It would erase nearly $371 million in wages — approximately 20 million hours — for ticket takers, beer vendors and other stadium and arena employees. At least $2.2 billion of national TV revenue would be lost, as well as up to $2.4 billion in tourism related to youth sports.
**Kris Zellner and David Bixenspan of the Between the Sheets podcast has released two episodes covering the career of Herb Abrams and the UWF prior to next week’s Dark Side of the Ring. The shows were originally available on their Patreon site and have made the two shows free in one file that clocks in at over six hours. The Dark Side of the Ring titled ‘Cocaine and Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story’ airs next Tuesday at 10 pm Eastern on Vice TV.
**Beginning this Monday, Colt Cabana will be doing daily interviews with non-contracted wrestlers that have been affected by the shutdown. The series of interviews will run for two weeks with the unedited interviews already available on Cabana’s Patreon site. The ‘Quarantine Series’ as he is titling it will include interviews with Brian Myers (formerly Curt Hawkins), Hornswoggle, Shazza McKenzie, Alex Zayne, Warhorse, Priscilla Kelly, Speedball Mike Bailey, Andy Quildan, Effy, and others. There is a free preview of the series that Cabana has posted for listeners.
**Canadian Erica Wiebe, who won the gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2016 Olympics, spoke about a tryout for WWE. Wiebe went for a tryout after the Olympics that year noting that she met with Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon. She decided that she wanted to pursue her amateur career and go for another Olympic medal (which would have been the summer at the Tokyo games). Wiebe qualified this past March to represent Canada in the 76kg division in the Olympics, which has been moved to 2021.
**Highspots has uploaded a free two-hour interview with AJ Styles that was conducted several years prior to joining WWE in 2016.
**Super LTD has joined as a distribution partner for David Arquette’s documentary. The doc, ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette’ features the actor diving into the independent wrestling scene almost two decades after winning the WCW title in April 2000. This includes footage of his match with Nick Gage at a GCW event in November 2018 that got way out of control.
**Aleister Black will be a guest on WWE Backstage next Tuesday night on FS1 at 11 pm Eastern.
MMA NEWS
**Nolan King at MMA Junkie obtained an email directed to UFC fighters set to compete on the upcoming events in Jacksonville, Florida. He reports the following list of protocols that will be in place:
*Only UFC staff, the fighters on the card, and cornermen can be present on the site
*Daily medical screenings and tests while personnel are at the fighter hotel
*There will be a run-through of the weigh-in procedure
*Fighters will have individual workout rooms
*The hotel staff will provide 24/7 room service and extra precautions will be taken for sanitizing the rooms
*The UFC Performance Institute will be assisting in the food supplies
*Injuries and illnesses that are performance-related will be handled by an on-site medical staff
**USADA has issued the following statement to MMA Fighting regarding their testing procedures ahead of the upcoming UFC cards:
As we’ve stated, testing at UFC events is an essential part of a fair fight. We will have doping control officers at UFC 249, and will do everything in our power to conduct testing at future events, of course taking appropriate precautions to protect the health and safety of everyone involved.
**Trent Reinsmith of Bloody Elbow interviewed Dr. Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist about his questions and concerns over the UFC’s upcoming shows. Below is one comment from Dr. Binney:
Bringing sports back, it’s all a risk benefit. I’m probably the epidemiologist in this country most eager to bring sports back. I don’t know that there’s any any epidemiologist or public health person in this country more eager to have sports back. And I’m telling you, we’re not ready.
The truth is, in most states, we still don’t have the tests we need to even accurately identify cases efficiently or to know the number of cases that we truly have out there. And so that leaves us flying blind. And we’re just hoping that whoever you’re coming into contact with doesn’t have the virus.
**Dr. Margaret Goodman, who spent years as the chief ringside physician for the Nevada State Athletic Commission, spoke with Ben Fowlkes of The Athletic on safety concerns the UFC should be aware of.
**James Lynch of The Score spoke with UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic about his status and working full-time as a firefighter during the pandemic. Miocic said he was cleared in January after having surgery on his eye for a torn retina. He said he cannot train properly right now and is not interested in fighting given the limitations for preparation and added that the gym he trains out of in Cleveland is closed. All indications are that when Miocic is ready to fight, that the third bout with Daniel Cormier will be the match to make, which he noted in the interview as well.
**The UFC will hold a ‘virtual media day’ next Thursday with numerous fighters from the UFC 249 card available to credentialed media. It is unknown if these virtual interviews will be broadcast publicly but they will begin at 11:15 am Eastern with Jeremy Stephens, Greg Hardy, Francis Ngannou, Tony Ferguson, Henry Cejudo, Justin Gaethje, Dominick Cruz, Anthony Pettis, Calvin Kattar, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Yorgan De Castro, and Donald Cerrone being made available.
**On Saturday night at 7 pm Eastern, TSN1 in Canada will air a replay of UFC 207 from December 2016 headlined by Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey for the UFC bantamweight title.
ON THIS DATE
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BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE 5/1/20: Riptide Wrestling ‘The Storm’
Martin is back with Benno and Jamesie to review one of the last British wrestling shows of 2020, Riptide Wrestling’s “The Storm”. They rundown the whole show including Travis Banks vs. Chuck Mambo and Spike Trivet vs. Jordan Breaks.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/30/british-wrestling-experience-5-1-20-riptide-wrestling-the-storm/
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Café Hangout: Curtis Axel released, Empty Arena TV ratings
Join John Pollock and Wai Ting for the Café Hangout as they discuss Curtis Axel’s release, television ratings during WWE and AEW’s era of empty arena programming, this week’s WWE NXT, Dark Side of the Ring and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/30/cafe-hangout-wwe-aew-empty-arena-ratings-analysis/
*****
upNXT 4/29/20: “Speed Really Isn’t My Thing”
Braden Herrington is joined by friend of the show, Scrump to review the April 29th edition of WWE NXT featuring Charlotte Flair vs. Mia Yim.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/30/upnxt-4-29-20-speed-really-isnt-my-thing/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 4/29/20: TNT Championship Semi-Finals
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with the semi-finals of the TNT Championship tournament featuring Cody vs. Darby Allin and Lance Archer vs. Dustin Rhodes.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/30/rewind-a-dynamite-4-29-20-tnt-championship-semi-finals/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #60: WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event (Oct. 29, 1988)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #17 featuring Rick Rude vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Hulk Hogan vs. King Haku. We discuss the wrestling landscape of 1988, the political commentary of Jesse and Vince, the very unique aesthetics of late 80’s WWF TV, and more.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/36506905/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 4/27/20: Sriracha’ Gonna Do?
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring a contract signing involving Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins moderated by Jerry Lawler.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/28/rewind-a-raw-4-27-20-sriracha-gonna-do/
*****
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/
*****
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