POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back with Rewind-A-Dynamite tonight for a full review of AEW and going through all the latest news and taking your feedback & questions. Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will have a new edition of upNXT and the UFC card will be covered with a report on the site from Eric Marcotte.
**Our latest edition of Rewind-A-Wai is out for Café members with Wai Ting and I reviewing the September 18th, 2000 edition of WCW Monday Nitro. This show is everything you would expect from this era of WCW as Vince Russo concocts a show-long plan to insert himself into the main event and set up a title match against Booker T. for the following week. Other highlights include David Flair’s reaction to learning he isn’t the father of Stacy Keibler’s non-existent baby, Kronik learns distressing news from a secret cassette recording, a VHS with information for David that will make even less sense when this story “pays off” (which I use charitably), Tygress beats the Natural Born Thrillers, and Mike Awesome has a hardcore match with Vampiro during his run as That 70s Guy. Good luck with this one.
**Davie Portman has a review of Tuesday’s episode of Impact Wrestling featuring the beginning of the #1 contender’s tournament with Rohit Raju vs. Trey and Madman Fulton vs Hernandez.
**Andrew Thompson will have an interview on the site Thursday with NWA champion Nick Aldis. Andrew will also be joining us at the beginning of the Café Hangout on Thursday at 3 pm Eastern.
**A reminder that we are holding a contest this month to find a theme song for POST Puroresu. We are looking for submissions that are under 45 seconds and do not contain any copywritten material with the deadline set for May 27th and the winner announced that weekend on our next show. Submissions can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum thread.
**The feedback thread for our next MCU review is up on the POST Wrestling Forum as we will be chatting about ‘Captain Marvel’ next Tuesday for members of the Café.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tonight: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Thursday: Café Hangout w/ guest Andrew Thompson (LIVE at 3 pm ET for Patrons)
Friday: The British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Benno & Jamesie
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown w/ review of Dark Side of the Ring (Patreon)
Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton (review of “Snitch”)
POST VIDEO
TELEVISION VIEWERSHIP
**Tuesday’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring focusing on The Road Warriors did 264,000 viewers and 0.12 in the 18-49 demo. It would be the second-highest number in the history of the series behind the Chris Benoit edition.
**Tuesday’s WWE lineup on FS 1 saw the WrestleMania Rewind episode on WrestleMania 3 average 157,000 viewers and WWE Backstage did 173,000 viewers featuring CM Punk and Otis. The actual re-airing of WrestleMania 3 from 8-11 pm was not listed among the top 150 cable programs on Wednesday.
**WWE’s Greatest Ladder Matches special on Fox finished with 968,000 viewers this past Saturday. The special aired head-to-head with the UFC 249 prelims on ESPN with the Ladder Match special doing 280,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo.
**The UFC 249 prelims did 1,154,000 on ESPN, which started at 6 pm but didn’t feature any fights until 7. The prelims had 616,000 viewers in the main demo.
**In an interesting note, last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite had 356,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo and 732,000 viewers overall. While they had fewer viewers than the Ladder Match special on Fox, they did top WWE in the demo.
**Last week’s Friday Night SmackDown finished with a 1.33 rating and 2,025,000 viewers with 680,000 in the main demo.
WRESTLING NEWS
**New Japan president Harold Meij issued an update regarding the company during the COVID-19 pandemic. He presented a ‘road map’ for live events returning. He said it has been painful to cancel the shows and postpone the Wrestle Dynasty event that was set for Madison Square Garden in August. He outlined the reasons for canceling these shows and not holding empty arena shows now:
*To protect the health and safety of our wrestlers and staff – he said safety is not guaranteed and high rates of infection in Tokyo means staging empty shows presents an unnecessary risk
*Our ability to use venues – they don’t own or operate their own venues
*NJPW’s corporate social responsibility – they have to operate to the highest ethical standards and strongly advised to show the highest restraint with empty arena shows reflecting badly on them
He added that the positives have included performers having the chance to rest and heal from the schedule. Meij noted that subscriptions for New Japan World have not fallen significantly with online sales of merchandise have been “extremely positive”
The first step to return to live events is empty arena shows and will only happen when the state of emergency restrictions are lifted, the number of new cases declines, and when matches can take place in a properly disinfected and safe settings. Matches would take place in Japan and the L.A. Dojo in the U.S.
The next step is bringing fans back and will occur when wrestlers and staff are tested, fans are subject to temperature checks, masks will be mandatory and arenas will be thoroughly disinfected and ventilated (noting the elimination of smoking areas) along with space between seats to meet social distancing standards with half capacity shows at first.
**AEW has a taped show tonight at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida and essentially announced the entire show last week with the following advertised:
*Chris Jericho vs. Pineapple Pete/Suge D – I’m really interested how this one does numbers-wise as Jericho wrestling is the biggest bullet in AEW’s chamber on television and wrestling with a relative unknown that’s been slowly teased for weeks out of Jericho’s commentary. It’s one of those matches that can put Suge D on the map and would envision Jericho giving him lots before winning.
*Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy vs. Ortiz & Santana
*Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker vs. Penelope Ford vs. Kris Statlander
*Best Friends vs. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy
*Brodie Lee vs. Christopher Daniels
*MJF in action
*Lance Archer and Jake Roberts speak
**Tonight’s edition of NXT airs at 8 pm Eastern on the USA Network and they have announced the following:
*Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel for the NXT tag titles
*Finn Balor vs. Cameron Grimes – this has the potential to be very good
*Rhea Ripley appears
**On Wednesday’s edition of ‘The Bump’, William Regal stated there would be a major announcement on tonight’s episode of NXT. Later, they stated the news would be revealed by Triple H and Shawn Michaels on the show.
**Ben Fischer at Sports Business Journal is reporting that lawyers for Vince McMahon are stating that XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck was fired for several reasons including “gross neglect” of his job during the beginning of the pandemic, personal use of a league-issued phone, and signing Antonio Callaway despite the league’s orders to avoid players with legal history. Luck, who signed a contract reportedly worth $20 million in 2018 with the XFL, sued McMahon for breach of contract after his dismissal in April right before the XFL declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fischer added that in the filing, it revealed that McMahon had personally guaranteed Luck’s contract which is why Luck is suing McMahon. His annual salary broke down to $5 million with a $2 million annual bonus.
**Rey Fenix has been added to the Casino Ladder Match at AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23rd. Fenix joins Darby Allin, Colt Cabana, and Orange Cassidy among those in the match to earn a future AEW title match. Earlier, we had listed that Fenix last appeared on the March 18th episode of Dynamite but he did tape a match that ran on this week’s edition of AEW Dark.
**NXT was scheduled to be taping both tonight’s show and next week’s episode at Full Sail University today. Following today’s taping, that would mean WWE isn’t back until Monday, May 25th.
**The WWE stock fell 3.6% on Wednesday and closed at $41.47.
**For all the shows tonight, there will be big competition with the finale of ‘Survivor: Winners at War’ airing on CBS at 8 pm Eastern.
**Progress Wrestling has announced that they have canceled their summer schedule of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic including their shows that were scheduled for the U.S. in Oregon and Washington. They stated they were canceling rather than postponing so people can get refunds when money is tight, and they cannot offer a replacement date due to the uncertainty. The shows affected by this news includes June 28th in Camden, July 10th in Leeds, July 11th in Manchester, July 12th in Newcastle, July 26th in Camden, July 30th in Los Angeles, July 31st & August 1st in Seattle, August 2nd in Portland, August 29-31 at Alexandra Palace, and September 27th in Camden.
**DEFY has added that they are moving their June 26th event in Seattle to September 26th. Tickets can be transferred to the new event and refunds are available.
**NBA player Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics has said he has been offered a WWE contract that he intends to accept after his basketball career.
**Impact Wrestling announced the signing on Tasha Steelz following her appearance on Tuesday night’s episode in a match with Kylie Rae.
**MLW’s debut episode of their Anthology series will focus on LA Park.
**Here is an article on Ricky Morton and the history of wrestling in Tennessee.
**Below is the trailer for the next week’s season finale of Dark Side of the Ring documenting the day Owen Hart died in 1999:
POLL RESULTS
Of the following options, what is your priority viewing tonight?
1,450 votes
AEW – 61.7%
NXT – 19.6%
UFC – 18.8%
ON THIS DATE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpHovBMa74g
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #61: WCW Monday Nitro (Sept. 18, 2000)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WCW Monday Nitro from Kitchener, Ontario held on September 18, 2000, featuring a… uh… the booking of this show is so difficult to describe in one paragraph you’ll really just need to listen to find out.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/37046517
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 5/11/20: Becky Lynch Pregnant, Brand Invitations, The Last Ride
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring major news from Becky Lynch and the announcement of Brand-to-Brand Invitations. Plus, today’s news and a full review of Chapter 1 of Undertaker: The Last Ride.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/05/12/rewind-a-raw-5-11-20-becky-lynch-pregnant-brand-invitations-the-last-ride/
*****
WWE MONEY IN THE BANK POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Money in the Bank 2020 featuring Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank ladder matches taking place from WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/05/10/wwe-money-in-the-bank-2020-post-show-1030pm-et/
*****
TOTAL RECALL: Total Bellas Season 5, Ep. 5 & 6
Wai Ting and Pauline are back to review Total Bellas Season 5, Episode 5 “BellaVision” & Episode 6 “Salsa Caliente”.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/36944252
*****
UFC 249 POST SHOW: Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok to chat Saturday’s UFC 249 card including the two championship fights with Ferguson vs. Gaethje and Cejudo vs. Cruz.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/05/10/ufc-249-post-show-tony-ferguson-vs-justin-gaethje/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 5/8/20: MITB Go-Home, Reigns Speaks, Herb Abrams
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown and the final episode leading into this Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV. Plus, we discuss Jacare testing positive for COVID-19 and review Dark Side of the Ring: Herb Abrams.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/05/09/rewind-a-smackdown-5-8-20-mitb-go-home-reigns-speaks-herb-abrams/
*****
Café Hangout: AEW Fined, WWE Untold: “I Am the Game”, WWE NXT
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss AEW being fined $10,000 for a match, last night’s WWE NXT featuring the debut of Karrion Kross, and WWE Network’s excellent Untold: “I Am The Game” documentary detailing two pivotal matches in the careers of Triple H and Cactus Jack.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/05/07/cafe-hangout-3pm-et-your-calls-wwe-nxt-untold-i-am-the-game/
*****
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