POST IT NOTES
**Tonight, Wai Ting and I will have our Extreme Rules POST Show immediately after the pay-per-view ends, which will be LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will go through the Extreme Rules show, discuss the Anderson & Gallows interview, and take your phone calls tonight.
**Our Slammiversary POST Show is up on the site with Davie Portman, Nate Milton and myself reviewing Impact Wrestling’s pay-per-view from Saturday night and discussing all the surprise appearances on the show.
**Friday’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. In addition to reviewing SmackDown, we also previewed tonight’s Extreme Rules card, discussed the AEW and NXT ratings, and the New York Times feature on Hana Kimura’s death.
WRESTLING NEWS
**On Friday night, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows did a two-hour interview for their Talkin’ Shop Podcast addressing their releases from WWE and the circumstances regarding why they re-signed with the company last year.
When the duo joined AJ Styles and left New Japan to join WWE, they were questioning whether they would stay by October 2016 after several months in the company.
They had three years left on their deals that would expire in September 2019 and spoke with The Young Bucks about AEW, as well as talks with Impact and New Japan. The four met at a food court in Ontario, California in January 2019 (which was the same month AEW was announced and they held its first press conference in Jacksonville that month). It was far enough that an angle was written for Anderson & Gallows to debut on Dynamite to attack the Bucks & Kenny Omega and it seemed like a lock from AEW’s perspective they were coming. Then, WWE kept increasing its offer during the period they were throwing out enormous money to any talent with deals coming due. Anderson & Gallows ended up taking the WWE deal stating the money was too big to turn down and agreed to terms while in Japan for a tour where they teamed with Triple H at Sumo Hall, which was in June 2019. They agreed to their new deal right before they were to meet with Tony Khan in Jacksonville.
While Anderson & Gallows stated it was “water under the bridge” with The Young Bucks, they said other AEW executives were upset. In choosing to go with Impact Wrestling, one reason was that Impact came back with a similar offer from the year prior, which they categorized as a great deal.
They fully accepted they made the wrong decision staying with WWE and should have bet on themselves and gone elsewhere. One of the stories Anderson shared was that Paul Levesque urged them to stay and brought up his kids and asking if AEW would even survive.
They addressed the stories from Saudi Arabia last October and said they never believed they were in any danger, but it was a tense situation with numerous delays. They did back-up the story regarding Vince McMahon cutting the live feed of Crown Jewel stating they heard through a production source, who wouldn’t lie to them, that they heard that through the headset about cutting the feed. I don’t think there is much doubt this occurred as there is evidence of fans tweeting the broadcasting that day asking why the show had not begun airing with Anderson & Gallows as the latest sources to back that up. The next question is whether that conflict had anything to do with the delays or if they were two separate incidents with the feed being cut and the mechanical issues delaying the talent, which led to SmackDown being re-booked. We may never get the true answer.
After signing their new deals, they believed the money they were making worked against them with others feeling they weren’t worth it for their placement on the card. This is a trait that has been pervasive in wrestling, and probably many industries, where the talent making the money gets the blame rather than the promoter that made the offer. Frankly, given the television contracts, what Anderson & Gallows were making was not unreasonable at all with talent underpaid greatly when you factor in the revenue WWE makes versus the guaranteed money for performers.
They knew it was a bad sign when they were asked to both lose to Drew McIntyre back-to-back on the January 27th episode of Raw.
Then, we get into the cuts from April and Anderson & Gallows being part of them. Anderson took it harder stating he felt embarrassed to be named on the list and felt uncomfortable even being outside thinking his neighbors knew he had been let go and said he was very angry while Gallows was already working on ideas for the two of them.
They blamed Paul Heyman for their release adding that’s why AJ Styles recently called him a “bold-face liar”. Anderson & Gallows heard that Heyman influenced the decision and Styles confronted Heyman, who denied that. Styles went to Vince McMahon, who said Gallows & Anderson were not on his list but Heyman pushed it. Therefore, Styles didn’t want to work on Raw with Heyman and was moved to SmackDown. This has gained the greatest traction from the interview and I think most see it for what it is. There is zero chance Anderson or Gallows are being let go unless Vince McMahon makes that call. Heyman may or may not have pushed for their releases, but they only get cut if McMahon takes Heyman’s advice and signs off on it. Given how Anderson & Gallows just got cut from five-year deals that didn’t even last through year one, you can’t predict what the future holds including the potential of ever working for WWE again, so it doesn’t do them any favors to tear down McMahon or Paul Levesque for that reason. Anderson added they haven’t heard from Levesque since their release.
They signed a two-year deal with Impact, and they will work around their dates in New Japan once they are cleared to travel to Japan.
**The appearances during the Slammiversary card included the Motor City Machine Guns, Heath Miller (identified only as “Heath”), Eric Young, and the show closed with a video of EC3 throwing a glass against the wall and seems to be the heavily pushed star of the incoming talent. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows appeared after the main event to fight off Ace Austin & Madman Fulton and drank beer with new champion Eddie Edwards. The best match of the show for me was the Knockout’s title match between Jordynne Grace and Deonna Purrazzo, which was a solid fifteen minutes focused around Purrazzo attacking Grace’s arm to limit her power and Grace selling it tremendously.
**The Motor City Machine Guns will challenge Ethan Page & Josh Alexander for the tag titles this Tuesday on Impact, which is a big match for the show. The Machine Guns had a strong opener against Dez & Wentz, although many of the matches are hurt with the atmosphere and this would have been that much better with the pop the Machine Guns would have returning paired with a strong match. It was Chris Sabin’s first match since tearing his ACL in January 2019.
**Impact announced that Bound for Glory will take place on Saturday, October 24th, so they are sticking with the Saturday night formula. I don’t know if it’s a positive or not given Impact has a specific niche audience buying these shows and for them, the night probably doesn’t matter. In terms of growing the audience, Saturday is a more competitive night with college sports and the UFC but who knows what the sports landscape will look like this October.
**Joey Ryan (Joseph Meehan) has broken his silence since a slew of allegations were made against them during the Speaking Out movement. He spent close to an hour addressing all the claims, which he had been advised previously not to address from his attorney. Meehan said that since no legal action is being taken, he was opting to address the allegations and present his evidence. Meehan said at the start of the video that he has never had sex with a woman without her consent, that he has never acted criminally towards a woman, and has never acted criminally with sex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faXJHHMqzpU
**Tonight, WWE presents “The Horror Show at Extreme Rules” from the WWE Performance Center and is built around an Eye for an Eye Match between Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio with the promise of someone’s eye being extracted. It’s one of the most ridiculous stipulations WWE has ever presented like Kane promising to light himself on fire if he didn’t win the WWF title from Steve Austin in 1998. It’s being done for shock value and there is probably some curiosity to see how ridiculous this comes off. The real interest is whether this is designed as a write-off for Rey Mysterio, who has been working without a contract, or if he’s staying. The outcome should make that evident and would seem like a match to end the show with given its level of promotion and leaving people with a cliff hanger to watch Raw and see the fallout.
On paper, it doesn’t sound like a great show with a cold title match involving Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. They have not announced a stipulation but the last thing I want is anything involving more weapons in an empty arena. They could literally get away with Ziggler choosing an elaborate match and McIntyre pinning him with the Claymore in ten-seconds just like Heath Slater.
The match that looks most promising is Asuka vs. Sasha Banks and that could be great. A few weeks ago, I would have thought this closes the show – and given the anniversary of the women’s evolution they have promoted all week, it still might, but it feels like the Eye for an Eye match has overshadowed everything on this card. Plus, I don’t know how you transition to another match after witnessing an eye extraction.
Here is the full card with the kickoff show beginning at 6 pm Eastern on the WWE Network:
*Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE title
*Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt in a non-title Wyatt Swamp Fight
*Asuka vs. Sasha Banks for the Raw women’s title
*Bayley vs. Nikki Cross for the SmackDown women’s title
*Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio in an Eye for an Eye Match
*New Day vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro in a Tables Match for the SmackDown tag titles
*Apollo Crews vs. MVP for the United States title
**A correction from Rewind-A-SmackDown, the promo that advertised “15 Years in the Making” was for FS1’s airing of SummerSlam 2016 this Tuesday featuring Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar and was not a promo for Orton vs. Big Show this Monday.
**The second episode of USA Network’s “Cannonball” hosted by The Miz averaged 592,000 viewers and a 0.21 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
PAY-PER-VIEW REWIND
WWE Extreme Rules 2019
Sunday, July 14th
*Shinsuke Nakamura over Finn Balor to win the Intercontinental title
*Drew Gulak over Tony Nese to retain the Cruiserweight title
*The Undertaker & Roman Reigns over Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre
*The Revival over The Usos to retain the Raw tag titles
*Aleister Black over Cesaro
*Bayley over Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross in a handicap match to keep the SmackDown women’s title
*Braun Strowman over Bobby Lashley in a Last Man Standing Match
*Big E. & Xavier Woods over Daniel Bryan & Rowan and Heavy Machinery to win the SmackDown tag titles
*AJ Styles over Ricochet to win the United States title
*Kevin Owens over Dolph Ziggler
*Kofi Kingston over Samoa Joe to retain the WWE title
*Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch over Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans in a Winner Take All Match for the Universal title & Raw women’s title
*Brock Lesnar over Seth Rollins to win the Universal title after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase
MMA NEWS
**We have a full report on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card courtesy of Eric Marcotte. In the main event, Deiveson Figueiredo stopped Joseph Benavidez at 4:48 of the first round to officially become the UFC flyweight champion. Figueiredo defeated Benavidez this past February but he missed weight and the title was only on the line for Benavidez. This was a tough loss for Benavidez, who is unlikely to get back to a championship title shot in the UFC after years of being the #2 flyweight in the world behind Demetrious Johnson.
**During the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White stated the middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa isn’t completed yet but they are targeting that fight for September 19th. When asked the location for that card, White said it would probably be in Abu Dhabi. Combate was the first to report that the fight was happening on that date.
**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Rafael Fiziev vs. Marc Diakiese while the Performance of the Night bonuses went to Ariane Lipski and Deivson Figueiredo.
**They have one more Fight Night card scheduled for Abu Dhabi next Saturday with a pretty strong television card headlined by Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till.
**After his loss to Joel Alvarez, Joseph Duffy announced his retirement at the age of 32. Duffy’s most famous victory was in November 2010 where he submitted Conor McGregor in Cage Warriors, which later became a big deal when McGregor exploded. After going 12-1, he joined the UFC in 2015 defeating Jake Lindsey at UFC 185. After losing to James Vick in November 2017, he didn’t fight for over a year and returned in March 2019 dropping a decision to Marc Diakiese before this loss to Alvarez.
*****
IMPACT SLAMMIVERSARY POST SHOW
John Pollock is joined by Nate Milton and Davie Portman for a review of Impact Wrestling’s Slammiversary pay-per-view as they crowned a new Impact champion and had multiple surprises.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/19/impact-slammiversary-post-show/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 7/17/20: Bro-Home Show, AEW/NXT, Horror Show Preview
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown, discuss the AEW vs. NXT ratings, the NY Times covers Hana Kimura and a preview of Sunday’s Extreme Rules.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/39443878
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 7/15/20: Fight for the Fallen
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Fight for the Fallen with Jon Moxley vs. Brian Cage. Plus, a discussion on this week’s Raw numbers, Tony Khan’s media interviews, and a preview of Impact Slammiversary.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/16/rewind-a-dynamite-7-15-20-fight-for-the-fallen-18-49-demos-slammiversary/
*****
upNXT 7/15/20: “Nox County”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review this week’s WWE NXT featuring Tegan Nox vs. Io Shirai for the NXT Women’s Championship, and a Winner Takes All DOUBLE Championship match between Dominik Dijakovic and Keith Lee.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/16/upnxt-7-15-20-nox-county/
*****
upNXT: Best Match Ever – New Japan Cup 2020
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman present a free edition of “Best Match Ever” as they revisit the top matches of the New Japan Cup 2020!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/15/upnxt-best-match-ever-new-japan-cup-2020/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW – Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Wai Ting & John Pollock conclude their two-year look back at the Marvel Cinematic Universe by reviewing its 23rd film, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). Plus, we announce our next film review series and the debut of a brand new t-shirt.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/14/post-movie-review-spider-man-far-from-home-2019/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/13/20: Eye For An Eye, Kevin Owens, UFC 251 Buys
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE Raw and the Night of Grudge Matches, Kevin Owens speaking on WWE’s mask policy, and reports on the UFC 251 buys.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/14/rewind-a-raw-7-13-20-eye-for-an-eye-kevin-owens-ufc-251-buys/
*****
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