POST IT NOTES
**Our busiest period of the year starts this weekend with our coverage of the G1 Climax. Wai Ting and I will be doing shows after each G1 show for members of the POST Wrestling Café. This begins with two shows this weekend following the A Block show on Saturday and the B Block event on Sunday in Osaka.
**In addition, Mark Buckeldee and Mike Murray will have written reports on the site after each show.
**We have an interview I conducted with author Keith Elliot Greenberg discussing his latest release “Too Sweet: Inside the Indie Wrestling Revolution”. We spoke about the research for the book, the rise of AEW, attending All In two years ago, and the impact of the Speaking Out movement & COVID-19 on the independent industry.
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-Raw to recap the latest news, preview the week coming up, and review Raw from the Amway Center tonight.
**On Tuesday, Andrew Thompson will have an interview posted with Marek Brave from the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy.
**On Friday, upNXT will be releasing a past edition of Best Match Ever that I joined them for as we discussed the career of Stan Hansen and some of his best matches. That will be available on the free POST Wrestling feed to coincide with upNXT launching their Patreon one year ago.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Andrew Thompson interviews Marek Brave
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai #70 – WCW Great American Bash 1990 (Patreon)
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
*Friday: Best Match Ever on Stan Hansen with Braden, Davie & John Pollock
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Patrons)
*Saturday: G1 Climax Day 1 Podcast (Patreon)
*Sunday: G1 Climax Day 2 Podcast (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s edition of Raw goes against the return of Monday Night Football with a doubleheader meaning that Raw will face the NFL for all three hours of the show. The program is being advertised with the tagline “In Your Face” and they are promoting the following matches:
*Drew McIntyre vs. Keith Lee in a non-title match
*Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio in a Steel Cage match
*Asuka vs. Mickie James for the Raw women’s title
*The Street Profits vs. Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura
**WWE has added a Women’s Tag Title Match to the Clash of Champions show with Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax vs. Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan on Sunday, September 27th.
**AEW is introducing a season pass for those attending Dynamite tapings at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. The pass will cover seven tapings beginning with the September 23rd taping and will cost $175 U.S. AEW states that the season pass will cover televised live events in September, October, and November.
**Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,329,000 viewers on Fox, its highest performance since April 3rd for the WrestleMania 36 go-home episode. The combination of Roman Reigns’ return and the fallout of Bayley’s attack on Sasha Banks would appear to be driving the popularity of the show. They finished with a 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic along with a 0.4 with 18-34s and a 0.9 with 25-54s. In the main demo, they tied ABC’s airing of 20/20 for first place among all network programming that evening. Friday night also featured back-to-back NBA playoff games on TNT that were the most-watched programs in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo for Friday.
**TSN in Canada has announced they will be carrying the extra one-hour edition of AEW Dynamite on Tuesday, September 22nd. AEW will return this Wednesday with a two-hour show with all the matches that were advertised last week. It was up in the air regarding what night Dynamite would air this week but with the NBA playoff schedule leaving no games on Wednesday, AEW will run on its traditional night this week.
**New Japan has released the dates for the Road to Power Struggle that immediately follows the G1 Climax. They will run ten shows beginning Friday, October 23rd and running until Thursday, November 5th. Power Struggle itself takes place from the Edion Arena in Osaka on Saturday, November 7th. The turnaround will be quick with the G1 ending on Sunday, October 18th.
**On Tuesday, it’s an interesting experiment launching with the United Wrestling Network’s first “Primetime Live” streaming pay-per-view. It’s an attempt to launch weekly pay-per-views in an era where the costs are lessened from a generation prior to when NWA TNA attempted this idea and struggled. The plan is for the UWN to run weekly shows on Tuesdays where the competition is significantly reduced and limited to Impact Wrestling. Their first show will be headlined by Nick Aldis vs. Mike Bennett for the NWA title with a price point on Fite TV of $7.99 U.S. or $23.99 for the bundle that covers the first four weeks of cards.
The shows are run by David Marquez and are being shot out of Thunder Studios in California with the group partnering with the NWA that will allow talent such as Aldis and Thunder Rosa to appear.
If this were 2002, you would scoff at the idea because there would be no way these shows could be monetarily successful, and that lesson was proven. Today, it’s still a tough concept to believe can succeed long-term given the multitude of options on the menu for wrestling fans. The key for this group is keeping costs low and that a small buying audience is enough to sustain these tapings. I’m curious how much attention this show receives on Tuesday night as I wouldn’t say the promotion has been overwhelming. For many, the idea of paying for more wrestling, especially during this climate is going to be a deal-breaker. I expect some curiosity for the first show and the fact they are advertising the shows as 90-minutes is a positive rather than presenting a show you must dedicate two or three hours to. For show one, the idea would be to leave them wanting more and return next week rather than a long show that delivers so much and you get your fill.
For the first week, they are advertising five matches with Aldis vs. Bennett, Alex Hammerstone vs. EJ Sparks, Kamille vs. Heather Monroe, Dan Joseph vs. Levi Shapiro for the UWN Television title, Chris Dickinson vs. Dicky Mayer, Will Allday vs. Chris Clearwater, and The Wolf Zaddies vs. Hawaiian Lion & The Navajo Warrior.
**Squared Circle Sirens, the site founded by the late Casey Michael, put out a notice on Monday that the site would cease operations as of today. They noted that the site was Michael’s creation and that the legacy of the site should rest with him. Squared Circle Sirens was a destination stop for the latest news on women’s wrestling through Michael’s reporting on female talent worldwide as well as frequently breaking news regarding NXT talent going for tryouts as he was plugged into the independent scenes at a high level. Michael had battled many health problems over the past few years and died last month at the age of 26.
**Miro, the former Rusev, appeared on Busted Open Radio and spoke about the decision to take a shot at WWE in his promo last Wednesday on Dynamite. He said he doesn’t want to speak about WWE anymore after getting that off his chest last week.
**Pat Laprade spoke with several Quebec-based independent wrestling promoters regarding the state of wrestling in the province. There have been no shows in Quebec since Saturday, March 14th and it’s the longest stretch without wrestling in the province since 1927.
**The GamerVev account reports that Lio Rush is expected to be part of the cast for the upcoming season of MTV’s The Challenge.
**Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT recently spoke with R-Truth on his lengthy career and his current role in WWE.
**Utami Hayashashita & Saya Kamitani will defend the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles against Maika & Himeka on the October 3rd card Stardom is holding at Yokohama Budokan. The show also features Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri for the World of Stardom title, Giulia vs. Tam Nakano for the Wonder of Stardom title, and AZM vs. Starlight Kid for the High Speed title.
**Josiah Williams, who launched Wrestle & Flow and later joined WWE, is releasing a new album called Thoughts in the Shadow that will be coming out Friday, October 2nd.
**Eddie Kingston cuts a promo about a cookie on Being the Elite today. The highlight is how they explain the Matt Sydal slip from the Casino Battle Royale and turn it into an angle. Brandon Cutler asked The Young Bucks to be in his corner for his match against Peter Avalon on AEW Dark Tuesday, and they accepted. It ends with an appearance by Megabyte Ronnie, who is a wrestler & competitive eater that wrestles on Dark tomorrow night.
**All Japan’s Champion Carnival tournament began over the weekend with shows on Saturday and Sunday. Zeus is the leader in Block A with four points followed by Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio & Suwama & Jake with two points each, and Kuma Arashi has zero points. The B Block is led by Shuji Ishikawa with four points, Yoshitatsu & Yuma Aoyagi have two points, and Kento Miyahara & Shotaro Ashino have zero. The Carnival continues on Tuesday with a show at Korakuen Hall featuring the following tournament matches:
*Suwama vs. Jake Lee – this is a big match in the block with the Triple Crown champion and one of the favorites to win the block or entire tournament
*Zeus vs. Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio
*Kento Miyahara vs. Shotaro Ashino
*Yoshitatsu vs. Yuma Aoyagi
**The WWE closed at $41.12 on Monday.
**Lance Storm and Bret Hart both have roles in the new season of the Corner Gas Animated series airing on the CTV Comedy Channel beginning October 12th.
**GCW’s For the Culture event has added a match between AJ Gray and Dezmond Xavier taking place on Friday, October 9th at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana.
**Alpha-1 is returning with another show on Sunday, October 18th in Oshawa, Ontario limited to 100 fans. The show will take place at the Moose Lodge at 731 Wilson Road South and will be an outdoor show.
MMA NEWS
**TMZ has published new photos of Conor McGregor speaking with police officers in France, which were said to have been taken last Friday in Corsica. This was one day prior to McGregor being detained and questioned over allegations of attempted sexual assault and sexual exhibitionism, which a rep for McGregor has denied took place. A complaint was filed last Thursday with a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office stating McGregor was arrested and released on Saturday. Emmanuelle Ramon, who is representing McGregor said that no charges have been filed against the fighter.
**U.S. President Donald Trump held an indoor rally on Sunday in Henderson, Nevada with UFC president Dana White and several fighters attending. Alongside White were Colby Covington, Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo, and manager Ali Abdelaziz.
The rally was heavily criticized for defying state orders by having so many people at an indoor venue and many seen without wearing masks. A spokesman for Trump defended their decision to assemble and stated there were temperature checks and hand sanitizer was provided.
Beyond the risk to the public at large, Covington is set to fight this weekend while Gaethje has the biggest fight of his career next month with Khabib Nurmagomedov, and White is set to travel to Abu Dhabi.
The criticism included the following tweets from Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak:
Tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada. Instead, he came into our State and blatantly disregarded the emergency directives and tough choices made to fight this pandemic and begin reopening our economy by hosting an indoor gathering that’s categorized as “high risk” according to his own CDC.
This is an insult to every Nevadan who has followed the directives, made sacrifices, and put their neighbors before themselves. It’s also a direct threat to all of the recent progress we’ve made, and could potentially set us back. As Governor, I have worked with public health and infectious disease specialists to create emergency directives to protect public health and get our economy back on track.
That means limiting gathering sizes, mandating face coverings and practicing social distancing. All of which the President recklessly disregarded for his own gain this weekend in Nevada. At a time when Nevada is focused on getting our economy back on track and protecting public health, the President’s actions this weekend are shameful, dangerous and irresponsible.
**After his speech, Trump spoke with Colby Covington and wished him luck in his fight against Tyron Woodley this Saturday in Las Vegas.
The #POTUS @realDonaldTrump will be tuned into @ESPN to watch me at #UFCVegas11 this Saturday night how about you snowflakes? pic.twitter.com/QB2z68McFa
— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) September 14, 2020
**On a recent show with guest Tim Kennedy, Joe Rogan said he would be willing to host a debate in his studio with President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Rogan said it would have to last several hours, air live, and with only the candidates and himself inside the studio. After Kennedy tweeted out the proposal, Trump responded by agreeing to the debate. While it’s highly unlikely it will happen, it’s now a major news story given Trump’s willingness to do it.
**Friday’s broadcast of Bellator 245 averaged 300,000 viewers on the Paramount Network. It finished 76th for the night on cable with a 0.10 in the 18-49 demographic for their second-to-final card on the network. Friday’s show was headlined by Phil Davis vs. Lyoto Machida in a rematch from UFC 163 in 2013.
**UFC president Dana White spoke after Saturday’s Fight Night and below are highlights from the Q&A:
*Hoping to make Zhang Weili vs. Rose Namajunas for the 115-pound title
*He ripped on referee Chris Tognoni’s officiating in the Mike Rodriguez vs. Ed Herman fight and made a mistake thinking it was a groin shot when it wasn’t and should have used instant replay, compared Tognoni to Steve Mazzagatti
*They aren’t trying to salvage Tony Ferguson vs. Dustin Poirier and are getting a new opponent for Ferguson at UFC 254
*Has spoken with Michael Chandler and likes him
*After the five Fight Island cards, they will finish the year in Las Vegas
*Doesn’t know enough about the Conor McGregor situation and has read what everyone else has
*Jon Jones was in Las Vegas but didn’t meet with him
*He spoke about Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, who was executed last week. White explained how he called President Donald Trump and did what he could to help him.
**The UFC will be holding a press conference this Thursday at 4 pm Eastern involving Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington prior to Saturday’s main event at the UFC APEX.
**Bellator is off for the remainder of September and will launch on the CBS Sports Network with a live event from Italy on Thursday, October 1st featuring Paul Daley vs. Derek Anderson. That is followed by a live card from France on Saturday, October 10th that airs at 11:30 am Eastern. While many are happy to see the shows live, it’s a small number of people that will be seeking out these shows and without prime-time replays, it’s going to minimize the audience. I remember years ago when GLORY kickboxing was airing on Spike TV and they aired a card from Europe live in the afternoon on a weekday and it did terribly because of the timeslot. Thursday at 4 pm ET and Saturday at 11:30 am will only service a small number of dedicated followers and miss the rest. International cards are not going to be the norm for Bellator, and it appears Thursday nights in primetime will be their focus and moving away from Saturday as their traditional night. Time will tell if that’s a better night for Bellator and what kind of promotional muscle CBS Sports Network can provide. Obviously, the hope is that Bellator can get a big card on CBS itself but for rank-and-file shows, it isn’t a larger platform than Paramount Network.
**Here is the line-up for Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series with results from Monday’s weigh-ins:
*Gregory Rodrigues (185.5) vs. Jordan Williams (181)
*Collin Anglin (145.5) vs. Muhammad Naimov (145)
*Korey Kuppe (170) vs. Michael Lombardo (168.5)
*Taneisha Tennant (143.5) vs. Danyelle Wolf (146)
*Dinis Paiva (145.5) vs. Kyle Driscoll (146)
**Invicta FC returns with a show Thursday night on Fight Pass. The card will feature six fights and is headlined by Ashley Cummins vs. Alesha Zappitella for the vacant Atomweight title.
**This Saturday is the UFC’s final card in Las Vegas before returning to Abu Dhabi for the next five shows. This weekend’s Fight Night card is loaded with the following line-up:
MAIN CARD
*Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington
*Donald Cerrone vs. Niko Price
*Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gerald Meerschaert
*Johnny Walker vs. Ryan Spann
*Randa Markos vs. Mackenzie Dern
*Kevin Holland vs. Darren Stewart
PRELIMINARY CARD
*Mirsad Bektic vs. Luiz Garagorri
*Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Mara Romero Borella
*Jordan Espinosa vs. David Dvorak
*Sarah Alpar vs. Jessica Rose-Clark
*Journey Newson vs. Randy Costa
*Andre Ewell vs. Irwin Rivera
*T.J. Laramie vs. Darrick Minner
ON THIS DATE
*****
POST PURORESU: G1 Climax 2020 Preview
John Pollock is joined WH Park for their monthly edition of POST Puroresu featuring previews of the G1 Climax, Champion Carnival, and N-1 Victory tournaments coming up.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/12/post-puroresu-g1-climax-2020-preview-champion-carnival-gleat/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: “Wobbly Dangerously”, AEW ratings, G1 cards
John Pollock and Wai Ting chat WWE SmackDown featuring the debut of Wobbly Walrus, plus AEW hits one million viewers, G1 line-ups, Hell in a Cell date change, WWE cuts & more.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/41516907
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 9/9/20: “Miro, Miro On The Wall”, G1 Climax Participants
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite following All Out, discuss Miro’s debut, WWE Raw ratings on Labor Day, and New Japan reveals the blocks for G1 Climax 30.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/10/rewind-a-dynamite-9-9-20-miro-miro-on-the-wall-g1-climax-participants/
*****
upNXT 9/8/20: “Super Twosday”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT’s Super Tuesday II featuring Finn Balor vs Adam Cole for the vacant NXT Championship, Mercedes Martinez vs Rhea Ripley in a Steel Cage Match, and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/09/upnxt-9-8-20-super-twosday/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Rocky II (1979)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Rocky II (1979) featuring a rematch between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. Written by, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/41389710
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 9/7/20: “The Locusts of Contempt”, Ivar Update
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with Retribution’s speech, an update on Ivar, more on WWE’s third party restrictions & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/08/rewind-a-raw-9-7-20-the-locusts-of-contempt-ivar-update/
*****
Browse the POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
