POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-Raw chatting tonight’s show from the ThunderDome. We will also discuss all the latest news including Drew McIntyre’s positive COVID news, SmackDown numbers, and more. The show is LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café at 11:15 pm eastern.
**POST Wrestling’s Worst of 2020 Show airs LIVE on Tuesday night at 8 pm eastern for all members of the POST Wrestling Café and upNXT Patrons. The panel will feature Wai Ting, Davie Portman, Braden Herrington, and myself as we go through 16 categories and focus on the very worst that 2020 had to offer. If you’re a Patron, you will be able to download the show late Tuesday night and it will be free for everyone else on Thursday.
**Andrew Thompson will be releasing an interview with O’Shay Edwards on Tuesday. There will be a written version here on the site and the video on Andrew Thompson Interviews.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (LIVE for Dbl Dbl+ Café members)
Tuesday: The Worst of 2020 Show with John, Wai, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman (LIVE at 8 pm ET for all Café members)
Tuesday: Andrew Thompson interviews O’Shay Edwards
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite (LIVE for Dbl Dbl+ Café members)
Wednesday: upNXT with Braden & Davie
Thursday: The British Wrestling Experience with guest JP Houlihan
Friday: POST Puroresu with Pollock & WH Park
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Café members)
Saturday: Hard to Kill POST Show with Davie, Nate Milton & Andrew Thompson
WRESTLING NEWS
**The major news today was WWE’s announcement that Drew McIntyre has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in quarantine. Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful Select is reporting that the latest outbreak of COVID cases affects most promotions with television citing talent from RAW, Friday Night SmackDown, AEW, and Impact Wrestling being affected by this latest round.
**WWE announced Monday afternoon that Drew McIntyre will address the audience on tonight’s show. Triple H is also scheduled to kick off the show at 8 pm eastern.
**RAW will have gigantic sports competition tonight with Ohio State playing Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Last year’s championship game involving Alabama and Clemson topped 24 million viewers, which is significantly more than any Monday Night Football would do.
**The second season of ‘Straight Up Steve Austin’ premieres immediately after RAW on the USA Network.
**Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,120,000 viewers this past Friday on Fox. The show did a 0.56 rating in the 18-49 demographic, trailing all of ABC and CBS’ programming for the night. SmackDown did a 0.31 with adults 18-34, which was #3 among network programming. This week’s figure was up 5.3 percent in viewers and increased 5.6 percent in the 18-49 demo. On cable, it was the news programs that dominated television with 14 of the top 15 programs. (Credit: Showbuzz Daily)
**In Canada, Friday Night SmackDown was the #2 sports program with 161,900 viewers and 74,400 in the 25-54 demographic airing on Sportsnet 360. The one-hour version of NXT was #5 with 57,300 viewers and 27,500 in the key demo. The Toronto Raptors vs. Sacramento Kings game on TSN was the top sports program for the night in the country.
**Brian Schwartz of CNBC reported over the weekend that one of the groups that were instrumental in organizing Wednesday’s events in D.C. received a donation in 2019 from America First Policies, chaired by Linda McMahon. Schwartz uncovered a 2019 disclosure form from America First indicating the McMahon led Super PAC donated $25,000 to Women for America First, who were key organizers for Wednesday’s rally that escalated into an attack on the Capitol with several fatalities. The CNBC article states that America First was not involved with the planning of the rally.
**The IP battle between Anthem Sports and Jeff Jarrett appears to be over as the sides have informed the Tennessee federal judge that a settlement has been reached and the two sides appear to be moving on.
**Kenny Omega and Don Callis will appear on Tuesday’s episode of IMPACT, which is the go-home show for Hard to Kill this Saturday. IMPACT is advertising the following line-up for Tuesday’s show on AXS TV at 8 pm eastern:
*Rich Swann vs. Karl Anderson in a non-title match
*Taya Valkyrie vs. Kimber Lee
*Tommy Dreamer vs. Cody Deaner
*Rosemary vs. Tenille Dashwood
**La Rosa Negra and her manager Albert “A.C.” Smooth recently spoke on the Duke Loves Rasslin podcast about her incident with Tessa Blanchard in 2017 in Japan. The performer stated the accusations made against Blanchard are “100 percent true” and included La Rosa Negra stating she was spit at, called racist terms, and was insulted with the fallout costing La Rosa Negra an opportunity in Japan. The accusations are addressed on the show by La Rosa Negra at the 10:46 mark and her manager said she is not addressing this story any longer, she forgives Blanchard and hopes Blanchard will issue an apology.
**Jeff Hardy spoke with Metro in the U.K. about his reaction to Matt Hardy’s fall at All Out during the Broken Rules match with Sammy Guevara and also spoke of the back pain he has experienced since the Symphony of Destruction match with Elias.
**The WWE stock dropped by 2 percent on Monday and closed at $47.25.
**Last Thursday’s episode of Total Bellas averaged 426,000 viewers and a 0.20 in the 18-49 demographic, which was 53rd for the night on cable. It was their highest audience of the season after a two-week hiatus for Christmas and New Year’s.
**MLW is promoting the debut of Mil Muertes on this Wednesday’s edition of MLW Fusion after teasing it for several weeks. Muertes, who was featured throughout Lucha Underground’s tenure, will be introduced by Salina de la Renta. On the same show, Marshall & Ross Von Erich defend the MLW tag titles against Los Parks with Tom Lawlor as the special referee. The show airs at 7 pm eastern on Fubo Sports and the MLW YouTube channel.
**A match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Jey Uso has been added to Friday Night SmackDown this week. One of the main points from Friday’s episode was the apparent turn by Nakamura throughout the gauntlet match and this match would indicate Nakamura being linked to the main event picture.
**AEW’s next live edition of Dynamite at Daily’s Place will be on Wednesday, January 20th. This week’s show is a taped edition.
**A book and magazine shop inside Tokyo Dome City, is shutting down as a result of the pandemic. The store, which I visited in Japan last year, was full of pro wrestling magazines and books that were overwhelming if you’re seeing it for the first time. It was very popular among tourists who traveled to Japan for pro wrestling and was just a few minutes away from Korakuen Hall and the Tokyo Dome.
**AEW will release a new “Road to” episode tonight at 7 pm eastern to promote Wednesday’s New Year’s Smash episode.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH has updated its card for February 12th at Budokan Hall with the following matches listed:
*GHC Heavyweight Championship: Go Shiozaki (champion) vs. Keiji Muto
*GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: Daisuke Harada (champion) vs. Seiki Yoshioka
*Naomichi Marufuji & Jun Akiyama vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura
**The new Being the Elite episode is called “The Band is Back Together” and is almost forty minutes.
MMA NEWS
**UFC president Dana White did a lengthy sit-down interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto about UFC 257 and 2021. Below are some highlights:
*He wants to see Conor McGregor focus on MMA this year as opposed to a potential boxing fight with Manny Pacquiao. He believes the timing is right as McGregor is 32 years old and would love to see him fight 2-3 times in 2021.
*White and McGregor were not in a good place when McGregor released their private text conversations involving Diego Sanchez. White spoke with Sanchez in person and now things are good between McGregor and him.
*They are “kicking the tires” on running events in other locations mentioning Florida and Texas as possibilities but right now he’s focused on cards for Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas. White added he won’t run a building with fans unless they can sell it out, which would mean he’s avoiding situations with limited capacity. Although, the shows this month at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi will not be full capacity.
*White is hopeful that Khabib Nurmagomedov fights again but has money “beyond belief” and will never have to work again. They are set to meet and will press him to fight one more time. It will be their first face-to-face meeting since Nurmagomedov fought Justin Gaethje in October. He is not sure what day they are meeting on Fight Island.
*There is no chance of McGregor vs. Poirier being changed to a title fight regardless of Nurmagomedov’s decision regarding his future.
*White spoke with Jon Jones on Christmas Day and it was a great conversation.
*He said they have never had more subscribers for UFC Fight Pass and will have Dana White’s Contender Series and Ultimate Fighter this summer while looking to add more regional events to the streaming service.
**Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie is in Abu Dhabi for the next slate of UFC shows. He spoke with featherweight Calvin Kattar prior to his main event with Max Holloway this Saturday that airs on ABC (in a trivia note, Kattar also fought on the undercard of Elite XC’s first card on CBS in May 2008). Kattar believes if he beats the former champion, he should be next in line for Alexander Volkanovski. Kattar is coming off wins against Jeremy Stephens and Dan Ige in 2020 and has won four of his last five fights.
**Here is the line-up for Saturday’s card from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi:
MAIN CARD (3 pm ET on ABC, ESPN+)
*Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar
*Carlos Condit vs. Matt Brown
*Li Jingliang vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
*Joaquin Buckley vs. Alessio Di Chirico
*Punahele Soriano vs. Dusko Todorovic
PRELIMINARY CARD (Noon on ESPN+)
*Phil Hawes vs. Nassourdine Imavov
*Wu Yanan vs. Joselyne Edwards
*Tom Breese vs. Omari Akhmedov
*Carlos Felipe vs. Justin Tafa
*Ramazan Emeev vs. David Zawada
*Vanessa Melo vs. Sarah Moras
*Jacob Kilburn vs. Austin Lingo
**In Canada, TSN3 and TSN5 will air the UFC prelims at 1 pm eastern and the main card at 3 on Saturday afternoon. They will also air the UFC post-show at approximately 6 pm following the card on TSN.ca and the TSN app.
ON THIS DATE
*****
TOTAL RECALL: Total Bellas Season 6, Ep. 5 & 6
Wai Ting and Pauline review Total Bellas Season 6, Episodes 5 & 6: Nikki & Brie are forced to separate before the end of their pregnancies; Kathy’s ongoing facial paralysis leads to a shocking diagnosis.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/46066209
*****
THE LONG & WINDING ROYAL ROAD: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama
WH Park and Ed Kody from the Pod Van Dam podcast discuss a very important match for Jun Akiyama as he takes on former mentor and now rival, Mitsuharu Misawa from February 27, 2000.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/10/lwrr-7-mitsuharu-misawa-vs-jun-akiyama-2-27-00-w-ed-kody/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 1/8/21: No. 1 Contender Gauntlet Match
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown featuring a Gauntlet Match to determine Roman Reigns’ challenger. Plus, Japan issues a state of emergency, AEW/NXT ratings, and more.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/45992087
*****
upNXT: Best Match Ever – Brodie Lee
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman look back at the career of Brodie Lee/Luke Harper in this free edition of Best Match Ever.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/08/upnxt-best-match-ever-brodie-lee/
*****
THE 2021 MMA PREDICTION SHOW with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani
John Pollock is joined by ESPN’s Ariel Helwani for The 2021 MMA Prediction Show as they play “Likely or Unlikely” for the new year.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/07/the-2021-mma-prediction-show-with-espns-ariel-helwani/
*****
upNXT 1/6/21: New Year’s Evil
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT’s New Year’s Evil headlined by Finn Balor vs Kyle O’Reilly for the NXT Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/07/upnxt-1-6-21-new-years-evil/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 1/6/21: Omega vs. Fenix, Bullet Club Reunion
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the first AEW Dynamite of 2021: “New Years Smash – Night 1” featuring Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix and a Bullet Club reunion.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/06/rewind-a-dynamite-1-6-21-omega-vs-fenix-bullet-club-reunion/
*****
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 POST Show (Night 2)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 (Night 2) headlined by Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White and Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/45852659
*****
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