POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are LIVE tonight at 10:15 pm ET for Rewind-A-SmackDown, which is available to all members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will be reviewing Friday Night SmackDown and go through the Hard to Kill line-up for Saturday. Plus, we will have lots of time for calls at the end of the show.
**On Saturday night, Davie Portman will be joined by Andrew Thompson and Nate Milton for the Hard to Kill POST Show as they review Saturday’s pay-per-view card from Nashville, Tennessee.
**Wai Ting and WH Park are doing a new Patreon series for POST Wrestling Café members recapping WandaVision, which premiered Friday on Disney+. Their first review show will be released this Sunday for Café members. Café access starts at $6 U.S. per month and gives you access to all our bonus content including our entire archive going back to December 2017.
**The latest POST Puroresu has been released with WH Park and I discussing the fallout from Wrestle Kingdom 15, Kota Ibushi’s ascension, the New Beginning line-ups, the state of emergency issued, Suwama’s Triple Crown reign, NOAH’s Budokan Hall card, and the usage of Keiji Muto, the latest on Stardom and lots of other topics.
**Martin Bushby & Benno are joined by JP Houlihan on the latest British Wrestling Experience chatting Christmas, NXT UK, WALTER vs. A-Kid, the debut of Ben Carter, ROH parting ways with Marty Scurll, a game of “Likely or Unlikely” for 2021, and a scathing promo by Martin against a member of the POST family.
**If you missed it, the Worst of 2020 Show is now available for everyone with the panel of Wai Ting, Davie Portman, Braden Herrington and yours truly going through sixteen categories outlining the worst that 2020 had to offer.
**On Monday, MMA reporter Mike Bohn will return for a chat about the first of three UFC cards in Abu Dhabi and a look towards UFC 257. Mike is currently in Abu Dhabi on Yas Island to cover the events for MMA Junkie.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Patrons)
Saturday: Hard to Kill POST Show with Davie Portman, Andrew Thompson & Nate Milton
Sunday: WandaVision Ep. 1 & 2 with Wai Ting & WH Park (Patreon)
Monday: MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn joins us from UFC Fight Island
WRESTLING NEWS
**Here are the matches and segments announced for tonight’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown at 8 pm ET on Fox:
*A contract signing between Roman Reigns and Adam Pearce
*Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jey Uso
*King Corbin vs. Rey Mysterio
**On 205 Live tonight, they will have two matches in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with the following airing at 10 pm eastern on the WWE Network:
*Drake Maverick & Killian Dane vs. Curt Stallion & August Grey
*The Bollywood Boyz vs. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza
**Below is the line-up for tonight’s edition of NJPW Strong airing at 10 pm eastern on New Japan World:
*KENTA, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. ACH, Blake Christian & Fred Rosser
*TJP vs. Adrian Quest
*Misterioso vs. Barrett Brown
**The new date WWE has listed internally for WrestleMania 37 is Sunday, April 11th. The news was first reported by Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful with the new date scheduled for two weeks after its originally advertised date of Sunday, March 28th.
**In another WWE pay-per-view update, Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reports that Elimination Chamber will take place Sunday, February 21st. This would be three weeks after the Royal Rumble.
**IMPACT announced on Friday to Alex Shelley is off of the Hard to Kill pay-per-view due to “unavoidable circumstances” that prohibited Shelley from being able to travel to Nashville. Moose will replace Shelley and will team with Rich Swann & Chris Sabin against Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers. The pre-show will air at 7 pm ET on AXS TV and online with the pay-per-view beginning at 8 with the following card:
*Six-Man Tag Main Event: Rich Swann, Moose & Chris Sabin vs. Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers
*Knockouts Championship: Deonna Purrazzo (champion) vs. Taya Valkyrie
*Knockouts Tag Team Championship Finals: Havok & Nevaeh vs. Tasha Steelz & Kiera Hogan
*X-Division Championship: Manik (champion) vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju
*Old School Rules: Eric Young, Deaner & Joe Doering vs. Tommy Dreamer, Rhino & Cousin Jake
*Barbed-Wire Massacre: Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Edwards
*Mixed-Tag Match: Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb vs. Rosemary & Crazzy Steve
*Ethan Page vs. Karate Man
*Pre-Show Match: Josh Alexander vs. Brian Myers
**WWE will release its next earnings report on Thursday, February 4th with a breakdown of their Q4 and year-end 2020 results. It is expected that WWE will post their most profitable year ever given their ability to maintain their television commitments and the revenue associated, as well as drastic savings from not touring and working out of central locations in Florida. The earnings call will take place at 5 pm ET that day with Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Nick Khan, and Kristina Salen on the call.
**In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that New Japan World hit 130,000 subscribers this month due to Wrestle Kingdom and is the platform’s highest number since launching in December 2014. This would not represent the most additional sign-ups for an event, as that record belongs to Wrestle Kingdom 12 in January 2018 that featured Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho adding 40,000 subs for that show.
**ROH ran a poll to determine the new challenger for Rush’s ROH championship and Shane Taylor received the most votes. The promotion has not announced a date or event for the championship match to take place yet.
**Matt Jones, who is the founder of Kentucky Sports Radio and part of the new OVW ownership group, will be a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight at 10 pm ET on HBO.
**AEW has added a match between Cody Rhodes and Peter Avalon for next week’s episode of Dynamite.
**To no one’s surprise, AEW has re-scheduled the February 24th edition of AEW Dynamite that was still listed for the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The company has rescheduled the show for September 15, 2021. Those with tickets can get a refund over the next thirty days or will have them honored if the show takes place on that day.
**The go-home episode of IMPACT this past Tuesday averaged 161,000 viewers and 0.05 in the 18-49 demographic prior to Hard to Kill.
**Stardom has a significant show this Sunday at Korakuen Hall with four championship matches on the card as they get closer to their Budokan Hall event in March. Below is the full card, which will be available on Stardom World:
*World of Stardom Championship: Utami Hayashishita (champion) vs. Maika
*Wonder of Stardom Championship: Giulia (champion) vs. Natsuko Tora
*Elimination Match: Bea Priestley & Saki Kashima vs. Mayu Iwatani & Ruaka vs. Syuri & Himeka vs. Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani
*Starlight Kid vs. Tam Nakano
*Konami vs. Natsupoi
*High-Speed Championship: AZM (champion) vs. Kaori Yoneyama
*Future of Stardom Championship: Saya Iida (champion) vs. Unagi Sayaka
**NJPW begins its Road to New Beginning tour on Sunday with three straight nights at Korakuen Hall. Due to the state of emergency in Tokyo, the cards have 6 pm start times and are limited to five matches per show with the following card on Sunday, streaming on New Japan World:
*Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. SHO & Master Wato
*Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shingo Takagi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito
*Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL, Dick Togo & Yujiro
*Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki vs. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Gedo & Jado
*Will Ospreay & The Great O-Khan vs. Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji
**Fight Network will be releasing a documentary on RJ City later this month.
**The “Filthy Island” edition of MLW Fusion will air Wednesday, February 17th. It’s MLW’s version of UFC Fight Island and has been advertised on Fusion for a few weeks with the date revealed this past week.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH will have English commentary available for its broadcast of their Budokan Hall show on Friday, February 12th. The team will consist of Mark Pickering and Stewart Fulton and is airing on FITE TV and Wrestle Universe. The show is headlined by Go Shiozaki defending the GHC title against Keiji Muto.
**Shane McMahon turns 51 today while Kelly Kelly (Barbara Blank) turns 34.
TELEVISION REVIEW
MLW Fusion (January 13)
*The major storyline is that Promociones Dorado has been sold by Salina de la Renta, who was in heavy debt. The episode was run by de la Renta and included the debut of Mil Muertes and ended with a graphic stating Promociones Dorado is a subsidiary of Azteca Underground Inc. The announcers were questioning who has purchased Promociones Dorado as a future reveal for the financial backer to appear.
*In the main event, Los Parks defeated Ross & Marshall Von Erich for the MLW tag titles with Tom Lawlor playing heel referee with the slow counting for the babyfaces and fast counts for the heels. There was so much happening during this match and felt very disjointed. The heel referee gimmick has long run its course for me. They did everything before beating the Von Erichs from Lawlor’s actions, LA Park Jr. emerging from under the ring, Salina using Mace (not the Retribution member), and multiple spears from LA Park before the ending.
*The debut of Mil Muertes was more notable for the role Brian Pillman Jr. was cast in, running away from Mil at the start of the match and losing in 3:26 to a flat liner called “Straight to Hell”. It was very one-sided, which it should have been for the introduction of a new character that will clearly be a heavily promoted one.
*In the opener, they had Low Ki maul Budd Heavy with a running forearm smash that dropped this guy in the corner in frightening fashion and won the match by stoppage in eight seconds.
*Next week’s episode features Jacob Fatu defending the MLW heavyweight title against ACH.
ON THIS DATE
*****
POST PURORESU: WK 15, New Beginning Cards, Shiozak-Muto
John Pollock & WH Park chat Wrestle Kingdom 15, New Beginning cards, Go Shiozaki vs. Keiji Muto, Stardom’s tenth-anniversary show & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/15/post-puroresu-wk-15-new-beginning-cards-shiozaki-muto/
*****
BWE: WALTER vs. A-Kid, Tyler Bate, Ben Carter, Marty Scurll, Likely-Unlikely
Martin & Benno are joined by JP Houlihan of GRAPPL Spotlight to talk about the past month in European wrestling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/14/bwe-walter-vs-a-kid-tyler-bate-ben-carter-marty-scurll-likely-unlikely/
*****
POST WRESTLING’S WORST OF 2020 SHOW
POST Wrestling’s John Pollock & Wai Ting and upNXT’s Braden Herrington & Davie Portman discuss the many lowlights of the past year in our Worst of 2020 Show.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/14/post-wrestlings-worst-of-2020-show/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 1/13/21: The Wai Ting Room
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite: “New Years Smash – Night 2” featuring Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage for the TNT title.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/14/rewind-a-dynamite-1-13-21-the-wai-ting-room/
*****
upNXT 1/13/21: The Little Rascalz
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the January 13th edition of WWE NXT featuring Undisputed Era vs Breezango in the First Round of the Dusty Classic and the debut of MSK (formerly known as The Rascalz).
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/14/upnxt-1-13-21-the-little-rascalz/
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, 205 Live, NXT UK, NJPW Strong and Main Event in 15 minutes on Shot in the Dark.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/13/shot-in-the-dark-w-cno-evil-1-13-21/
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Deonna Purrazzo
John Pollock is joined by IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo prior to her match with Taya Valkyrie at Hard to Kill
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/13/post-interview-impact-knockouts-champion-deonna-purrazzo/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 1/11/21: “Blinded by the Light”
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw involving the return of Triple H to fight Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre speaks about his positive COVID-19 case, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/12/rewind-a-raw-1-11-21-blinded-by-the-light/
*****
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