POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live tonight at 10:15 pm ET with Wai Ting and myself. We will be live for our Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café and then, the podcast version will be out Thursday morning. We will chat about all the latest news involving WrestleMania tickets, the capacity at Raymond James Stadium, Raw ratings, and a review of AEW Dynamite.
**A new edition of upNXT will be out tonight with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman going live at 10:15 pm ET at Twitch.tv/upNXTpodcast.
**The latest Rewind-A-Wai show covers EVOLVE 1 from January 2010 featuring Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi and many future stars including Ricochet, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Johnny Gargano, and Chris Dickinson. We dive into the idea behind EVOLVE, what worked and didn’t, Gabe Sapolsky’s exit from ROH in 2008, the win-loss records, backstage segments, production elements, and a look at the major news items from that week in 2010. This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer and “Shot in the Dark” host John Siino, who joined us for a segment. This is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**To accompany our Rewind-A-Wai review of EVOLVE 1, we have a Q&A on the site with broadcaster Lenny Leonard discussing that first event in the promotion’s history from January 2010.
**The Wellness Policy returns on Thursday with Wai Ting & Jordan Goodman and will stream live at 3 pm ET for all POST Wrestling Café members.
**Later this week, POST’s book reviewer Brandon Sears will have a review of John Arezzi’s new book Mat Memories which is co-authored by Greg Oliver and available soon from ECW Press.
**We will have another Q&A on the site this week with author and historian Tim Hornbaker to discuss his book Master of the Ring covering the career and life of Buddy Rogers.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (10:15 pm ET for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
Tonight: upNXT with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington (upNXT feed)
Thursday: The Wellness Policy with Wai Ting & Jordan Goodman (LIVE at 3 pm ET for all Patrons)
Thursday: The BWE Roundtable: “Sting” with Martin Bushby, Nate Milton & Kris from L.A.
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (10:15 pm ET for all Patrons)
Saturday: The Falcon & The Winter Soldier with Wai Ting & WH Park (Patreon)
Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate Milton (“Moana”)
Sunday: WWE Fastlane POST Show with John & Wai (LIVE immediately afterward for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
WRESTLING NEWS
**AEW Dynamite is a taped episode tonight at 8 pm ET on TNT from Daily’s Place with the St. Patrick’s Day Slam edition of the show featuring:
*Unsanctioned Lights Out Match: Dr. Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa
*Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. The Good Brothers
*Cody Rhodes vs. Penta El Zero Miedo
*Matt Hardy, Private Party, The Butcher & The Blade vs. Jurassic Express & Bear Country
*Rey Fenix vs. Angelico
*Jade Cargill in action
*Christian Cage speaks
*Tony Schiavone interviews Darby Allin and Sting
**Tony Khan revealed on IMPACT that Cody and Penta El Zero Miedo will open the show.
**Below are the matches that have been advertised for NXT tonight, however, it was reported this past week that changes are expected for tonight’s show after fearing another outbreak:
*Dexter Lumis vs. Austin Theory
*LA Knight in action
*Jordan Devlin to appear
They were originally advertising Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Leon Ruff, and Imperium vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher but have not mentioned those matches through their ads on Twitter and it’s unknown if those matches will occur tonight.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion airing at 7 pm ET on Fubo Sports and the MLW YouTube channel:
*MLW World Tag Team Championship: Los Parks (champions) vs. Jordan Oliver & Myron Reed
*Mil Muertes vs. Parrow
*TJP vs. Bu Ku Dao
*Lio Rush vs. TBA
*Azteca Underground Expose with Alicia Atout
**IMPACT Wrestling’s next event on their streaming service will be “Hardcore Justice” on Saturday, April 10th with the storyline that Tommy Dreamer is the commissioner for one night and booking the card. Earlier today, I heard from one official at IMPACT stating the start time would be 8 pm ET and thus, placing it against the first night of WrestleMania. Later in the day, I was told by a separate person in the company that other options are being discussed, so it’s possible the start time could change. As of Wednesday afternoon, they were discussing a potential Noon ET start time but that is not confirmed yet.
**Paul Wight was a guest on Talk is Jericho discussing his exit from WWE and problems he had with the company’s view of how they wanted to use Wight. He repeated the story he shared on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, that he was told by someone high up in the company five years ago that he would never headline another WrestleMania or pay-per-view and was strictly going to put over younger talent. In this interview he spoke about his final appearance on WWE programming this past January on Legends Night where he was embarrassed by Randy Orton without any comeback:
I needed a restart, after the last Raw (Legends Night) it was absolutely horrendous. I was going through contract negotiations then, so sometimes when you’re going through contract negotiations with them, they try to, lack of a better term they’ll try to make things more awkward, difficult or to prove a point. It’s part of the psychology of the game, you know what I mean? So, they wanted Randy Orton to pie-face me into a chair, which basically pushed me in the face and knocked me down and then I’m supposed to just sit there in the chair and take it, and I’m like, “Well, he’s not going to shove me on my ass” no disrespect to Randy but Randy knows he couldn’t do it if I didn’t want him to, you know?
So, to do something quarterly, yeah Randy can put his hand on my chest, and I’ll sit down because I’m not going to fight Randy because he’s trying to get in my head. You can always do that story even though it’s the wrong story to tell with me. I mean Randy put his hands on me and as a giant I should have knocked him the hell out in the hallway, that would have been good business but then to go to the ring and sit on the ramp or the stage with Hogan and Flair and Booker was out there, a lot of Hall of Famers and Legends, they’re really trying to shove me down the road because, yeah, they want to use my notoriety to do community work, do overseas media, to do all that stuff, they’re taking my passion away from me, they were taking wrestling away from me. To sit there on the ramp and then, you know, get called a “has been” while I sit there and watch a match, it’s just – you talk so much about legends and respect for legends and respect for Hall of Famers but, like, anytime a Hall of Famer is around they get run into the ground. That’s one of those things where that machine is always moving forward and any blood, they can get out of whatever stone it is they are going to get that last drop until there’s nothing left for anyone. The talent doesn’t have anything left, the fans don’t have anything left for them and for me, that was just the icing on the cake and I was like, “I need to restart, I need to rebrand myself”.
Wight also shared an idea he pitched and had lined up for Justin Bieber to do a six-man tag match at SummerSlam several years ago, but WWE was resistant to the idea. Based on Wight’s description it sounds like this would have been in 2014, which was the year Cena was annihilated by Brock Lesnar in the main event at the Staples Center:
Years ago, I had worked out for one of the SummerSlams in L.A., I had worked out with a real good friend who was working with Scooter Braun and Justin Bieber. It was going to be John Cena, the Big Show & Justin Bieber against The Wyatts at SummerSlam. Bieber was on board, he was excited, he wanted to work out with John and I, this was a really, really big deal. This was when the app first came out and all that other crap, you know? And then one of the people that are making decisions said, “I don’t know see how Justin Bieber is going to relate to our audience”. And it’s like, does anyone not see the amount of eyes that Justin Bieber would bring to that match? I think WWE offered to help promote his album or something, it’s like you’re dealing with Scooter Braun, Scooter Braun is all about cash and they jacked Scooter around for two weeks and he was like, “listen, it’s not going to happen, I got the kid a million dollars to go watch a soccer game, they’re flying him down on a private jet”.
**IMPACT Wrestling averaged 146,000 viewers and did a 0.04 in the 18-49 demographic on AXS TV Tuesday night. It was basically identical to last week’s figure of 144,000 and 0.04.
**NBC’s Young Rock finished with 2,955,000 viewers and a 0.63 in the 18-49 demographic, so it just inched past last week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown in the key demo. For the night, Young Rock finished fourth behind CBS’ NCIS and FBI and This Is Us on NBC in the 18-49 demo.
**Fightful Select reports that Charly Caruso (Charly Arnolt) has been taken off WWE programming for the time being. The site reports that there were complaints about Caruso being late for scheduled interviews with talent on Raw. Fightful added that her contract is set to expire soon but it unknown what the status of her future will be. For the past two episodes of Raw Talk, Kevin Patrick has stepped in as the host with R-Truth in place of Caruso.
**The New Japan Cup has a show in Shizuoka on Thursday at 5:30 am ET and will feature English commentary. The two quarter-final matches feature SANADA vs. Will Ospreay and David Finlay vs. Jay White and the winners meet on Saturday. Ospreay and White would appear to be the favorites to advance with an outside chance that SANADA upsets Ospreay. In the other semi-final match, Shingo Takagi takes on EVIL on Saturday and the final is Sunday in Sendai.
**David Marquez has confirmed he won’t be returning to the NWA, explaining in a statement that he was not invited for the next set of shows:
I’d like to thank all the NWA fans who have included me in their enthusiasm for the return of Powerrr, I’m excited too, but I must admit that I will not be appearing on the upcoming episodes because I wasn’t invited back. It’s a great feeling that the brand and myself are so well associated. I became the NWA Missouri territory owner in 1997 and I’ve had the best of times (and the absolute worst) representing the promotion all over the globe. If this is my final exit from the company I extend a heart handshake and appreciation to everyone who has fought to keep this storied institution going and wish the current management continued success. I have many students, close friends and long time associates who deserve to benefit from the popularity of this program, especially my production protégé Billy Trask. He has a big task ahead of him that I know he will excel at. Of course I’m not done with pro wrestling, I’m actually busier than ever with 3 weekly United Wrestling Network series and NJPW production.
**The Hamilton Spectator has a story on Ethan Page and his recent debut for AEW. Page was interviewed for the story and it was noted in the piece that Page has signed a three-year deal with the promotion. Page was the surprise entrant in the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match at the Revolution pay-per-view earlier this month, which was won by Scorpio Sky.
**Tony Khan was interviewed by The Sporting News to promote tonight’s match between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa and discuss the state of the women’s division in AEW. Khan noted that Serena Deeb is out of action due to a knee injury and is also serving as a coach:
One of the really best things that’s happened to us this year has been Serena coming in as a coach. She’s a coach for us and hasn’t just coached women’s matches, she’s coached men’s matches on “Dynamite” and provided that insight and those ideas, so she works with people of all genders. She’s done big stars’ matches on TV, including Cody and Dustin and people like that and works the headset sitting in the chair next to me, while I time and oversee the show, so she’s a really valuable person on screen and off. She’s a great wrestler.
She’s dealing with a knee injury right now, unfortunately … but she’s very important to us on screen and off, and she’s our wrestler — she went to NWA and won the title. She’s really important, as Thunder Rosa from the NWA has been great, and been excellent.
We use Allysin Kay who had been in the NWA, she was a free agent. She’s great. And they have some good really good people there and they’re starting back up. It’s a great relationship for us and Thunder Rosa is one of our great wrestlers, who is their wrestler.
**Jordan Devlin will be defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Trent Seven on Thursday’s edition of NXT UK, which has a special start time of 4 pm ET.
**There will be live English commentary for the final three New Japan Cup shows. Kevin Kelly, Chris Charlton, and Gino Gambino will be calling the shows Thursday in Shizuoka, and Saturday & Sunday in Sendai.
**With UFC 261 becoming a much larger event with the news that it will feature a full capacity crowd in Jacksonville, and the addition of Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal it could have a negative effect on IMPACT’s Rebellion pay-per-view. The last time Usman and Masvidal fought it did a giant number on pay-per-view and I don’t see this card being far off with all the publicity the event will receive allowing a full arena of fans inside. If this was an average UFC pay-per-view I wouldn’t even concern myself over a small crossover but given it appears to be a large show and IMPACT is putting together its biggest pay-per-view match in years between Kenny Omega and Rich Swann, I think it’s a tougher night and even if the crossover is minor, I’d strongly consider at least moving the IMPACT pay-per-view up by one hour to 7 pm ET and finishing by 10 when the UFC card begins.
**Sean Waltman is launching a new podcast with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc. called Pro Wrestling 4 Life, which debuts on Thursday, April 1st. Waltman is aiming for an in-ring return around January 2022 and tells Justin Barrasso of SI.com that he would love to wrestle for WWE again:
I’d be psyched to have more matches in a WWE ring. If they’re not interested, there are a lot of other places putting on great matches, too.
**Michael Mansury, who served as WWE’s Vice President of Global Television Production until leaving last year, has launched a wrestling podcast with Mark Madden. The two are co-hosting a weekly show called The Best Wrestling Show and have produced three shows. Mansury worked for WWE from 2009 until last spring where he left to become an Executive Producer at Pat McAfee Inc.
**Jay Reso spoke with TSN.ca about his process of gaining clearance to return for the Royal Rumble, going to AEW, and spoke about his friendship with Adam Copeland:
No matter if we’re wrestling in the same company or not, we’re always going to be best friends. That’s never going to change, but we had our moment in the Royal Rumble. We got a chance to kind of have some closure there. At least there was that, but it’s also exciting to be able to branch out and do our own things, as well.
**The WWE stock closed at $56.57 on Wednesday.
**Keiji Muto’s next GHC Championship defense against Masa Kitamiya will take place on Thursday, April 29th in Nagoya at the Nagoya Congress Center. After Muto defeated Kaito Kiyomiya this past Sunday, he was confronted by Kitamiya and hit with a Saito suplex leaving Muto in the ring selling the impact.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH has a show this Sunday at Korakuen Hall featuring Kenoh defending the GHC National Championship against Kazuyuki Fujita, plus the GHC junior heavyweight tag titles will be defended by Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA against Daisuke Harada & Junta Miyawaki.
**Ring of Honor has announced that Jonathan Gresham will defend the ROH Pure Championship against Dak Draper at the 19th Anniversary pay-per-view on Friday, March 26th. The card now features seven matches being advertised.
**Stardom’s next major show is Sunday, April 4th at Yokohama Budokan headlined by Maika & Himeka defending the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles against Giulia & Syuri, Utami Hayashishita defending the World of Stardom title against Bea Priestley, and Tam Nakano defending the Wonder of Stardom title against Natsupoi.
**Tony Schiavone is developing a biographical comic covering his career called Butts in Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story. There is a Kickstarter campaign where the goal was set at $20,000 and they have already raised over $48,000 for the project.
**Eric Bischoff will be a guest on WWE’s After the Bell podcast on Thursday with Corey Graves and Vic Joseph.
**Natalya wrote about Davey Boy Smith being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in her column for The Calgary Sun.
MMA NEWS
**ESPN is reporting that Kelvin Gastelum is willing to step in and replace Paulo Costa against Robert Whittaker next month. Originally, Whittaker and Costa were scheduled to fight on April 17th, but Costa has withdrawn due to illness. Whittaker and Gastelum were supposed to fight in February 2019 but Whittaker was hospitalized the day of the fight.
**Carlos Costa, the brother & coach for Paulo Costa informed MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz that the fighter recently had COVID-19 followed by the flu and it’s taken time to rid himself of the flu. Costa continued to train, and the team just wanted to postpone the fight with Whittaker by “a week or two” but it appears that Gastelum will now fight Whittaker.
**Francis Ngannou has revealed that he will have UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, in his corner when he fights heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic later this month at UFC 260.
**Saturday’s UFC Fight Night is an ESPN+ show headlined by a middleweight fight between Derek Brunson and Kevin Holland. Holland went 5-0 in 2020 and was some people’s choice for Fighter of the Year given his frequency and success, more impressive is that he didn’t fight until May last year and still got five fights in. Brunson is a big test and won his previous three fights and with a win, Holland advances to the upper mix of 185 pounds but this is a tough fight for him. This card also sees Gregor Gillespie attempt to rebound from one of the most vicious knockouts of 2019 when he was stopped by a head kick from Kevin Lee. It was the first loss of Gillespie’s career and has not fought since that fight in November 2019. Gillespie’s opponent is Brad Riddell, who is 3-0 in the UFC and 9-1 overall.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tai Tuivasa vs. Harry Hunsucker this Saturday at UFC Fight Night (Nolan King at MMA Junkie)
Ben Rothwell vs. Philipe Lins at UFC Fight Night on May 8 (MMA Junkie)
Hakeem Dawodu vs. Movsar Evloev at UFC 263 on June 12 (MMA DNA)
ON THIS DATE
*****
DEEP IMPACT 3/16/21: “Shiny New Toy”
Davie Portman and John Siino review IMPACT Wrestling from March 16th 2021, featuring Trey Miguel vs Sami Callihan and an amazing promo segment between Rich Swann and Don Callis!
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #82: EVOLVE 1 – Richards vs. Ibushi (2010)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review EVOLVE 1 from January 16, 2010 featuring Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi. We discuss EVOLVE’s creation spearheaded by Gabe Sapolsky & Bryan Danielson and their desire to add realism to pro wrestling using win-loss records and a hard-hitting style.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 3/15/21: Lashley vs. McIntyre official, Strowman slimed
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw with the announcement of the WWE Championship Match at WrestleMania, COVID cases hit NXT, UFC 261 with full arena & lots more.
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Anthony Kingdom James, Promoter & Comic Writer
John Pollock is joined by Ontario independent wrestling promoter & comic book writer Anthony Kingdom James.
*****
REWAND-A-VISION: Assembled, Ithamar Enriquez, Falcon and Winter Soldier Primer
Wai Ting & WH Park are back for a bonus podcast covering Assembled: The Making of WandaVision, an interview with Westview’s “Commercial Man” Ithamar Enriquez, and a primer to get you ready for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
*****
L&WRR #9: Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue (12/6/96) w/ Brandon Thurston
Brandon Thurston from Wrestlenomics Radio joins WH Park on the Long & Winding Royal Road to talk about one of the greatest tag matches of all time: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue from the finals of the 1996 Real World Tag League.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 3/12/21: Reigns vs. Bryan Contract Signing, Andrade
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown featuring the Reigns vs. Bryan contract signing and an appearance from Edge. We also discuss Andrade’s request for release, AEW/NXT ratings, and more.
*****
POST PURORESU: Stardom Budokan Review, New Japan Cup
John Pollock & WH Park chat the New Japan Cup, May’s stadium shows, a review of Stardom’s Budokan Hall show, and preview Muto-Kiyomiya.
*****
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