POST IT NOTES
**We are LIVE tonight at 10:15 pm ET with Rewind-A-Dynamite. Wai Ting and I will be reviewing AEW Dynamite, going through all the latest TV numbers, the news from the past few days, and taking your feedback. This show is LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**Wai Ting and I have released Rewind-A-Wai #84 covering the G1 Special from San Francisco at the Cow Palace in July 2018. The card is remembered for more of the unfortunate incidents than any of the matches. This was the show where Hiromu Takahashi suffered a broken neck during his match with Dragon Lee and kept Takahashi out of the ring for well over a year. We go through the card, Kenny Omega’s first defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship after ending Kazuchika Okada’s reign several weeks earlier, the fracturing of The Bullet Club, the problems with the guardrails and Josh Barnett confronting Jay White on the spot, and many other notes from this era.
**Braden Herrington & Davie Portman have the latest edition of upNXT available on the site chatting Tuesday’s show with the return of “Kool Kyle”, the debut of Sarray, and recapping upNXT Mania from last week.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (10:15 pm ET for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
Friday: WWE Q1 Earnings Analysis with John Pollock & Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics
Friday: IMPACT Rebellion Primer with Davie Portman & John Siino (upNXT feed)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with Wai & Kate from Montreal (10:15 pm ET for all Patrons)
Saturday: MCU L8R with Wai, WH Park & Nate Milton (Patreon)
Saturday: The Rocky Maivia Picture Show with Nate & Brian Mann (The Rock’s appearances on SNL)
Saturday: UFC 261 POST Show with John Pollock & Phil Chertok
Sunday: IMPACT Rebellion POST Show with Davie Portman & John Siino
WRESTLING NEWS
**Here are the lists of matches and segments advertised for tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite at 8 pm ET on TNT and TSN2 in Canada:
*TNT Championship: Darby Allin (champion) vs. Jungle Boy
*AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (champion) vs. Tay Conti
*Christian Cage vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
*Hangman Page vs. Ricky Starks
*Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Trent
*QT Marshall vs. Billy Gunn
*Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston return
*Jim Ross’ sit-down interview with The Pinnacle
*Tony Schiavone interviews The Inner Circle
This is a big week for AEW to determine the follow-up of last week’s viewership that stunned a lot of people. It was a strong sign that so many people stuck with the entirety of the show indicating they enjoyed the show and would, in theory, be willing to return this week. After several weeks unopposed, we will see what AEW’s new baseline is going to be as well as its appeal to the 50+ demo that AEW scored their highest rating ever last week at 0.50. This current build-up is setting the stage for a big event on 5/5 with the first-ever Blood & Guts Match followed by the build towards Double or Nothing on 5/30, so there should be a lot of momentum behind AEW over the next month.
**MLW Fusion airs tonight with an appearance scheduled by company CEO Court Bauer days after the news of their new deal with VICE TV. Tonight’s show airs at 7 pm ET on Fubo Sports and the MLW YouTube channel with the following:
*TJP vs. Bu Ku Dao
*Rocky Romero vs. Gino Medina
*King Mo vs. Robert Martyr
*Alex Hammerstone’s press conference
*Alicia Atout interviews Court Bauer
**Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida is holding a full capacity concert this Friday with Machine Gun Kelly performing. The event is sold out with approximately 5,500 seats. Country musician Brad Paisley has a concert booked for the venue on Thursday, July 8th that will be operating at 75 percent capacity.
**Daniel Bryan spoke with BT Sport about the experience he had at WrestleMania 37 and noting he felt “oddly detached” from the process and is figuring out what that means. He added several notes regarding the experience this year:
-He said he was remarkably calm throughout the day at WrestleMania and during the match. He wanted to enjoy it because it could be his last WrestleMania.
-He felt “oddly detached” and has never been one to be nervous before a match. Bryan suggested that perhaps it’s a sign regarding his future as a full-time wrestler and is trying to figure it out.
-He thought Roman Reigns would be cheered because he’s been the coolest character on the show
-Bryan thought it really helped to have WrestleMania split between two nights. He noted how hard it was for the women’s main event in 2019 after such a lengthy show.
-Michael Hayes was the producer for the three-way main event on the second night and Bryan has not watched the match back.
-Bryan found out he’d be part of the main event shortly after Elimination Chamber during the lead-up to the match with Reigns at Fastlane. Bryan joked that he tried to get out of it and thought it was a strong enough match with Reigns and Edge before he was added.
**Paul Levesque spoke on the Cheap Heat Podcast about the move to Tuesday nights and shifting the focus from “the imaginary war” as he described it and adding that they compete against everything.
**AAA has officially announced that the Rey de Reyes event will take place on Saturday, May 1st at 8:30 pm ET airing live on Canal Space.
**NBC’s Young Rock averaged 2,643,000 on Tuesday night with a 0.54 in the 18-49 demographic. Young Rock was tied with Fox’s The Resident for the top spot among all network programming in the main demographic.
**Monday’s episode of Miz & Mrs. following WWE Raw averaged 663,000 viewers and a 0.24 in the 18-49 demographic. The show finished 15th on the cable charts for the day and was only down slightly from last week’s return that averaged 705,000 and a 0.26. After two episodes, the show is doing much better with Raw as its lead-in compared to its previous slot on Thursday nights, which was obviously going to be the case.
**On the promotional material, WrestleMania Backlash is listed at the traditional pay-per-view start time of 7 pm ET with a one-hour kickoff show preceding it. For WrestleMania, they went with an 8 pm ET start time on both nights with the kickoff show airing from 7-8.
**Beginning next Wednesday, April 28th, Ring of Honor will be airing a women’s match each week on their YouTube channel at 7 pm ET featuring veterans and newcomers as the company relaunches its women’s division.
**Will Cooling from the PW Torch has an extensive look at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wrestling and its recent report on the state of the wrestling industry in Great Britain. Cooling was also a guest on The British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby last week discussing the report. Bushby interviewed AP and co-chair Alex Davies-Jones about the report on the same show.
**NJPW ran Korakuen Hall from Sunday through Tuesday this past week. Its best showing was Sunday’s card that drew 641 with Monday drawing 306 and Tuesday’s attendance listed at 366. The company is in Osaka on Thursday headlined by an eight-man tag with Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, The Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare vs. Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI.
**Kenoh is off the next two Pro Wrestling NOAH events due to contracting COVID-19. The company has also removed Tadasuke, Haoh, and Manabu Soya from the next shows after being in close contact with Kenoh.
**Queen Aminata, who worked the last set of AEW tapings revealed that she will not be flying to Florida this week after learning she has COVID-19. She appeared on the last two editions of AEW Dark including this past Tuesday in a match with Diamante, which was taped two weeks ago. She canceled her bookings after learning she had the virus and will self-quarantine for ten days. Her symptoms got very bad said she felt she was going to die with her fever getting as high as 104. She initially tested negative this past Saturday but got another test after waking up with an extremely bad headache, sore throat, and had trouble walking.
**The WWE stock closed at $56.94 on Wednesday.
**Chelsea Green is launching a podcast this Monday called “50 Shades of Green”.
**The WWE Network’s next edition of WWE Untold will focus on Shawn Michaels & Kevin Nash and is set to premiere on May 2nd.
**IMPACT’s countdown special for the Rebellion pay-per-view this Sunday.
**IMPACT’s “Wrestle Week” on AXS TV continues after Thursday’s go-home episode with Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows hosting Bad Ass Movie Night on Friday at 8 pm ET with the airing of “Meatballs”. On Sunday, AXS TV will air the Hard to Kill pay-per-view from this past January at 3 pm ET in the lead-up to Rebellion at 8.
**Stardom has an event this Saturday in Hamamatsu headlined by Utami Hayashishita, Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani taking on Saki Kashima, Konami & Fukigen Death. On Sunday, they are in Osaka featuring the Artist of Stardom Championship being defended by Tam Nakano, Unagi Sayaka & Mina Shirakawa against Natsuko Tora, Saki Kashima & Ruaka.
MMA NEWS
**UFC president Dana White spoke to Aaron Bronsteter of TSN to promote UFC 261 this Saturday.
-Israel Adesanya wants to fight in Australia and New Zealand but there are too many restrictions currently to hold an event there
-White was critical of Sean Shelby’s handling of the faceoff between Drakkar Klose and Jeremy Stephens. Stephens shoved Klose and led to the fighter being injured and unable to fight the next night. White was not present for the event or weigh-ins as he was in Florida.
-White didn’t bet on the fight between Jake Paul and Ben Askren but watched the fight at a Buffalo Wild Wings, which had both the UFC and Triller cards playing
-They don’t have anything planned yet in addition to UFC 264 in July for International Fight Week
-There are plans to return to Fight Island in 2021
-Contender Series was pushed back and expected to resume in September with Ultimate Fighter premiering on June 1st.
**ONE Championship airs on TNT tonight at 10 pm ET with their third of four straight weeks on the network. Tonight’s main card will feature John Lineker facing Troy Worthen, and Reece McLaren fighting Yuya Wakamatsu. Last week’s card saw a giant boost from the first week going from 196,000 to 337,000 viewers with week two having way less star power. I believe AEW had a big effect last week with a portion of its audience sticking around while week one had the disadvantage of AEW viewers tuning out to watch the remainder of TakeOver that night.
**Globo reported that a heavyweight fight between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Augusto Sakai will headline the UFC Fight Night card on June 5th. The location of the card has not been released yet. Rozenstruik made an immediate mark in the division with his knockout power and winning his first four fights in the promotion. Last year, he was stopped in twenty seconds by current champion Francis Ngannou, bounced back with a win against former champ Junior dos Santos and last competed in February losing to Ciryl Gane by unanimous decision over five rounds. Sakai had won six fights in a row until his last outing where he was beaten by Alistair Overeem by TKO last September.
**While Bellator is off this Friday, the PFL will launch its next season with a live card on ESPN2 from Atlantic City, New Jersey. There will be an undercard airing at 5:30 pm ET on ESPN+ and the main card airing on television. The main card will feature the following fights in the lightweight and featherweight divisions:
*Lightweight: Anthony Pettis vs. Clay Collard
*Lightweight: Natan Schulte vs. Marcin Held
*Featherweight: Movlid Khaibulaev vs. Lazar Stojadinovic
*Featherweight: Lance Palmer vs. Bubba Jenkins – Palmer has won the previous two featherweight tournaments for the promotion
The season operates with a point system where a win earns the fighter three points, and one point if the fight is a draw. If you finish your opponent in the first round there is an additional three points, two points for a second-round finish, and one extra point for a third-round finish. After Friday’s premiere, they will run Thursday night events on April 29th and May 6th.
**MMA Junkie reports that the first Invicta FC under Anthem’s ownership will feature two championship fights on May 21st. The main event will feature Karina Rodriguez fighting Daiana Torquato for the vacant Flyweight Championship while the co-feature has Alesha Zappitella defending the Atomweight Championship against Jessica Delboni.
**Episode three of UFC Embedded for UFC 261.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
UFC: Court McGee vs. Claudio Silva on May 22 (Ag. Fight)
UFC: Davey Grant vs. Marlon Vera on June 19 (MMA DNA)
UFC: Anderson dos Santos vs. Miles Johns on July 17 (MMA Junkie)
ON THIS DATE
*****
upNXT 4/20/21: Kool Kyle Goes to the Moon
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the April 20th, 2021 edition of WWE NXT featuring Kyle O’Reilly vs Cameron Grimes in the main event and the in-ring debut of Sarray!
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #84: NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco (2018)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco from the Cow Palace in San Francisco on July 7th, 2018 headlined by Kenny Omega vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 4/19/21: WWE Raw, Triller, Stone Cold A&E Biography
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw where Drew McIntyre set out to find answers. Plus: Triller Fight Club, Steve Austin A&E Biography, MLW announces deal with VICE TV & more.
*****
MCU L8R: Falcon & Winter Soldier Ep. 5 [FREE]
Wai Ting, WH Park and Nate Milton review The Falcon & The Winter Soldier Ep. 5 as Sam confronts Isaiah Bradley about the ugly truth behind the shield.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 4/16/21: Cesaro, Belair Victory Party, Pat McAfee
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown coming out of WrestleMania featuring the ascension of Cesaro, Bianca Belair’s Victory Party, and the debut of Pat McAfee on the show’s commentary team.
*****
POST NEWS: WWE releases, AEW ratings, Pat McAfee, Mauro Ranallo
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss today’s top stories from POSTwrestling.com including a thorough discussion about WWE’s roster releases, AEW’s unopposed Wednesday rating, Pat McAfee, Mauro Ranallo and more.
*****
POST PURORESU: NJPW’s Schedule, Champion Carnival, Stardom’s Cinderella Tournament
John Pollock & WH Park chat Will Ospreay’s title wins and NJPW’s ambitious schedule, Champion Carnival & Cindrella highlights, and more.
*****
THE WELLNESS POLICY #4: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Join Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman and the POST Wrestling community for Episode 4 of The Wellness Policy as we discuss the wildly successful anti-self help book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson.
*****
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