POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I have a POST News Update for Friday covering the Tom Billington episode of Dark Side of the Ring, Paul Levesque’s comments on the NXT conference call with media, a preview of the upcoming weekend & more.
**Rewind-A-DynaDown is LIVE tonight at Midnight ET with Wai Ting and Kate from Montreal reviewing both SmakcDown and Dynamite along with taking your calls. Live access to the show is available to all POST Wrestling Café members.
**MCU L8R has returned with Wai Ting and WH Park reviewing the first episode of “Loki” on Disney+. The two will be reviewing each episode on a weekly basis for members of the POST Wrestling Café. The first episode will be made available for everyone on Saturday and the rest will be exclusive to Café members.
**We have a UFC 263 Preview Show with Eric Marcotte & Phil Chertok joining me to discuss the major stories going into Saturday’s card, Israel Adesanya coming back after his loss to Jan Blachowicz, a follow-up to one of the best fights of 2020, and the return of Nate Diaz and how he could throw multiple divisions into chaos.
**The British Wrestling Experience is back with Martin & Benno joined by Andy Ogden for a discussion on many topics including Thursday’s NXT UK title match between Kay Lee Ray and Meiko Satomura, Anthony Ogogo’s performance at Double or Nothing, Progress Chapter 112, and OTT’s recent statement as it prepares for a return to live events as we approach one year since the Speaking Out Movement began.
**We be live immediately after the pay-per-view on Saturday with our UFC 263 POST Show on the POST YouTube channel as Phil Chertok and I review the card and take your calls.
**The Nubian Wrestling Advocates podcast launches on POST Wrestling this Sunday with hosts Nate Milton and Kris Ealy and a news segment involving Andrew Thompson. We have an interview on the site with Nate chatting about the genesis of the show and many other subjects.
WRESTLING NEWS
**This is an extremely busy weekend when you combine the major pro wrestling and MMA events on the schedule. Tonight, we have the Friday Night SmackDown & AEW Dynamite doubleheader along with the usual Friday night programming from NJPW Strong and 205 Live. On the MMA front, Bellator 260 features Douglas Lima defending the 170-pound championship against 25-0 Yaroslav Amosov from the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut as well as a card from Invicta FC with its Phoenix tournament airing on AXS TV. On Saturday, Stardom has a big show from Ota Ward Gymnasium featuring Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri for the World of Stardom Championship, IMPACT’s Against All Odds is headlined by Kenny Omega vs. Moose from Daily’s Place, and the big card is the UFC 263 show with Israel Adesanya vs. Marvin Vettori, Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno, and Nate Diaz vs. Leon Edwards. Finally, on Sunday night it’s the NXT TakeOver: In Your House card with the five-way for the NXT Championship as Karrion Kross defends against Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Pete Dunne, and Johnny Gargano.
**Friday Night SmackDown airs at 8 p.m. ET tonight on Fox with Otis & Chad Gable taking on The Street Profits.
**AEW Dynamite is a taped episode from Daily’s Place and airs at 10 p.m. ET on TNT and TSN 2 in Canada with the following advertised for the show:
*The Young Bucks & Brandon Cutler vs. Penta El Zero Miedo, PAC & Eddie Kingston
*TNT Championship: Miro (champion) vs. Evil Uno
*Christian Cage vs. Angelico
*Hangman Page & Preston “10” Vance vs. Brian Cage & Powerhouse Hobbs
*Nyla Rose vs. Leyla Hirsch
*Lance Archer in action
*The Pinnacle will speak
*Cody Rhodes makes a special announcement
**Here are the matches for tonight’s ‘Ignition’ episode of NJPW Strong that streams at 10 p.m. ET on New Japan World:
*Misterioso & Jordan Clearwater vs. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta
*Lio Rush & Rocky Romero vs. Clark Connors & The DKC
*Hikuleo vs. Alex Coughlin
**The following matches are listed for tonight’s episode of 205 Live at 10 p.m. ET on the WWE Network:
*Ari Sterling & Asher Hale vs. Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari
*Sunil Singh vs. Grayson Waller (Waller wrestled in Australia as Matty Wahlberg and also played the role of Ric Flair on an episode of ‘Young Rock’ this past season and signed earlier this year)
**The Stardom card from Ota Ward Gymnasium airs late tonight at 3 a.m. ET and is available at Ticket.pia.jp for $40 U.S. and includes English commentary. If you order the pay-per-view, it will be archived on the site until this Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET. Below is the line-up:
*World of Stardom Championship: Utami Hayashishita (champion) vs. Syuri
*Cinderella Tournament Final: Himeka or Kamitani vs. Maika or Sayaka
*Mayu Iwatani, Starlight Kid, Rin Kadokura, Hanan & Koguma vs. Natsuko Tora, Konami, Saki Kashima, Fukigen Death & Ruaka
*Natsupoi & Giulia vs. Momo Watanabe & AZM vs. Tam Nakano & Mina Shirakawa
*Cinderella Semi-Final: Himeka vs. Saya Kamitani
*Cinderella Semi-Final: Maika vs. Unagi Sayaka
*Rina vs. Hina vs. Lady C.
**Dropkick Depression, which is a non-profit assisting with mental health education within professional wrestling is teaming with RAINN. Terra Calaway issued a statement that she has organized support training specific to the wrestling industry following the Speaking Out Movement with an online course available. The course (dates TBA) will be open to all members of the pro wrestling industry including wrestlers and promoters and below is a portion of the statement:
Dropkick Depression is happy to announce that we have engaged RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, to develop and deliver a sexual misconduct and assault education, awareness and support training in the fall/winter of 2021. This training is being specifically tailored to cater to the world of professional wrestling, will be interactive, and will relate to our experiences of how sexual violence affects us.
This course will be available online (date/dates to be determined) for all professional wrestlers, promoters, and other individuals within the professional wrestling community.
Our goal is to create a community of prevention and safety as well as help those understand how to handle situations that may arise in the future. We owe it to ourselves and to those who have been affected by sexual harassment and assault within our world to help create a better environment so that professional wrestling may be able to thrive.
**On Friday’s edition of Talk is Jericho, The Inner Circle members spoke about the planning and execution of Stadium Stampede 2. There is an interesting discussion on how they attempted to secure the rights to use a DMX song for Stadium Stampede 2, but they couldn’t get it signed off on. Jericho also shared another story when they wanted to use a Van Halen song in the past and were told it would cost $500,000.
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reports that Shawn Daivari is at the SmackDown tapings today and is back working as a producer for the company. Daivari previously held a producer position in the company from January 2019 to April 2020 and had appeared on-screen for IMPACT and MLW over the past year.
**MLW has revealed that Battle Riot III will take place on Saturday, July 10th when the promotion returns with live fans at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. The 40-man battle royal will determine a future title challenger for MLW champion Jacob Fatu.
**MLW has also announced that Arez will debut for the group at the same show in Philadelphia next month.
**Ring of Honor has announced that EC3 will face Flip Gordon at the Best in the World pay-per-view on Sunday, July 11th in Baltimore, Maryland. The event will be the first one with fans for ROH since the pandemic began and takes place from the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena with the company experimenting by moving their pay-per-view night from Friday to Sunday. The card will also feature Jay Lethal vs. Brody King and a Last Man Standing Match between Josh Woods and Silas Young.
**All Japan held a card at Korakuen Hall on Thursday in front of 475 fans. The show featured Koji Iwamoto winning the AJPW junior heavyweight title from CIMA. CIMA, who is a member of the GLEAT roster, had been champion since February when he won it from Iwamoto, who is now on his fourth reign as champion. The card was headlined by Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi retaining the AJPW tag titles over Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato.
**Taz posted a video from the hospital and noted he was undergoing a procedure and said he would be out of the operation in time to watch Dynamite tonight. We wish him a speedy recovery.
**Cameron Grimes was on Busted Open Radio and shared the story of calling his father to tell him he had signed with WWE and was the last time they spoke as he passed away the following weekend.
**PWinsider.com has released its audio documentary from 2017 on ECW Barely Legal that was produced, narrated, and written by Mike Johnson. The doc includes interviews with Taz, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Bubba Ray Dudley, Francine, Blue Meanie, Joey Styles, director Ron Buffone, Tony Lewis of Strictly ECW, and many others.
**The WWE stock closed at $62.55 on Friday.
**Toronto-based independent wrestler Clutch Jessie V shared that he played Davey Boy Smith for some of the re-enactments on last night’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
**Writer Steven Bell is working on a biography of The British Bulldogs that is aiming to be released in the spring of 2022. The book is called ‘Dynamite & Davey: The Explosive Lives of The British Bulldogs’ and Bell has released the cover art for the book.
**Dusty Rhodes passed away on this date in 2015 at the age of 69.
MMA NEWS
**Two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields made her MMA debut on Thursday night for the PFL overcoming two rounds of adversity before stopping Brittney Elkin by TKO. The PFL received a larger platform with the event airing live on ESPN 2 promoted around Shields’ debut. The first two rounds showed the difference between a championship level boxer and a debuting MMA fighter as Shields was taken down and controlled on top by the 3-6 Elkin. The two rounds put in perspective the time and patience it will require even for someone with the incredible boxing skill of Shields, who has trained at JacksonWink MMA preparing for this fight. Where Shields was dominant was her strikes with an incredible stat landing 90 of 96 strikes throughout the fight. In the third round, she was able to avoid being put on her back and got an advantageous position as she began to land repeated strikes before the fight was halted. Shields has immense star presence, but the fight should also illustrate the transition to MMA will not be seamless over night and she would be matched accordingly. While many discounted Elkin as an opponent, she still had nine pro fights and is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu that presented a lot of problems for Shields while dominating the first two rounds.
**Below are the results from the PFL card from Thursday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey:
*Claressa Shields def. Brittney Elkin by TKO at 1:44 of Round 3
*Clay Collard def. Joilton Lutterbach by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Bubba Jenkins def. Bobby Moffett by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Brendan Loughnane def. Tyler Diamond by majority decision (30-27, 29-27, 28-28)
*Natan Schulte def. Alexander Martinez by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Marcin Held by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Loik Radzhabov def. Akhmet Aliev by TKO at 0:27 of Round 1
*Sheymon Moraes def. Jesse Stirn by kimura at 4:59 of Round 2
*Chris Wade def. Arman Ospanov by KO at 2:18 of Round 2
**After Thursday’s card, the lightweight standings feature Loik Radzhabov and Clay Collard with six points each on top of the division. The featherweight standings are led by Brendan Loughnane with nine points, Chris Wade with eight, and Bubba Jenkins with six.
**Next Thursday’s PFL card features fight in the welterweight and light heavyweight divisions. The main event sees Rory MacDonald take on Gleison Tibau. MLW wrestler Tom Lawlor is fighting Jordan Young on the undercard next week.
**Bellator 260 takes place tonight from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville and airs on Showtime. The major fight is Douglas Lima defending the welterweight title against the undefeated Yaroslav Amosov, which is a very big challenge for Lima. The fight has flown under the radar with so much attention on the UFC card but is also indicative of where Bellator stands when it comes to awareness. The promotion has staged several big fights including the ongoing Light Heavyweight Grand Prix. The big test will be the featherweight championship fight between Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and A.J. McKee, which is as big a fight among Bellator fighters they can promote and should be a big one for fight fans. The main card airs at 9 p.m. ET with the following fights:
*Bellator Welterweight Championship: Douglas Lima vs. Yaroslav Amosov
*Paul Daley vs. Jason Jackson
*Aaron Pico vs. Aiden Lee
*Damarques Johnson vs. Mark Lemminger
**The UFC had an explosive press conference on Thursday promoting Saturday’s fight card that was dominated by the trash talk between Israel Adesanya and challenger Marvin Vettori. Adesanya had the presence and delivery of a top-level star that translates the best with audiences and felt like a major star. Adesanya went after Vettori for failing an out-of-competition drug test in August 2018 where he tested positive for Ostarine and received a six-month sanction. USADA investigated and found no intentional use of the substance by Vettori, who denies he did anything intentionally. That did not stop from Adesanya constantly calling him a steroid user and when Vettori got animated, Adesanya told the audience that was “roid rage”. While Adesanya and Vettori were front-and-center, Brandon Moreno came off very well with several questions asked and has such a likable demeanor and is very charismatic. During one answer, Dana White interrupted and told Moreno that if he wins “you’re going to blow up in Mexico”. While he barely spoke, Nate Diaz received a thunderous reaction from the audience in Glendale with the fighter lighting up his own brand of marijuana and smoking during the presser.
**Here is the full card for UFC 263 with the results from Friday’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET on pay-per-view)
*UFC Middleweight Championship: Israel Adesanya (183.5) vs. Marvin Vettori (184.5)
*UFC Flyweight Championship: Deiveson Figueiredo (125) vs. Brandon Moreno (125)
*Five-Rounds: Leon Edwards (170.5) vs. Nate Diaz (170)
*Belal Muhammad (170.5) vs. Demian Maia (170.5)
*Paul Craig (204.5) vs. Jamahal Hill (205.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 p.m. ET on ESPN)
*Drew Dober (154) vs. Brad Riddell (155)
*Darren Stewart (204.5) vs. Eryk Anders (205)
*Joanne Calderwood (125) vs. Lauren Murphy (125.5)
*Hakeem Dawodu (145.5) vs. Movsar Evloev (145.5)
EARLY PRELIMS (6 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Alexis Davis (134.5) vs. Pannie Kianzad (135.5)
*Terrance McKinney (155.5) vs. Matt Frevola (155)
*Chase Hooper (145.5) vs. Steven Peterson (148.5*) – Peterson missed weight and was fined 20 percent of his purse
*Fares Ziam (156) vs. Luigi Vendramini (155.5)
*Jake Collier (264.5) vs. Carlos Felipe (262.5)
**Episode 5 of UFC Embedded for UFC 263.
ON THIS DATE
From the second ‘One Night Stand’ as WWE prepared to re-launch ECW as a separate brand with disastrous results:
Vader’s first appearance on WWE programming since 2005:
Legendary build-up, angle and payoff:
*****
POST NEWS UPDATE 6/11/21: Dynamite Kid DSOTR, Paul Levesque’s comments on fans
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss today’s top stories including our review of Dark Side of the Ring: Dynamite Kid, Triple H’s comments about fans, and more.
*****
UFC 263 PREVIEW SHOW
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok & Eric Marcotte to preview this Saturday’s UFC 263 card featuring two title fights.
*****
MCU L8R: Loki Ep. 1 “Glorious Purpose”
Wai Ting & WH Park return to MCU L8R with a look at Episode 1 of Loki starring Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson.
*****
BWE: Kay Lee Ray vs. Meiko Satomura, Progress 112, Anthony Ogogo, Speaking Out
Martin Bushby & Benno are joined by Andy Ogden of Graps & Claps to rundown the last month in European wrestling including the NXT UK Women’s Championship rematch between Kay Lee Ray vs. Meiko Satomura.
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Nate Milton, The Nubian Wrestling Advocates
John Pollock catches up with Nate Milton to discuss The Nubian Wrestling Advocates podcast coming to POST Wrestling beginning this Sunday.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK 6/9/21
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, NWA Powerrr, 205 Live, NJPW Strong, Ring of Honor, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT 6/8/21: “I’m Your Poppy”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the June 8th, 2021 edition of WWE NXT: The go-home show for TakeOver: In Your House this Sunday!
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything (June 2021)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the June 2021 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
*****
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