POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE: Police respond to complaint at GCW event

Statement from Wyoming police over complaint at GCW show, HIAC thoughts, WWE-Lesnar, Ariel Helwani update, Mojo Rawley in new trailer & more.

June 21, 2021 John Pollock NEWS
Photo Courtesy: Game Changer Wrestling

POST IT NOTES

**Wai Ting and I will be LIVE tonight at 11:15 p.m. ET with Rewind-A-Raw to discuss all the latest news, a look at this week’s schedule, and review WWE Raw along with taking your feedback. As always, live access to Rewind-A-Raw is available for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.

**Wai Ting and I will be doing a special bonus show for members of the POST Wrestling Café on Tuesday.

**We will not have a live show this Friday night, instead, we will be doing Rewind-A-DynaDown on Saturday night at 10:15 p.m. ET with a review of both SmackDown and Saturday Night Dynamite for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.

**The Hell in a Cell POST Show is available to download on the site or wherever you get your podcasts. Wai Ting and I shared our thoughts on the event, what matches delivered, and which did not, some confusing finishes, the final pay-per-view at the ThunderDome, and setting the company up for the summer.

POST SCHEDULE

Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John & Wai (LIVE at 11:15 p.m. ET)
Tuesday: Pollock & Wai TALK (Patreon special)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino (upNXT feed)
Wednesday: upNXT Movie Review – The Dark Knight (2008)
Thursday: MCU L8R with Wai Ting & WH Park (Episode 3 of Loki, Patreon)
Thursday: Bushby & Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure (SummerSlam 2002)
Saturday: Rewind-A-DynaDown (LIVE at 10:15 p.m. ET for all Patrons)
Sunday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock & WH Park

WRESTLING NEWS

**Game Changer Wrestling ran a card in Laramie, Wyoming this past Saturday night and featured a complaint to the police department. There was a video posted by Joey Janela of police officers speaking to individuals at the show. POST Wrestling contacted representative Steven Morgan from the Laramie Police Department, who provided the following statement:

The complaint was for “40-50 Rowdy People”. Upon arrival of patrol officers, everything seemed calm and the crowd was dispersed.

There were no citations or arrests.

The event took place at the Albany County Fairgrounds and was headlined by Nick Gage defeating Mance Warner to retain the GCW title in a Bunkhouse Brawl Match.

**We have a story posted looking at the Canadian viewership figures for SmackDown and Dynamite this past Friday. Both shows were hurt going against the NHL playoffs with Montreal vs. Las Vegas. SmackDown averaged 133,000 viewers, which is not a terrible number but is disappointing with the Hell in a Cell match being advertised. Dynamite was hurt a lot for their final Friday night airing of Dynamite. Saturday Night Dynamite this weekend airs on TSN 2 at 8 p.m. ET and returns to Wednesday nights on June 30th.

**WWE presented its final pay-per-view of the ThunderDome era on Sunday with Hell in a Cell. It felt like a show that was run-of-the-mill in terms of story advancement, but the effort and hard work was fairly consistent throughout the show.

The significant outcome was Bobby Lashley retaining the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre, who in theory, cannot challenge for the title again while Lashley is champion. The problem is no one takes stipulations seriously and the first reaction is ‘how do they get around this?’ They could send McIntyre onto a detour and get him away from the title picture for the summer. After WrestleMania, WrestleMania Backlash, and Hell in a Cell, the program has run its course, although McIntyre should have some follow-up with MVP given he helped Lashley retain and McIntyre should beat him on television or feud with some new people that are attached with MVP. Both HIAC matches were done effectively but the reaction to the finish of Lashley-McIntyre will vary based on the importance you hold the HIAC match to. There was a time the match meant a lot and you couldn’t get away with BS finishes, but that day is long gone, so it’s a moot complaint.

For Lashley, the depth of main event babyfaces on Raw is thin. There is an ongoing issue percolating between MVP and Kofi Kingston that could get them through the July cycle. For SummerSlam, there is obvious speculation regarding Brock Lesnar and whether WWE and Lesnar make a deal or not. It’s interesting to look at the environment and how WWE views the cost/benefit of Lesnar under the current parameters. Ticket sales have reportedly gotten off to a very strong start at Allegiant Stadium, they have guaranteed revenue from Peacock, and have undergone lots of cost-savings over the past few months.

So, how does Lesnar fit with his asking price? You always want to present the strongest promotional effort and generate maximum buzz for an event like SummerSlam and there is inherent value in Lashley working with Lesnar and potentially going over. But WWE is less reliant than ever on giant stars because so much of their revenue is fixed. There is a large incentive on Peacock’s behalf as they would certainly see a giant stadium show with full capacity as one of the few spiking points of the calendar for new subscribers. It’s the same dynamic at play between UFC and ESPN+ where the UFC doesn’t have to rush to make a deal with Jon Jones, although for ESPN+ it would mean a lot more to have Jones vs. Francis Ngannou to attract subscribers than Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis.

**The next pay-per-view is Money in the Bank on July 18th and will feature a full capacity crowd in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be their second event back with full capacity crowds following the go-home edition of SmackDown that weekend.

**After his match with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens posted the following:

**WWE president and chief revenue officer Nick Khan spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on SummerSlam coming to Las Vegas in August, which is where Khan is from:

I’m biased, but I think the work ethic in Las Vegas is extremely strong, so for the hard-working people to be sidelined for that amount of time. Certainly it will get there on its own, but if we can help accelerate that for a weekend and bring some excitement that helps with that, it meant a lot to us.

**Tony Khan spoke to PWinsider.com regarding how far back they had wanted to run an event at Arthur Ashe Stadium:

[We were] looking at this for over two years. I probably started talking to them and I mean, well over a year ago, a little over a year and a half ago. I think we had planned right before the pandemic hit in March of 2020, and the outbreak happened. We had been deep in discussions and it was actually in March. We were talking a lot when we had to postpone things, but it’s great to be back here and to finally be able to announce this show and the venue.

**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation streaming at 7 p.m. ET on the AEW YouTube channel:
*Jungle Boy vs. Cezar Bononi
*Nyla Rose vs. Delmi Exo
*Matt Sydal vs. Jack Evans
*Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Vary Morales & Fuego Del Sol
*Matt Hardy vs. Jora Johl
*FTR vs. Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
*Varsity Blonds vs. Bums ‘R Us
*Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Darien Bengston
*Kris Statlander vs. Renee Michelle
*Shawn Spears & Wardlow vs. Ryzin & Kal Herro
*The Acclaimed vs. Baron Black & Tamilian Vineesh
*Jade Cargill vs. Robyn Renegade

**NJPW resumes its Kizuna Road tour on Tuesday with a show at Korakuen Hall that streams at 5:30 a.m. ET on New Japan World:
*NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Championship: Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI (champions) vs. EVIL, Yujiro & Dick Togo
*Shingo Takahi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Kota Ibushi, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuji Nagata
*Kazuchika Okada, Roppongi 3K & Toru Yano vs. El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori, Gedo & Jado
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Yota Tsuji
*Taichi vs. Yuya Uemura

**Wednesday’s Kizuna Road card at Korakuen Hall is headlined by SHO & YOH defending the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles against Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo.

**Ring of Honor is going to air a ‘Fight on the Farm’ match between Jay and Mark Briscoe over the weekend of July 3rd on the syndicated program. The match will be filmed on their farm in Sandy Fork, Delaware.

**Dean Muhtadi (the former Mojo Rawley) is featured in the new trailer for ‘Snake Eyes’ that was released on Monday:

**Congratulations to Mustafa Ali, who announced that he and his wife are expecting another child.

**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reported that Becky Lynch was backstage at Hell in a Cell after the same outlet reported she was at the Performance Center over the past week. That would be one return I’d promote several weeks in advance rather than the surprise return.

**MLW has added a match between Davey Richards and TJP for the Battle Riot III event at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Saturday, July 10th. Richards took nearly four years off before returning for a pair of matches this past weekend in Miami for Coastal Championship Wrestling.

**Warrior Wrestling has announced that Kylie Rae will defend the women’s title against Lady Frost on July 17th at their next Stadium Series event in Chicago Heights, which airs on FITE TV.

**The updated list of wrestlers announced for the 40-person Battle Riot match are Alex Hammerstone, King Muertes, Richard Holliday, TJP, Arez, Kevin Ku, Lee Moriarty, Gringo Loco, and Zenshi.

**Ric Flair was at the ThunderDome on Sunday for Hell in a Cell.

**The WWE stock closed at $57.78 on Monday.

**Being the Elite Ep. 261 “Trip”.

**Tommy End will be a guest on Turned Out a Punk this week with host Damian Abraham.

**An incredible step-up 630 by Vikingo off the stage and into the ring:

MMA NEWS

**MMA reporter Ariel Helwani has announced his post-ESPN plans following the expiration of his contract. Helwani is returning to Vox Media/MMA Fighting where he worked prior to leaving for ESPN in 2018. He will be reviving The MMA Hour, which will return in August with Monday and Wednesday episodes. From 2009-18, the show grew to become a destination spot for fighters at every level of the sport and was the most successful MMA program of its kind often eclipsing four to five hours per show. He will also be working as a contributor to BT Sport, which has the rights to the UFC and WWE in the U.K. and Ireland with Helwani providing MMA, Boxing, and Pro Wrestling coverage for the broadcaster. The other outlet he will work for is The Ringer’s podcast division with shows airing on Spotify with pre-and post-fight coverage on Spotify’s Greenroom app (similar to Clubhouse). His own outside work will include non-MMA content for his personal YouTube channel and launching a Substack newsletter. This is a big story to watch regarding a media personality with the highest following within MMA and how well he can adjust outside of ESPN, which is losing the most recognizable name in a sport they heavily cover and have the UFC rights for years to come.

**I had a chance over the weekend to watch the fight between Rory MacDonald and Gleison Tibau from the PFL event last Thursday. It was a really egregious decision with Tibau winning by split decision, although MacDonald still qualifies for the post-season. I would have scored all three rounds for MacDonald with most pointing to the third round as the only close round of the three and even that one was a stretch. On the broadcast, both analysts Randy Couture and Kenny Florian scored the fight for MacDonald and everyone was stunned including play-by-play voice Sean O’Connell who cards the scores for Tibau “indefensible”. If MacDonald had won, he would have been ranked first in the welterweight standings and fought Magomed Magomedkerimov in the playoffs, instead, he will fight Ray Cooper III.

**This week’s PFL card is a Friday night event and will go head-to-head with Bellator and Friday Night SmackDown. The PFL card has two of its biggest names with Kayla Harrison fighting Cindy Dandois and Anthony Pettis facing Raush Manfio. Two-time featherweight tournament winner Lance Palmer will attempt to rebound after a decision loss to Bubba Jenkins in April when he meets Movlid Khaybulaev this Friday. The main card will air on ESPN 2 and TSN 5 in Canada.

**Bellator 261 will feature the following main card fight this Friday airing on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET:
*Interim Heavyweight Championship: Timothy Johnson (15-6) vs. Valentin Moldavsky (10-1)
*Liz Carmouche (15-7) vs. Kana Watanabe (10-0-1)
*Daniel Weichel (40-12) vs. Keoni Diggs (9-0)
*Sidney Outlaw (15-4) vs. Myles Jury (19-5)
*Christian Edwards (4-0) vs. Simon Biyong (7-1)

ON THIS DATE

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About John Pollock 5863 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.
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