POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite returns tonight and we’ll be live at 10:15 p.m. ET for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will have a complete review of AEW Dynamite and go through Tuesday’s episode of NXT, the Raw ratings, and all the other news from Wednesday.
**We have a great edition of Rewind-A-Wai available now for POST Wrestling Café members. This week’s show focuses on the 2008 feud between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho as we navigate a curated list of matches and segments assembled by Espresso Executive Producer Jake Simpson. In addition, we spoke with former WWE writer Brad Corbitt on the show, who was writing for SmackDown during this era, and shared his experiences behind the scenes as this feud progressed throughout the year. The matches we covered on the show include the ones from Judgment Day, the Great American Bash, the Unsanctioned match at Unforgiven, and the ladder match at No Mercy and include select quotes from Jericho’s 2014 biography The Best in the World reminiscing about the program. We also have the announcement of our next review subject coming out on July 13th.
**The latest edition of upNXT is available on the site with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman reviewing Tuesday’s episode including Isaiah “Swerve” Scott becoming the NXT North American Champion.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite (Live at 10:15 p.m. ET)
Thursday: MCU L8R with Wai Ting & WH Park (Patreon)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Live for all Patrons at 10:15 p.m. ET)
Sunday: The Long & Winding Royal Road w/ WH Park & guest Mark Buckeldee (Misawa & Ogawa vs. Kobashi & Akiyama from Oct 23, 1999)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Off the top, we want to wish a Happy Birthday to Terry Funk who turns 77 years old today and is one of the very best of all time:
**AEW Dynamite returns to Wednesday nights after being shuffled around due to TNT’s coverage of the NBA playoffs. They will still have steep competition as Game 6 of the Phoenix vs. L.A. Clippers series takes place tonight going against the second hour of Dynamite while Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final also takes place tonight.
Over the last five weeks on Friday/Saturday, Dynamite has averaged 541,000 viewers and 0.20 in the 18-49 demographic for the live airing of the episode. In contrast, the previous five weeks on Wednesday nights averaged 968,000 viewers and 0.34 in 18-49 from April 21 – May 19th, which included the Blood & Guts episode.
I would imagine that it’s going to be a delay for AEW to recapture its audience on Wednesdays, especially with the NBA playoffs ongoing. The other side of the coin is the obvious pick-up that should accompany AEW’s move outside of Jacksonville and going on the road beginning July 7th and the themed events for the month.
The forthcoming months are vital for AEW as they re-establish themselves on Wednesdays while also preparing for the launch of ‘Rampage’. The new show comes with the benefit of a four-week sample size of the Friday night engagement levels. Concurrently, you’ll have the establishment of ‘Rampage’ with the build-up for All Out on September 5th.
One of the aspects of AEW’s formula of four pay-per-views per year coupled with long-term angles is not just the payoff at the climax (the pay-per-view) but approaching a crescendo on so many stories in the weeks prior. Typical for AEW’s style is to have many stories floating (some times, too many) but as the weeks wind down, the picture becomes more clear and it’s not hard to see what the pay-per-view card will consist of because of the storytelling and hopefully, presenting stories of interest so the final few episodes are maximizing viewer engagement. It’s actually a counterargument to the ‘it’s too predictable’ argument as it’s often the case that fans respond when they know what the destination point is but it’s the way in which they navigate towards it where the excitement comes.
The pay-per-view kicks off the most ambitious month of AEW’s television era with shows at the Prudential Center in Newark, Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, and the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. The Northeast shows should also shine a light on AEW from a public image standpoint as the announcement of running Arthur Ashe Stadium provided a sample of the New York media focusing on AEW and the promotion gaining valuable press as the WWE’s chief competitor.
**Here is the line-up for tonight’s AEW Dynamite airing at 8 p.m. ET on TNT and TSN 2 in Canada:
*TNT Championship: Miro (champion) vs. Brian Pillman Jr.
*Non-Title Eliminator Match: The Young Bucks vs. Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero Miedo
*Sammy Guevara vs. MJF
*Dr. Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero
*Jungle Boy vs. Jack Evans
*Chris Jericho on commentary for the full show
AEW is doing a ‘Fan Appreciation’ theme tonight for its final show at Daily’s Place before going back on the road. The first 1,000 fans at the building tonight will receive a poster signed by Sammy Guevara and MJF.
**Chris Jericho is doing all the media rounds promoting The Complete List of Jericho and appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez. In the interview, Jericho spoke about meeting Tony Khan for the first time at a Fozzy event and why the negotiations between Jericho and WWE broke off leading to Jericho signing with AEW in 2019:
I heard about Tony (Khan) through Barry Bloom (his agent) and like you said Dave (Meltzer), we’ve heard it all before and are like, ‘whatever, whatever, whatever’. We had a Fozzy show in Jacksonville, I don’t remember when it was, perhaps the beginning or middle of 2018 and Tony came to the show and we talked afterward. I just thought, ‘this guy’s pretty cool, he won’t really look at me though, he’s just kind of, looking away’, you know how Tony is, he’s got a million things going on and I don’t know if maybe he was nervous or was preoccupied or whatever it was but I thought, ‘he’s a cool guy’ and he seems to have some cool ideas and, whatever.
Suddenly, it becomes a reality when the show in Chicago (All In) happened and then suddenly it’s full bore and we began talking and I said, ‘well, I’ll go talk to Vince (McMahon) and see what he says’ and it was Triple H who was supposed to talk with me, which I’ve never talked to Triple H before, I talked to Vince and Vince only and then, Triple H kind of jobbed me out by not calling me back when he said he would, and I don’t play games like that, so I was like ‘forget it, I’ll just talk to Vince or no one else’ – and then, Vince never really called me either and we got an offer from Tony and Barry (Bloom) told Hunter, who told Vince, who said ‘take it’ and I think Vince thought I was bluffing, so I took it. And when Vince found out, he said, ‘You took it?’, I said, ‘Yeah, you told me to’, and he said, ‘can you get out of it?, I was like, ‘No, you told me to take it’.
I honestly believe to this day that he thought I was trying to bluff him and squeeze him for more money, which he should know me better, and if that’s the case, I never would have done that. I was always straight with Vince as much as possible but that’s kind of how it all started and I bet Vince regrets that now because of the amount of money he would have paid me not to go, I’m sure he’s paid times a hundred.
**There was a very scary moment on NXT on Tuesday where Xia Li delivered a spinning wheel kick that hit Mercedes Martinez flush in the head, and she dropped. Li went for a cover and it was clear Martinez was out of it, although was trying to keep her shoulder up. Referee Aja Smith acted quickly, and the bell was sounded to halt the match, which was absolutely the right call and refreshing to see as opposed to the usual reaction of getting to the finish regardless of an injury. After the show, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that Martinez was evaluated backstage with talent and staff informed that she was headed to the hospital for further evaluation.
**In Canada, Tuesday’s episode of NXT averaged 46,000 viewers on Sportsnet 360. The show did not crack the top ten sports broadcasts. The sports chart was topped by the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners followed by various programming related to the Euro tournament.
**WWE Raw averaged 1,570,000 viewers on Monday, per John Ourand. The Wrestling Observer site added that the show registered a 0.41 in the 18-49 demographic, which represents 535,000 viewers in the main demo. The overall viewership average would be among the lowest of all time and the second-worst average of 2021 behind the Memorial Day episode that averaged 1,557,000 on May 31st. Raw went against the NBA playoff game between the L.A. Clippers and Phoenix Suns that averaged 5,744,000 and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Tampa Bay that averaged 1,569,000 on NBC.
In Canada, Raw averaged 158,300 viewers with 76,000 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. In the country, the major competition was the Montreal vs. Tampa Bay game that averaged 3,567,000 for the English-language broadcast of the game. Raw was down from last week’s performance that averaged 196,600 and 90,700 in the 25-54 demo.
**There was a tragic story over the weekend regarding the sudden passing of Michael Cammett, which we noted in Monday’s news update. The IWF out of New Jersey posted a story on Cammett noting that he applied to their training school on Christmas Day in 2013 just after he turned 17 years old. They were impressed with him to the point they allowed him to train despite the minimum age requirement being 18. After beginning to train in May 2014, he made his debut the following month after six weeks. He was voted the IWF’s Wrestler of the Year three times between 2014-2016 and became heavily involved with the promotion’s training school and various departments and promotion. Cammett stepped away from wrestling in 2017 to focus on his education and had not wrestled since then.
Cammett died this past weekend at the age of 24 with the New York State Police issuing the following notice regarding his death:
On June 27, 2021 at 4:49 p.m. state police from the Liberty barracks responded to the National Parks Service Station in the town of Lumberland for a report of a missing swimmer on the Delaware River. Michael Cammett, age 24 of North Arlington, NJ was rafting with friends in an inflatable raft. Cammett and friends entered the river at approximately 3:00 p.m. in two rafts that were tethered together. Cammett jumped into the river and did not resurface. A detailed search involving Lumberland Constables, Matamoras, Narrowsburg, Lumberland, and Highland Fire Departments, United State Park Ranger’s, and the New York State Police Underwater Recovery Team (URT) ensued. Cammett’s body was located by the State Police URT.
**Atsushi Onita spoke with Colette Arrand of Fanbyte to promote the debut card for FMWE this Sunday in Japan. Onita was asked about comparing the original FMW to this iteration:
FMW-E is the only one I am responsible for since I created the first FMW. Except for those, while other promotions have had the FMW name, I wasn’t the key person—I just wrestled for them. But FMW-E is completely different. My opinions and ideas are reflected in it. FMW-E specializes in hardcore wrestling and explosion deathmatches. I think you won’t find a wrestling promotion like it anywhere else in the world, which is why I’m so excited!
Onita also commented on the Exploding Barbed-Wire Deathmatch between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley at Revolution this past March, which included Onita’s promo on the go-home episode of Dynamite:
I sent a cheering message to Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley, but AEW did the preparations for their explosion match on their own, and I wasn’t involved at all. However, I was disappointed that the fans were disappointed, and I felt responsible.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling is running Korakuen Hall on Thursday and Friday with both events streaming for free on New Japan World. Below is the card for Thursday’s show at 5:30 a.m. ET highlighted by three singles matches as a prelude to the NEVER Six-Man tag title match on Friday:
*Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata
*Hirooki Goto vs. Satoshi Kojima
*YOSHI-HASHI vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI
*El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & Jado vs. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kaneamau & DOUKI
**GLEAT has a big show from Tokyo Dome City Hall on Thursday streaming live and free on YouTube at 5:30 a.m. ET with the following matches:
*SHO vs. Takanori Ito
*Yu Izuka vs. Masakatsu Funaki
*Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Maya Fukuda
*Minoru Tanaka & Soma Watanabe vs. Daijiro Matsui & Tetsuya Izuchi
*T-Hawk vs. Ryuichi Kawakami
*Kaz Hayashi, Soma Watanabe & Keiichi Sato vs. CIMA, Issei Onitsuka & Shigehiro Irie
*Kyoko Inoue vs. Michiko Miyagi
*El Lindaman vs. Hayato Tamura
**Below are the matches listed for Thursday’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling airing at 8 p.m. ET on AXS TV and Fight Network in Canada:
*Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Moose, Sami Callihan & Chris Sabin
*Chris Bey vs. Petey Williams
*Rich Swann & Willie Mack vs. TJP & Fallah Bahh
**Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows spoke with NJPW about their exit in 2016 and returning for the upcoming tag tournament on NJPW Strong.
**Kyle O’Reilly was interviewed by Stephanie Chase at Digital Spy promoting next week’s match with Adam Cole at the Great American Bash.
**Cody and Brandi Rhodes will be featured in People Magazine this week with the first photos of their newborn Liberty Iris. Also, it’s Cody’s birthday today as he turns 36.
**Dax Harwood of FTR turns 37 today. Su Yung of IMPACT Wrestling and Alicia Fox also have birthdays today.
**Mike Bennett will challenge for the ROH Pure Championship at the Best in the World pay-per-view on Sunday, July 11th. This weekend’s ROH episode will feature Jonathan Gresham defending the title against Fred Yehi and the winner will defend it against Bennett at the pay-per-view in Baltimore, Maryland. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Rush will defend the ROH Championship against Bandido in the main event of the pay-per-view.
**The status of the GHC Tag Team Championship will be determined on Pro Wrestling NOAH’s card on July 22nd at Korakuen Hall. The previous champions were Masa Kitamiya and Katsuhiko Nakajima, who broke up and had a cage match this past weekend resulting in Nakajima being shaved bald. On July 22nd, Nakajima will team with Manabu Soya to face Kitamiya & Kaito Kiyomiya to determine the next tag champions.
**Mike Lano has a story on the passing of Melissa Coates on the Cauliflower Alley Club site.
**The WWE stock closed at $57.89 on Wednesday.
**WWE has released a trailer for this Sunday’s premiere of the WWE Icons special on Lex Luger. Luger had a tumultuous relationship with the company after his exit in 1995 to appear on the first Monday Nitro. Despite just about every major name from WCW getting at least some kind of look by WWE, they never touched Luger. Luger was the subject of probably the most controversial episode of WWE ‘Confidential’ in 2003 with regards to how the company covered the death of Elizabeth Hulette, airing the 911 call made by Luger and the way it painted Luger.
**J.J. Dillon appeared on Stories with Bradshaw & Brisco and retold the story of how he was booked to wrestle at Madison Square Garden. Dillon was working for Eddie Graham in Florida as a booking assistant, which began in 1981, and Dillon mentioned in passing how working at The Garden was something he always wanted to do. Dillon shared the story that Graham went to Vince McMahon Sr., who wanted to make it happen and booked Dillon for a date at The Garden on April 23, 1984, against Tito Santana. Months later, after a short stint in The Maritimes, Dillon went to Jim Crockett Promotions for his famous on-screen run, so it would have been his last chance to wrestle at The Garden when he was booked for it. Eventually, Dillon would go work for the WWF beginning in February 1989 in an executive capacity.
ON THIS DATE
After nearly six years, Kane unmasked after a Title vs. Mask match against Triple H at Madison Square Garden. This led to a program involving Kane and Rob Van Dam and a bunch of ridiculous skits that summer including Kane lighting Jim Ross on fire:
Gail Kim wins the WWE Women’s Championship in her debut on Raw:
Sheamus makes his debut on the ECW brand against Oliver John. He would win the WWE Championship by the end of the year:
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK: Survival of the Fittest Finals, Who Will Challenge WALTER?
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.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #89: Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho 2008
John Pollock & Wai Ting bring you a special edition of Rewind-A-Wai as they dedicate the entire episode to one of the greatest feuds in WWE history: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels from April to October 2008.
*****
upNXT 6/29/21: Colossal Swerve
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the June 29th 2021 edition of WWE NXT featuring “Colossal” Bronson Reed vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott for the NXT North American Championship!
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 6/28/21: Riddle is RKO, Kofi-MVP, Samoa Joe speaks
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring a tremendous Last Chance MITB Qualifying Match, Samoa Joe speaks on his future, Derrick Lewis vs. Ciryl Gane, and more.
*****
POST PURORESU: The State of NJPW, Stardom Breakthrough
John Pollock and WH Park are back to chat all the major news including news champions crowned in NJPW, AJPW, and Pro Wrestling NOAH.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNADOWN 6/26/21: Omega vs. Jungle Boy, Edge returns
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown and AEW Saturday Night Dynamite featuring the return of Edge and Kenny Omega vs. Jungle Boy for the AEW Championship.
*****
MCU L8R: Loki Ep. 3 “Lamentis”
Wai Ting & WH Park review Loki Episode 3 as stranded variants Loki & Sylvie get to know one another while they attempt to flee an impending apocalyptic event.
*****
BTWA #10: WWE SummerSlam (2002)
Martin Bushby & Andrew Thompson are back with another round of Wrestling Adventure. This month, they journey back almost 20 years to talk about WWE SummerSlam 2002.
*****
upNXT Movie Review: The Dark Knight (2008)
Why so serious? Braden Herrington and Davie Portman return to Gotham with Christopher Nolan’s second part of his Bat-Trilogy – “The Dark Knight” (2008)
*****
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