POST IT NOTES
**We have released the second edition of “Pollock & Ting: TALK” for members of the POST Wrestling Café. We tried out this format back in June where we don’t spend much time discussing the news or wrestling-specific topics and it seemed to have a strong response. For this follow-up, we focused a lot on Wai’s recent wedding and the “making of” the Who is Wai Ting? audio documentary we released last week.
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is available on the site and wherever you listen to podcasts. We have a full review of the go-home Raw leading to SummerSlam with Bill Goldberg’s face-to-face with Bobby Lashley, the RK-Bro reunion, and more matches added to SummerSlam. Plus, we discuss the AEW Rampage & SmackDown numbers, the WWE house show absences over the weekend, fallout from Resurgence & TripleMania, NJPW being decimated with performers off Monday’s show, Stardom canceling their weekend events & more.
**Davie Portman and Braden Herrington are back tonight with upNXT tonight at 10:15 p.m. ET at tv/upNXTpodcast. They will review the go-home NXT before TakeOver and take your feedback.
**We will be live on Wednesday with Rewind-A-Dynamite at 10:15 p.m. ET for all Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman (10:15 p.m. ET on Twitch)
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (10:15 p.m.)
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino (upNXT feed)
Thursday: MCU L8R with Wai Ting & WH Park – Ep. 2 of “What…If?” (Patreon)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown/The First Dance (11:15 p.m. ET for all Patrons)
Saturday: SummerSlam POST Show with John, Kate from MTL & Nate Milton (Live for Double Double+ Patrons)
Sunday: NXT TakeOver POST Show with Braden & Davie
WRESTLING NEWS
**Seth Rollins was a guest on the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch to promote SummerSlam. It’s a really engaging interview that focused on the intersection of on-screen personas with their real lives citing the recent face-to-face segment involving Roman Reigns and John Cena that walked that line. Rollins spoke about the 2019 experiment pairing him and Becky Lynch together while noting that their characters didn’t vibe off each other especially with Lynch being a ‘loner’ type of character. Rollins stated that he doesn’t expect them to revisit that unless necessary where they were involved in a segment together.
About scripted promos for himself:
I would say almost zero percent scripted – in the sense that, I don’t write things down on a piece of paper and read them and memorize them. Like, that doesn’t really work for me. Scripted in the sense that I have a pretty good idea of what I want to say when I got out to the ring a grab a microphone, but like I said, it’s not written down. It’s almost like written in my head, on a little tablet in my head. There’s no piece of paper for me. I can’t do that. I’ve tried it and it just doesn’t fly for me. I can’t be authentic in that way.
Rollins on what is considered ‘fair game’ for promos among performers:
Everybody is different in that regard. Everybody you go out there and have a promo with is different, they’re all going to have a line drawn in different places for each person. Cena for example, this is just off the top of my head, when I’ve done stuff with him – promos with him – he always told me, ‘I don’t care what you say when we’re out there, anything in front of the camera, I don’t care. I never take it personal’. So, he’s a guy, let it all fly and when we get to the back, its different, it’s work, nothing is personal. And some guys aren’t like that and some guys and girls are very protective about certain parts of their life and don’t want that to be in the public and you have to respect that as well. The mileage varies from person to person but I do think, most of us have been in the game long enough – especially when we get to the level, you mention John and Roman with their promos and break down that wall a bit – they’ve been in the game long enough where everyone sort of knows it’s business and there’s going to be personal jabs in there but if you can’t take that stuff, if your skin isn’t thick enough then you’re probably in the wrong business. It’s all about conflict, conflict is what sells and that real-life real thing, one twist of “real life” is really going to be sometimes the difference between a ‘rasslin story and a real story that people get invested in. Especially nowadays when the curtain is pulled back so deep.
**Our best wishes go out to SHIMMER founder and MLW’s Dave Prazak, who noted he was in the hospital late Monday night.
**Brandon Thurston has the quarter-hour breakdown for AEW Rampage this past Friday. The show peaked in overall viewers with 761,000 during the second quarter featuring the ending and post-match for Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage and Miro vs. Fuego Del Sol. In 18-49, the peak was 404,000 for Britt Baker vs. Red Velvet, which narrowly edged out the second quarter that had 403,000. In overall female viewership, the peak was the first quarter with Omega vs. Cage and the peak for women 18-49 was the main event between Baker and Red Velvet.
**CM Punk is continuing his teases for “The First Dance”. On Monday, he posted the numbers “05, 11, 21” on his Instagram referring to the ‘Summer of Punk’ in ROH and WWE in 2011.
**NXT has its go-home episode for TakeOver tonight at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network and Sportsnet 360 in Canada. Below are the matches and segments announced for what looks like a loaded episode:
*Face-to-Face: Karrion Kross and Samoa Joe – this completes the trifecta for the Raw, SmackDown & NXT main events this weekend all ensuring we see the respective participants in the flesh before their matches
*Prime Target on Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole
*Breakout Tournament Semi-Final: Duke Hudson vs. Carmelo Hayes (the winner will meet Odyssey Jones in the final)
*NXT Cruiserweight Championship: KUSHIDA (champion) vs. Roderick Strong
*NXT Tag Team Championship: MSK (champions) vs. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner
*Dexter Lumis & Indi Hartwell vs. Robert Stone & Jessi Kamea
*An interview with Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai
**Sportsnet 360 in Canada is carrying NXT TakeOver this Sunday and it’s listed from 8-10 p.m. ET, meaning those in Canada without the WWE Network can watch the show. Sportsnet 360 has previously carried the April and June TakeOver events earlier this year.
**AEW Dark has another mammoth edition of the program tonight at 7 p.m. ET on its YouTube channel with the following matches:
*PAC, Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix vs. Luther, Serpentico & Cole Karter
*Matt Hardy vs. Wheeler Yuta
*Frankie Kazarian vs. Brandon Cutler
*Dante Martin vs. Lee Moriarty
*Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy & Varsity Blonds vs. Cezar Bononi, Peter Avalon, Ryan Nemeth & JD Drake
*John Silver, Alex Reynolds & Alan “10” Angels vs. Rickey Shane Page, Andrew Palace & Bill Collier
*Kris Statlander vs. Kiera Hogan
*Penelope Ford vs. Masha Slamovich
*Lee Johnson & Brock Anderson vs. Joey Keys & Spencer Slade
*Tay Conti vs. Rebecca Scott
*Nyla Rose vs. Tina San Antonio
*2.0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker) vs. Syler & Sam Adams
**IMPACT Wrestling is taping today in Nashville, Tennessee at Skyway Studios. Christian Cage was in for the tapings on Monday and Tuesday this week.
**The NJPW Strong tapings took place on Monday in Long Beach, California that featured Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii working them after the Resurgence event. It was announced that Will Ospreay will be wrestling Karl Fredericks on one of the shows in Garland, Texas set for September 25th and 26th.
**Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics reported that the premiere of ‘Heels’ averaged 128,000 viewers and 23,000 in the 18-49 demographic on Starz.
**Showbuzz Daily has risen from the ashes and appears to be functional. The site abruptly stopped its television viewership updates in May and the site appeared to be done. They have posted charts of the top 150 cable programs beginning with last Friday’s numbers and a breakdown of the demographics. They announced that they won’t be posting preliminary overnight figures and instead, post the final broadcast and cable figures. They have no plans to go back and fill in the gap of data between May and August when the site was not being updated.
**Bill Goldberg spoke to Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN about SummerSlam this Saturday, the match with Bobby Lashley, acknowledging that Riddle works very hard, and where he is at this stage of his career at age 53:
Yeah. I’m forgetting how many times I’ve retired and come back. It’s getting a little redundant. Now, people are like, ‘Yeah, right, you’re gonna retire.’ But yes, I think it’s winding down. You try to provide everybody with a glimpse of what you used to be, and it gets tougher and tougher each year, there’s no question. But mentally, I’m still at the same place. With a little bit of prep time, I think physically, I can be somewhat similar to what I used to be. I owe the business a lot. I really do. For me to walk away and not get back to it, that’s unacceptable. So I’m trying to be the best Goldberg they remember, and I’m trying to fulfill my obligation and my duty to the business. There are still people that I have yet to beat up. So as long as all of that is still the case, then I still keep chugging.
**NWA President Billy Corgan has acquired the championship belt that Mildred Burke held. Corgan purchased the belt from Burke’s granddaughter Wendy Koep, who spoke to SI.com about the decision to provide the belt to Corgan and the NWA:
I’m so happy that the NWA is going to take such good care of the belt. It was just sitting in a safe in my storage unit. There were so many people who were so interested in it, and that’s when Billy got ahold of me. He is the right person to have the belt and take care of her legacy.
The championship will be displayed at the EmPowerrr pay-per-view on August 29th in St. Louis when NWA Women’s Champion Kamille faces Leyla Hirsch.
**IMPACT Wrestling has moved up the start time of its Emergence event this Friday. The show was originally scheduled for Saturday but was moved to Friday and now it’s been changed to a start time of 7 p.m. ET on IMPACT Plus. The show has already been taped featuring Christian Cage vs. Brian Myers for the IMPACT Championship and the new start time will ensure that the broadcast ends before Rampage begins at 10. John Siino will be covering this show for the site on Friday.
**Ariel Helwani will have an interview with Roman Reigns coming out this Friday for BT Sport.
**The Volume, which is Colin Cowherd’s podcast network that Renee Paquette is attached to, is going to be in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand for a series of live shows with several WWE guests on Friday. Drew McIntyre will be on Moneyline Monaco at 2 p.m. local time, Ted DiBiase & Jimmy Hart will be on Boxing with Chris Mannix at 3, Triple H is the guest on Cowherd’s show at 5, and then Paquette is hosting back-to-back episodes of Oral Sessions beginning at 6 p.m. with Charlotte Flair and Eva Marie as the guests.
**Pittsburgh Magazine profiled AEW’s shows in the city last week and spoke with Britt Baker, who was the key attraction that did a bevy of media. The article noted the past reputation Pittsburgh has received as a tough crowd to engage, which wasn’t the case last week and provided an unbelievable atmosphere on Rampage especially for Christian Cage’s win. It also brought up other Pittsburgh pro wrestlers, WWE holding the Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh in 2014 (which was CM Punk’s last wrestling match), and the local IWC (International Wrestling Cartel), which was mentioned on the AEW broadcast.
**WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon-Levesque spoke with the Sports Business Radio Podcast promoting SummerSlam and growing up as a part of the McMahon family.
**WWE has released a trailer for a two-part edition of WWE 24 covering both nights of WrestleMania 37 from this past April. The episodes will be released on Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
**All Japan Pro Wrestling continues its Royal Road tournament with a show in Yokohama on Wednesday. The following second-round matches are scheduled in the 32-man tournament that began this past Sunday:
*Jake Lee vs. Koji Iwamoto
*Ayato Yoshida vs. Hokuto Omori
*Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Tajiri
*Shotaro Ashino vs. Zeus
*Suwama vs. Abdullah Kobayashi
*Shigihiro Irie vs. Yoshitatsu
*Kento Miyahara vs. T-Hawk
*Shuji Ishikawa vs. Francesco Akira
The third-round matches are scheduled for August 24th and the semi-finals & final take place on August 29th.
**Zakary Hebert, who is the son of historian and author Bertrand Hebert, made his pro wrestling debut over the weekend. Hebert is wrestling under the name Zak Patterson and just turned 21 years of age this week. He has been trained by Dru Onyx prior to going to train at the IWS school in Quebec and learning under Mike Bailey. His father has worked on many books with Pat Laprade including ‘Mad Dogs, Midgets, and Screwjobs’ on the history of wrestling in Montreal, and the biographies of Maurice ‘Mad Dog’ Vachon and Pat Patterson.
**Destiny Wrestling returns with their ‘Summer Heat’ event this Sunday in Mississauga, Ontario at the Don Kolov Arena. The card will feature IMPACT X Division Champion Josh Alexander facing Cody Deaner and they are also advertising the former No Way Jose, Speedball Mike Bailey, and Aiden Prince. The bell time is at 4 p.m. with a pre-show BBQ in the parking lot at 2.
**Game Changer Wrestling has added a show for Friday, September 24th at the Melrose Ballroom in New York City. ‘Get Lost ALot’ will stream live that night on Fite TV with tickets on sale this Friday at Noon ET.
**Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis) turns 29 years old today.
**The WWE stock closed at $48.95 on Tuesday.
MMA NEWS
**Endeavor (the parent company of the UFC) reported its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday with revenue of $1,111,272 billion for the quarter compared with $650 million in the second quarter of 2020. Led by three sold-out pay-per-view events, the UFC had its largest first half in the promotion’s history. Even with the large revenue figure, Endeavor still lost $319,597,000 for the quarter.
From the release:
At the segment level, Owned Sports Properties revenue increased $106.6 million, or 70.0%, to $258.9 million, compared to the second quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily driven by media rights fees and an increased number of UFC and PBR events, which included higher ticket sales due to the lifting of attendance restrictions in the quarter. The segment’s Adjusted EBITDA was $132.3 million, up $66.8 million, or roughly double that of the second quarter of 2020, primarily driven by the strong revenue growth.
The UFC’s first half of the year was highlighted by sold-out events for UFC 261 in April (Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal), UFC 262 in Houston (Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chander, Leon Edwards vs. Nate Diaz), UFC 263 in Arizona (Israel Adesanya vs. Marvin Vettori), and the huge UFC 264 card at the T-Mobile Arena for the third fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor in July.
From Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel:
Despite continued challenges brought on by the pandemic, our company once again demonstrated resilience, due in large part to our global portfolio of premium assets and the creativity of our employees and partners. As you look at the secular trends defining our industries – marked by the growing demand for content, the increased value of the talent and brands behind that content, and the desire of people to come together around live events and experiences – Endeavor remains firmly and uniquely positioned for a strong second half of 2021.
**Saul Soliz, who has been a prominent MMA coach especially in Texas, has died as a result of COVID-19. Soliz worked with many fighters including Tito Ortiz that led to the coach being featured on the third season of Ultimate Fighter in 2006 when Ortiz and Ken Shamrock were the coaches prior to their fight at UFC 61. Soliz returned for season eleven alongside Ortiz, when he was coaching against Chuck Liddell. Soliz’s friend John Gomez posted the announcement of his passing Tuesday morning at the age of 55 and stated that it was from COVID-19. In a story from MMA Junkie, they noted other fighters he worked with including Ricco Rodriguez, Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, the late Kevin Randleman, Wes Sims, Yves Edwards, Pete Spratt, Melvin Guillard, Tim Credeur among many others.
**The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani returned on Monday to signal the host’s return to the site where he worked until 2018 before departing for ESPN. After launching the show with AOL/Fanhouse in 2009, the show grew to become the go-to place for fighters and MMA figures on Mondays as the show grew and often topped 4-5 hours each Monday. Earlier this summer, Helwani announced he was returning to MMA Fighting among several outlets he will work with including BT Sport and The Ringer. The new format will see Helwani host the program Monday and Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET. At one glance, the show had over 12,000 live viewers for the return on Monday with over 216,000 views on YouTube as of Tuesday afternoon. The return episode featured Dustin Poirier, Quinton Jackson, Urijah Faber, Darren Till, and UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.
**Last Friday’s PFL card averaged 205,000 viewers and 0.05 (71,000) in the 18-49 demographic on ESPN 2 finishing 110th among cable programs. The card was going against the Bellator show on Showtime, which was not listed in the Showbuzz Daily chart.
**The PFL’s playoffs continue with a card this Thursday night and will air on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET with its biggest star Kayla Harrison fighting in the main event. Harrison (10-0) will be fighting Genah Fabian (4-1) in the women’s lightweight semi-finals with the other semi-final fight between Larissa Pacheco (15-4) and Taylor Guardado (2-1). In the men’s heavyweight semi-finals, Bruno Cappelozza (12-5) takes on Jamelle Jones (12-6) and Ante Delija (18-4) faces Denis Goltsov (27-6). The prelims will stream on ESPN+ beginning at 5:30 p.m.
**The full card for Bellator 265 this Friday has been confirmed by the promotion. The event takes place from Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the following fights:
MAIN CARD (9 p.m. ET on Showtime)
*Cheick Kongo (30-11-2) vs. Sergei Kharitonov (32-8)
*Adam Borics (17-1) vs. Jay Jay Wilson (8-0) – Each featherweight has won their previous three fights, so the winner will be alongside Mads Burnell as your potential championship contenders
*Logan Storley (11-1) vs. Dante Schiro (8-2)
*Marcelo Golm (6-3) vs. Kelvin Tiller (11-5)
*Keith Lee (7-4) vs. Jornel Lugo (6-0)
PRELIMINARY CARD (6 p.m. ET on YouTube)
*Fabio Aguiar (17-2) vs. Taylor Johnson (7-2)
*Bryce Logan (12-5) vs. Mike Hamel (7-5)
*Archie Colgan (2-0) vs. Ben Simons (3-2)
*Duane Johnson (5-2) vs. Deven Fisher (4-8)
*Kevin Childs (1-1) vs. Bailey Schoenfelder (1-0)
*Jeff Nielsen (0-0) vs. Kory Moegenburg (1-2)
**The UFC Fight Night card this Saturday is taking place in Las Vegas along with SummerSlam and Manny Pacquiao vs. Yordenis Ugas all in the same city, although UFC is running the Apex and selling tickets is not a factor. The main event is a middleweight fight between Jared Cannonier (13-5) and Kelvin Gastelum (16-7, 1 no contest). Gastelum has fought the elite of the division over the past two years but hasn’t fared well going 1-4 and is coming off a decision loss to Robert Whittaker, so staying above water in the top end of the weight class will require a win. Cannonier had won three straight fights until his last one in October 2020 losing to Whittaker, so both fighters are coming off losses to the former champion. The card will also feature Mark Madsen (10-0) facing his toughest test against Clay Guida (36-20), which has huge stakes for Madsen if he can beat Guida and ascend to the next level of his career. There is also a great flyweight fight on the main card between contenders Brandon Royval (12-5) and Alejandre Pantoja (23-5).
ON THIS DATE
SummerSlam 2008 featured the blowoff match between Edge and The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match, which would write off Edge at the end. The program had run off and on throughout 2007 and 2008 including the two closing WrestleMania 24.
SummerSlam 2014 from the Staples Center saw one of the most one-sided main events in WWE history. Brock Lesnar defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship after destroying him with suplexes with the intention of having a shocking outcome where Cena is thoroughly dominated. It was a unique instance of a top babyface being dominated it wouldn’t surprise me if the booking of that match had an effect on Cody Rhodes, who has demonstrated a similar mindset against Brodie Lee last summer and most recently with Malakai Black.
*****
POLLOCK & TING: TALK (Vol. 2)
John Pollock and Wai Ting return for the second installment of Pollock & Ting: TALK. Wai welcomes a special guest to discuss his wedding; John shares details about the making of “POST Profile: Who is Wai Ting?”.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW: SummerSlam Go-Home, AEW Rampage ratings
John Pollock & Wai Ting chat about the SummerSlam go-home WWE Raw featuring Goldberg, AEW Rampage’s debut numbers, WWE house shows absences, COVID issues in Japan, and more.
*****
POST PURORESU: NJPW Resurgence, Masato Yoshino retires
John Pollock & WH Park review NJPW Resurgence, discuss Masato Yoshino’s retirement, Stardom’s 5* GP, the passing of Jahmale Hepburn & more.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: AEW Rampage Debuts
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Rampage featuring Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage for the IMPACT Championship and WWE SmackDown featuring a Face-to-Face between Roman Reigns and John Cena.
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Ariel Helwani
John Pollock is joined by Ariel Helwani to discuss the return of The MMA Hour next week and leaving ESPN.
*****
MCU L8R: What If…? Ep. 1 “Captain Carter”
Wai Ting and WH Park return to talk about Marvel Studios’ What If…? Episode 1: “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?”
*****
THE BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE
Martin Bushby & Benno are back to talk about the last month in European wrestling. Joining them this time is GRAPPL Spotlight’s Gareth Hodgson.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with the Fourth Labour of Jericho, Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage announcement, NXT recap & more.
*****
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