POST IT NOTES
**POST Wrestling has launched a daily news show that will be available in audio form for all members of the POST Wrestling Café with a video version coming out on YouTube.com/POSTwrestling. For our debut show, Wai Ting and I discussed the signing of Speedball Mike Bailey by IMPACT, Tom Lawlor becoming a free agent, the status of the ROH tape library, a report on AEW holding a Saturday night special in January, and more.
We hope you enjoy this addition, which we are experimenting with through the month of November. We hope to have a mix of guests on these shows from both inside and out of the POST network.
The first show is free for everyone on both Patreon and YouTube.
**We will be LIVE tonight at 11:15 p.m. ET for Rewind-A-Raw as Wai Ting and I will make a special announcement at the start of the show before we get into our review of WWE Raw and take your feedback. With the addition of the daily news show, the review shows will be less focused on news and we will get into the reviews quicker.
**On Tuesday, we are releasing Rewind-A-Wai #98 covering WWE TLC 2011. This event is highlighted by Daniel Bryan’s MITB cash-in, the main event TLC match for the WWE Championship, and many stipulation matches. We will also look at some interesting news items from this week in history and take your feedback from the POST Wrestling Forum.
**The latest POST Puroresu is available with WH Park and I catching up on the G1 Climax, discussing the Kota Ibushi injury and how it was handled, NJPW’s business numbers, Power Struggle card, Katsuhiko Nakajima’s GHC title win, Jake Lee vs. Kento Miyahara, and the Japanese candidates for the Observer Hall of Fame ballot this year.
**You can also listen to the UFC 267 POST Show from Saturday with Phil Chertok and I.
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE Raw takes place from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island featuring Becky Lynch defending the Raw Women’s Championship against Bianca Belair. As of this afternoon, it is the only match announced for the show with WWE announcing that the title match will kick off Raw at 8 p.m. ET.
**Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast is reporting that AEW is planning a Saturday night special on January 8th on TNT, which could be promoted as ‘Battle of the Belts’. The event would coincide with Dynamite moving to TBS several days prior on January 5th and would also place the Saturday night special on the same evening as IMPACT Wrestling’s ‘Hard to Kill’ pay-per-view. AEW and IMPACT had a collision of shows last month where IMPACT moved its Bound for Glory card to a 10 p.m. ET start time to avoid going against a Saturday night edition of Dynamite from 8-10.
**Court Bauer of MLW was interviewed by Digital Space to promote this Saturday’s War Chamber card in Philadelphia. He spoke about the future plans they are heavily focused on:
Expanding our content offerings is front and center. Whether it’s a spin-off series or a reality show, these are all things in the mix, as well as new streaming and linear partners that place MLW in front of more eyes on a weekly basis. The new women’s featherweight division is going to be a big part of our future as well. The female athletes have been a game-changer for MLW, since the division kicked off this summer.
In the same interview, Bauer stated that Jeff Cobb would be part of the War Chamber event this Saturday. Cobb is back in the U.S. after the G1 Climax and has not wrestled for MLW since May 2018.
**The season finale of Dark Side of the Ring finished with 154,000 viewers and 80,000 (0.05) in the 18-49 demographic for the episode covering “The Steroid Trials”. The second half of season three was the first time that Vice placed the series in the fall, and it did affect live viewership. The first half of the season May 6 – June 10 averaged 213,000 viewers (0.08 in 18-49) while the Sept. 16 – Oct. 28 portion averaged 147,000 (0.06 in 18-49). During the second half of the season, the high point was the Chris Kanyon episode that did 214,000 viewers and 0.07. The fall episodes all had to contend with the Thursday night NFL game as a factor to consider.
**Last Thursday’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling averaged 100,000 viewers and 35,000 (0.03) in 18-49 for the episode coming out of Bound for Glory, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
**Japan is going through an easing of certain restrictions when it comes to live sporting events, which would include pro wrestling. On Monday, it was reported that 27 of the 47 prefectures are easing the limit of 10,000 spectators for large events.
Events held across Japan can now have 5,000 spectators or 50 percent of venue capacity, whichever is larger, with large-scale event spaces allowed to accept more than 10,000 spectators in Tokyo and other regions that were under a state of emergency or a quasi-state of emergency through September.
Meanwhile, events that will see spectators shouting and cheering will be capped at 50 percent of venue capacity. Prefectural governors can also implement their own policies on spectator limits depending on the situation of infections in their areas.
That means if you want to encourage cheering at your events, there is a size restriction compared to events that don’t allow yelling or cheering during the show. For New Japan, the environment without cheers has dramatically affected shows and it’s not like they are filling these buildings even with the restrictions.
**Here are the matches for AEW Dark: Elevation tonight at 7 p.m. ET on its YouTube channel:
*The Acclaimed & Serpentico vs. Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor & Wheeler Yuta
*Tay Conti vs. LMK
*Nyla Rose & Emi Sakura vs. Kris Statlander & Ryo Mizunami
*Riho vs. Kayla Sparks
*FTR vs. Waves and Curls
*Frankie Kazarian vs. Victor Benjamin
**MLW has announced the signing of Gnarls Garvin, who has been wrestling for seven years and will debut at the ‘War Chamber’ event this Saturday at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. This is going to be an area MLW focuses on where they are constantly scouting undiscovered talent with the ‘Money Ball’ approach that Court Bauer has outlined previously. There is always going to be turnover with talent and MLW has shown an ability to find potential with talent that have not become names yet, some will miss but it’s the right strategy for their role in the space.
**WWE is hosting a WrestleMania ticket on-sale party on Wednesday, November 10th at AT&T Stadium that is free to attend. The on-sale party includes appearances from The Undertaker, Big E., The Street Profits, Doudrop, Rhea Ripley, Nikki A.S.H., and Reggie as well as live matches involving NXT talent. WrestleMania 38 will be staged over two nights at AT&T Stadium on April 2 and April 3, 2022.
**Ruby Soho spoke with Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture about her arrival in AEW and wrestling Britt Baker for the women’s championship at Arthur Ashe Stadium in September:
Britt has continuously impressed me, over the last few years, just watching her. I knew her when she first broke in on the independents when she was just bright-eyed-bushy-tailed-ready-to-learn-everything and super new to the game. Seeing her growth over the last few years has been incredibly impressive, but stepping into the ring with her and going toe-to-toe on the mic with her is a completely different story, I was even more impressed. I was seeing a completely different woman in front of me than I had seen years ago. The amount of growth that she’s done is very impressive. There’s a reason why she is our champion at this moment. I was very impressed with her but also at the same time I had to remind myself, “I’ve been doing this for a while and I knew her when she was that like new girl on the block’ So I had to give myself yet another pep talk {laughs} and be like ‘okay you’re meant to be here. If you want to make it here you gotta roll with the big dogs.’
**Kazuchika Okada spoke with NJPW1972.com about many subjects including his reaction to the G1 Climax final and the injury to Kota Ibushi:
But looking back on it, it was certainly another thing to add to things I’ve experienced in my career. The highs of winning obviously, but then the empty arena matches last year, the Katsuyori Shibata situation, they’ve all been experiences that have helped me grow in this business and as a person. It isn’t like I’ll never get to wrestle Ibushi again, and I think it’s really important to keep a positive face on something like this. Ibushi won’t want me saying this, but it is something that we’ll look at it in a different light 20 or 30 years from now and have a laugh, like ‘oh yeah, that G1 final’. Other sports have that. It was the last missed penalty kick in a World Cup, or a balk-off win to end the World Series. It’s a moment in time.
Okada was also asked about the idea of holding two belts if he beat Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:
No, I’m not going to go for any convoluted stuff. All this is right now, is I want to protect this belt like it was my contract briefcase, and after that we’ll cross the bridge when we come to it. I mean, at the end of the day, briefcases, for a G1 champion? Pretty old hat wouldn’t you say? A briefcase really wouldn’t match my ring gear right now either.
**Maria Kanellis was a guest on It’s My Wrestling Podcast and spoke about first working with Paul Heyman when she was in OVW in 2005:
I worked with Heyman down at Ohio Valley Wrestling, and that’s really the jumping off point of my creativity and wanting to try and book and use, you know, use what I have in my mind of where things can go and how I view wrestling a little bit different than other people. And so that was the beginning and just sitting with him before shows and he’s telling us what’s going to happen throughout the night and going over the scripts and everything. And so we would do that and that was at the very early parts of my career. But I was never afraid to ask questions or to just listen, and as an interviewer I got to interview people like DX and people like Carlito, Ric Flair and the entire gamut of individuals. I was like, I worked with The Rock I worked with Stone Cold Steve Austin, I’ve worked with Kurt Angle I’ve worked with Umaga. I worked with everybody. So I didn’t stand there and just go, Oh, I’m gonna turn my brain off, no. I listened and there is a skill to listening.
**Jon Moxley’s autobiography will be released on Tuesday and has received exceptional reviews. Moxley will be doing a tour for his book with appearances at the following Books-A-Million locations:
*November 3rd (1-3 p.m.) in Kansas City, Missouri at 1859 Village West Parkway
*November 10th (1-3 p.m.) in Indianapolis, Indiana at 5750 W. 86th Street #120
*November 24th (Noon – 2 p.m.) in Merrillville, Indiana at 2050 Southlake Mall
**MLW Middleweight Champion Yoshihiro Tajiri is set to defend the championship against Atsuki Aoyagi on Sunday, November 28th at the Odawara Arena on the Real-World Tag League tour.
**DEFY Wrestling held its ‘Marauders’ card on Friday night at Washington Hall in Seattle. The card included Homicide over Ethan HD in a No DQ Match, Viva Van over Allie Katch to retain the PCW Ultra Women’s title, El Phantasmo over Sonico, Jeff Cobb and Jacob Fatu fought to a double disqualification, Nick Wayne over Titus Alexander, Richard Holliday over Jordan Oasis, and Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl over Rylie Jackson & Levy Cruise to retain the DEFY tag titles.
**DEFY is back on Saturday, November 20th in Seattle with Jon Moxley taking on Tom Lawlor. The promotion rounds its schedule for 2021 with a show in Los Angeles on December 16th and one more show in Seattle on December 18th.
**Being the Elite Ep. 280: “Elite Game”.
**WWE stock closed at $61.82 on Monday. The company will report its third-quarter earnings this Thursday and hold a conference call with analysts that evening.
MMA NEWS
**The major story from UFC 267 was 42-year old Glover Teixeira becoming the second-oldest champion in the promotion’s history behind Randy Couture. Teixeira ended up on top of Jan Blachowicz in the second round when it appeared Blachowicz was looking to go for the arm and Teixeira capitalized as he moved to mount and locked in a rear-naked choke. Teixeira didn’t arrive in the UFC until 2012 due to visa issues that stalled his arrival during the prime years of his career. He would challenge Jon Jones for the 205-pound title in April 2014 and was unsuccessful and appeared destined for a journeyman role the rest of his career. With the combination of Jones leaving the division and Teixeira winning five straight fights, it led to a title fight with Blachowicz. It was a significant achievement for his coach John Hackleman, who was the head coach for former 205-pound champion Chuck Liddell, who held the same title from 2005-07.
**The other notable item from UFC 267 was the removal of referee Vyacheslav Kiselev after his performance officiating a prelim fight between Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Benoit Saint-Denis. The second round was a travesty with the damage incurred by St. Denis where there were multiple opportunities for the referee to stop the fight and he chose not to. Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder were on commentary and sounded livid at how liberal Kiselev was acting. Towards the end of the round, Saint-Denis mounted some offense, but it was one of the most one-sided rounds you will witness. Former official John McCarthy called it “the worst job of officiating at a UFC event ever”. McCarthy was also critical of the handling of an eye poke that Saint-Denis sustained during the fight and wasn’t just the volume of strikes incurred. Kiselev was scheduled to officiate another fight on the main card but was replaced by Marc Goddard after the prelim fight.
**The Fight of the Night bonus was awarded to Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen, who had a sensational five-round fight that Yan won on the scorecards to become interim bantamweight champion. Yan made the requisite adjustments after losing the first round and I had him winning rounds 2-5. Many see Yan as the undeniable top bantamweight in the sport especially given the nature of his title loss to Aljamain Sterling by disqualification in a fight Yan was winning. His next fight will depend on Sterling’s recovery from neck surgery or whether Yan will defend the interim title first. The Performance of the Night bonuses went to Teixeira and Khamzat Chimaev with each receiving $50,000 each.
**Here are the fights scheduled for Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+:
*Maheshate vs. Achilles Estremadura
*Justin Burlinson vs. Yohan Lainesse
*Qui Lun vs. Erisson Ferreira da Silva
*Jonas Bilharinho vs. Canaan Kawaihae
*Zhifa Shang vs. Juan Puerta
**The UFC is back with another major card this Saturday with UFC 268 from Madison Square Garden, which features a tremendous card that we will be chatting about throughout the week.
ON THIS DATE
With members of the roster unable to return from Saudi Arabia in time for SmackDown, the call made was made to utilize various NXT talent and led to a tremendous episode of television including Daniel Bryan vs. Adam Cole:
*****
POST NEWS: AEW TNT Special, Speedball, Tom Lawlor
John Pollock & Wai Ting debut an experimental daily news segment for November. They discuss today’s news involving AEW’s first TNT Saturday special, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Tom Lawlor, ROH’s tape library and more
*****
POST PURORESU: G1 Climax, Katsuyori Shibata returns
John Pollock is joined by WH Park as they discuss the fallout from the G1 Climax, the injury to Kota Ibushi & Katsuyori Shibata returns.
*****
UFC 267 POST SHOW: Blachowicz vs. Teixeira, Yan vs. Sandhagen
John Pollock and Phil Chertok are together in the POST Office for a review of UFC 267 Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: Trick or Street vs. Trick or Treat, WWE Steroid Trials
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown with the Trick or Street Fight and AEW Rampage with the Trick or Treat Match. Plus, a review of Dark Side of the Ring covering the WWF Steroid Trials
*****
BTWA #14: WWE King of the Ring (2002)
Martin Bushby & Andrew Thompson are back with another round of Wrestling Adventure. This month they are joined by Chad Gelfand & Chris Jeter to go back to WWE King of the Ring 2002.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 10/27/21: Elite vs. Dark Order, Ring of Honor hiatus
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the Halloween edition of AEW Dynamite from Boston, chat Ring of Honor’s pending hiatus, NXT Halloween Havoc & more.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK: Too Fast Too Fuego/Danielson-AEW Dark
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, 205 Live, NJPW Strong, NWA Powerrr, Ring of Honor, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT 10/26/21: Halloween Havoc 2021
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman talk about NXT Halloween Havoc headlined by Tommaso Ciampa vs Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship!
****
REWIND-A-WAI #97: WWE WrestleMania 19
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE WrestleMania 19 featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon, and Steve Austin vs. The Rock in Austin’s final match.
*****
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