POST IT NOTES
**Tonight, members of the POST Wrestling Café will have live access to watch MCU L8R with hosts Wai Ting and WH Park being joined by John Siino to review Spider-Man: No Way Home. The three will share their thoughts on the movie and take your feedback, which can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum.
**upNXT is live at 10:15 p.m. ET tonight at Twitch.tv/upNXTpodcast with a review of tonight’s episode.
**On today’s POST Daily News show, Wai & I discussed the format for AEW’s Battle of the Belts, the SmackDown and AEW Rampage viewership figures, NXT 2.0 tonight, and more. We are live every day at 1 p.m. ET on YouTube and the audio version is available to POST Wrestling Café members.
**On Wednesday, Wai Ting and I will be joined by Dr. Alex Patel on the POST Daily News show to discuss the evolving situation with the Omicron variant, tips for the holidays, and the impact it is having. We will also go over the latest wrestling news and take your questions.
**Phil Chertok and Eric Marcotte will be hosting an MMA Year-End show on Thursday, December 30th at 3 p.m. ET on the POST YouTube channel.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: MCU L8R – Spider-Man: No Way Home review (Live at 10 p.m. ET for Patrons)
Tonight: upNXT (10:15 p.m. on Twitch.tv/upNXTpodcast)
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (10:15 p.m. for Double Double+ Patrons)
Thursday: MCU L8R – Hawkeye Finale with Wai Ting, WH Park, Nate Milton & JP Houlihan (Patreon)
Friday: The POST Christmas Show 2021
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio with Brandon Thurston & Chris Gullo
WRESTLING NEWS
**NXT 2.0 will have a tougher night than usual with a pair of NFL games being played. Beginning at 7 p.m. ET, Washington vs. Philadelphia and Seattle vs. the L.A. Rams will be airing and is the first time NXT has NFL competition on an unfamiliar night. AJ Styles is set to appear on tonight’s program after a quick set-up where Grayson Waller posted a video mocking the Raw performer. Below are the matches set for tonight’s show at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network and Sportsnet 360 in Canada:
*Street Fight: Raquel Gonzalez vs. Dakota Kai
*Pete Dunne vs. Tony D’Angelo
*Dexter Lumis vs. Trick Williams
*The Creed Brothers vs. Grizzled Young Vets
*An appearance by AJ Styles
**AEW president Tony Khan was interviewed by Shakiel Mahjouri and spoke on many topics with the following notes from the chat:
*He said he would have been interested in signing Kevin Owens and is a great wrestler. He believes he signed for a lot of money in WWE and thinks that is great and would be a great wrestler for any company he was part of.
*He acknowledged the plan of putting Hangman Page vs. Bryan Danielson on first as opposed to starting the match with one hour left in the show as a tipoff to go the full hour. The other option would be to have matches remaining but due to the length of the title page, canceling them, which Khan said would be false advertising and didn’t want to do that.
*When asked about Khan’s thoughts on how a potential union would work in pro wrestling, he had no comment to make.
*Khan said he is excited to bring Double or Nothing back to Las Vegas in May 2022 after the show was staged in Jacksonville over the past two years
*Is hopeful of big news updates of their console game in the new year
*His new year’s resolution is to keep expanding noting Battle of the Belts and the Owen Hart Cup as examples while also noting its four biggest pay-per-views were the ones staged this year
**Pro Wrestling Tees had a security breach recently and sent out a physical letter to certain customers informing them of the breach. The letter was posted online noting that PWTees were notified on November 1st by law enforcement that “a small portion of our customer’s credit card numbers had been compromised”. After an investigation, the company believes it was a malware virus that was the source of the breach and has been removed from its system. The letter posted was signed with PWTees owner Ryan Barkan that also included information on obtaining identity theft protection that they are offering. It also stated the following in the letter posted online:
Again, at this time, there is no evidence that your information has been misused. However, we encourage you to take full advantage of this service offering.
There has been criticism of the company not addressing this breach through their social channels and there is no announcement of the breach on its Twitter account. We were informed by one person at the company that “the IDX number attached or email attached to those letters are legally the only people who anyone can talk to about the security breach due to the laws when it comes to cyber security.”
A search of “PWTees breach” on Twitter brings a lot of results from users complaining about the handling of this breach with additional questions given PWTees’ involvement with AEW’s merchandise and why they didn’t contact people quicker electronically than with physical letters. There is also a thread of users noting amounts that appeared on their credit cards of purchases they did not make.
**Kevin Owens appeared on les Anti-pods de la Lutte with Pat Laprade and Kevin Raphael. During the discussion he shared his thoughts on the role Ring of Honor played in his career:
It’s funny cause I often ask myself that same question. Of course, it gave me a very important platform in the United States. But at the end of the day, William Regal saw me at a PWG show. And even before I started full time with ROH in 2007, I had a good name on the indies because of PWG. So sometimes I wonder if things would have not become what they became with ROH, if I would have made it to WWE anyway. Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. But at the same time, there was a point in my career where I thought ROH would be where I would spend my whole career. Even if my goal was always to go with WWE, there’s was a point in my life where I had my son and my wife, and I was thinking that travelling so much like I would have had to do in WWE was not the best thing for me, so I was thinking that the more time I can make a living working ROH, that’s what I would do. However, with time, my priorities changed a little, my family’s priorities changed a little, and that’s when WWE became my goal again. So ROH was a big influence and a huge part of my career, but I often wonder if ROH would have not been part of my career, if I would have made it to WWE anyway. A huge part of me thinks so. That said, I have plenty of good and fun memories with ROH, and I’m very happy to have been apart of ROH for all those years.
Owens also spoke of the changes to the NXT brand since September and why it’s so different from the prior version:
Today’s NXT is very different than the NXT I was part of, to the point I believe it should have a totally different name. And I don’t think it’s better or worse, but it’s just too different. So when I’m watching NXT, I don’t see the NXT I was part of. It’s not the same thing. It’s a little bit like Ring of Honor. The ROH of old days and the ROH now, it’s just not the same thing. So to me, it’s completely two different products, so when I’m watching it, I put myself in the mindset we had when I was at NXT and the mindset there seems to have right now, it’s completely different. It’s very hard for me to compare them. I don’t even consider that to be the same show. I don’t really feel any attachment to NXT now. Listen, there are very talented people working there, and I have watched the last TakeOver show they did and there were parts of it that I thought was really good, but it’s like a few years ago, if they had asked me to go back to NXT, I would have said yes. But f they would ask me that now, I don’t think I would be as receptive to go back, because it’s not the same thing. I don’t think I fit in the new NXT as I was fitting in the NXT I was part of, with guys like Sami, Finn, Samoa Joe and Nakamura. When I watch NXT now, I don’t feel the same thing I felt when I was watching NXT two years ago.
**WWE has yet to comment on the status of next week’s live events in Laval, Quebec, and Toronto, Ontario. Both provinces are undergoing restrictions with Quebec reporting over 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. When POST Wrestling reached out to Evenko, the local promoter in Quebec, we were given the following response on Monday:
The different teams involved in this WWE event are in discussion at the moment.
The status of the event should be determined soon.
**AEW Dark has thirteen matches scheduled for tonight’s episode at 7 p.m. ET on the AEW YouTube channel with the following advertised:
*Eddie Kingston vs. Colin Delaney
*Robyn Renegade vs. Brandi Rhodes
*Shawn Dean vs. Lucas Chase
*Abadon vs. Charlette Renegade
*Bear Country vs. Zack Clayton & Mike Orlando
*Kiera Hogan vs. Shalonce Royal
*Isiah Kassidy vs. Carlie Bravo
*Colten & Austin Gunn vs. Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson
*Red Velvet vs. La Rosa Negra
*Willow Nightingale vs. Penelope Ford
*Matt Sydal vs. Serpentico
*Preston “10” Vance vs. Leroy Patterson
**MLW has announced a multi-year contract extension with its world champion Alex Hammerstone. The performer joined the group in 2019 and became its National Openweight champion before defeating Jacob Fatu this year to become world champion.
**NJPW continues its stretch of four straight nights at Korakuen Hall with a show Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. ET on New Japan World. After Friday, the company will be off until the Wrestle Kingdom cards the first week of January. Below is Wednesday’s card:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask vs. KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo
*Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Ryusuke Taguchi
*Jeff Cobb, Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI
*Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku vs. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Master Wato
*EVIL, Yujiro, SHO & Dick Togo vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & YOH
*Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI vs. Toru Yano, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Jado vs. Kosei Fujita, Ryohei Oiwa & Yuto Nakashima
**NJPW Strong has announced television tapings for Saturday, March 20th at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tickets are priced between $30-150.
**Terminus, the promotion being launched by Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black, has begun announcing matches for their launch on January 16th in Atlanta. Thus far, the following match announcements have been made: Jay Lethal vs. Lee Moriarty, Fred Yehi & Tracy Williams vs Dante Caballero & Joe Keys, Jordynne Grace vs. Kiera Hogan, Moose vs. Alex Coughlin, and Janai Kai vs. Liiza Hall.
**PWG has added Aramis to the line-up of talent scheduled for the Battle of Los Angeles tournament next month at The Globe Theatre. The Lucha star joins Bandido, Lio Rush, Daniel Garcia, Lee Moriarty, Jonah, Alex Shelley, Kevin Blackwood, Davey Richards, Black Taurus, and Jack Cartwheel among the participants. The two-day tournament is set for Saturday, January 29th, and Sunday, January 30th in Los Angeles.
**Here are the results from Tuesday’s NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome card at Korakuen Hall in front of 435 fans (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi over Kazuchika Okada & Robbie Eagles in 18:10
*Jeff Cobb, Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare over Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI in 17:53
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato over El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & Gedo in 12:30
*Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Tiger Mask over Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & Taka Michinoku in 10:12
*EVIL, Yujiro & SHO over Tomohiro Ishii, YOH & Ryohei Oiwa in 9:45
*Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI over Toru Yano & Kosei Fujita in 11:03
*Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens over Yuji Nagata & Yuto Nakashima in 8:14
**The WWE stock closed at $47.58 on Tuesday.
**Happy Birthday to Mauro Ranallo.
MMA NEWS
**There was an incident in Las Vegas over the weekend involving former fighter and current broadcaster Chael Sonnen. Police were called to the Luxor Hotel and Casino this past Saturday after reports of a fight taking place where five people were allegedly struck. A video surfaced on TMZ of Sonnen being taken down the hallway by police with the incident beginning after Sonnen was allegedly banging on a hotel room door and had a physical altercation with a couple.
MMA Fighting received the following response from Larry Hadfield, who is a public information officer with the Las Vegas Police Department, who stated Sonnen was not arrested but received battery citations for each victim:
Sonnen was issued a battery citation for each individual victim, then escorted off property. Due to the fact the misdemeanors were committed outside of a police officer’s presence, an arrest was not conducted.
**BetOnline has released odds regarding the next opponent for Jake Paul after Paul’s latest win against Tyron Woodley over the weekend in Tampa, Florida. The leading candidate from the oddsmaker is Anderson Silva (3/1) followed by Tommy Fury (7/2), Dillon Danis (7/1), Nate Diaz (7/1), and Conor McGregor (15/2). Silva would be a step-up even though he’s 46 years old. Silva has actually boxed and would be a logical next opponent for Paul given the route he’s taken. Fury would seem a good choice if Paul is biding his time before a superstar-level opponent like Nate Diaz is available to fight. Diaz has one fight remaining on his UFC and in theory, would be free after that fight to pursue a giant payday boxing Paul. McGregor has fights remaining on his UFC deal and is nursing himself back from the leg injury and I can’t see that taking place in 2022 under any circumstances.
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POST DAILY NEWS: Battle of the Belts 1 hour, SD/Rampage ratings
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss Friday’s ratings for SmackDown & Rampage, length for AEW Battle of the Belts, NXT 2.0 tonight & more.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW: Didn’t We Omos Have It All?
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw with every advertised match and segment taking place.
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Wrestlenomics: 2022 Predictions, AEW in mainstream press
As 2021 draws to an end, we make some predictions for 2022. Will Ring of Honor run a show next year? What will WWE and AEW TV ratings be?
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The N.W.A. Podcast: “The 2021 Rap-Up AKA The Christmahanukwanzaa Kickback”
Nate Milton, Kris Ealy, and Andrew Thompson are joined by Rich Fann (PWTorch) and Sid “SP3” Pullar (Tru Heel Heat) for a recap of the best (and worst) moments of 2021!
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: Paul Heyman Fired, Owen Hart Cup announced
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown with the return of Roman Reigns, plus AEW Rampage with news on the Owen Hart Cup & more.
*****
MCU L8R: Hawkeye Ep. 5 “Ronin” (w/ Karen Peterson)
WH Park is joined by Karen Peterson to discuss Hawkeye Episode 5: “Ronin”, as Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova searches for Clint Barton while the identity of a major Marvel crime boss is finally revealed.
*****
THE WELLNESS POLICY: 2021
Wai Ting and Jordan Goodman close out their first year of The Wellness Policy with the POST Wrestling Café! They connect all show long with both regular and first-time callers in a Royal Rumble, open-chat format.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE: Winter is Coming
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming 2021 featuring “Hangman” Page vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW Championship in one of the best TV matches of the year.
*****
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