POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-SmackDown is live at 11:15 p.m. ET tonight. The first 20 minutes of the show will stream on the POST YouTube channel while the full show is available to stream and download for POST Wrestling Café members, as usual.
**A reminder that we are constantly updating our WrestleMania Week schedule with the latest match & show announcements for all the events happening in Texas that week.
**The Long & Winding Royal Road returns on Saturday as WH Park is joined by Robert McCauley of the Eastern Lariat podcast to chat about Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori from October 30, 1999.
**Wrestlenomics Radio drops on Sunday here on the site with Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo going through all the business notes from the past week.
**Wai Ting is interviewed by Roman Kremianski.
**Next Tuesday, ASK-A-WAI returns for POST Wrestling Café members where Wai and I take questions from listeners for the entire show. You can submit your questions on the POST Wrestling Forum.
POST DAILY NEWS SHOW
Lavie Margolin from The Business of The Business podcast joins us to chat about the future of Ring of Honor, IMPACT’s placement in the market & more:
WRESTLING NEWS
**It was a big day for on-sales of upcoming AEW events including its debuts events in California. There were five events that went on sale to the public on Friday – May 4th in Baltimore (Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena), May 5th in Houston (Fertitta Center), June 1st in Inglewood (The Forum), June 3rd in Ontario, California (Toyota Arena), and June 29th in Detroit (Little Caesars Arena).
WrestleTix reported on Friday afternoon that the debut card in Inglewood, California at The Forum has sold over 12,000 tickets between this week’s pre-sale and today’s general public sale with approximately 550 remaining. That is a terrific figure for the building, which has not housed that many fans for a wrestling show since the glory days of WCW. WWE ran the building for a house in December 2015 featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Alberto Del Rio and Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus that drew 8,000.
The card at the Forum will be the first episode of Dynamite after Double or Nothing in Las Vegas. That week will also feature a live episode of Rampage with the card in Ontario, California.
Make that 12K.
Only 550 remain. Full update now up on https://t.co/yRCOtL75Yu. pic.twitter.com/2t2YHcG74W
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) March 11, 2022
**As of this afternoon, WrestleTix states over 7,000 tickets are out for Detroit. The last time WWE ran the Little Caesars Arena was December 27th last year for WWE Raw that drew 9,000 and 7,700 paid, per Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
**Friday Night SmackDown takes place from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama with Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey advertised on the WWE’s live events page. The following matches have been announced for tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Fox:
*Queen Zelina & Carmella vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks (this was originally Zelina vs. Naomi but was changed to a tag match today)
*Big E. & Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus & Ridge Holland
**SmackDown continues to draw well in the lead-up to WrestleMania with WrestleTix reporting over 8,400 tickets are out for tonight’s show.
**Johnny Knoxville did an angle with TMZ to hype the match with Sami Zayn at WrestleMania. In a video embedded onto TMZ’s site, it displayed a plane allegedly being flown over Los Angeles with Sami Zayn’s phone number displayed to blow up his phone. It is also Knoxville’s birthday today as he turns 51.
**AEW Rampage airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on TNT with the taped episode from Estero, Florida, and the following matches set to air:
*Darby Allin vs. Marq Quen
*Mercedes Martinez vs. Jamie Hayter
*Keith Lee vs. QT Marshall
*Shane “Swerve” Strickland vs. Tony Nese
*Scorpio Sky speaks after winning the TNT title
*Matt & Jeff Hardy to appear
**House of Glory is advertising The Briscoes against Rey Fenix & Pentagon for tonight’s show. If he wrestles, it will be Fenix’s first match since his elbow he sustained on the January 5th edition of Dynamite when they lost the AEW tag titles to Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus. The House of Glory show will also feature Low Ki vs. Biff Busick and Taya Valkyrie vs. Natalia Markova. The card will be streaming on FITE TV.
**Leyla Hirsch has posted a statement regarding her support of the people in Ukraine. Hirsch is a native of Moscow that moved to the United States and issued the statement after it was noted she wore her usual ring outfit featuring the Russian colors at Revolution last Sunday:
I want to make something very clear. I stand with Ukraine one hundred percent and my heart breaks for its citizens who are suffering at the hands of Vladimir Putin. I was born in Russia. I came to the US at eight years of age and became an American citizen. I cannot change my heritage any more than any other citizen can change theirs. The mere fact that I was born in Russia does not mean that I support this brutal dictator. Everyone who would even suggest such a thing is simply wrong, plain and simple.
**William Regal is scheduled to be on Talk is Jericho next week, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It was reported in the same publication that “Apparently Regal’s health issues at this stage are far more serious than have ever come out and there is an interview that will be released next week that he did for Talk is Jericho that will detail them”.
Regal addressed the report on Friday noting the issues he spoke about in the interview were from 2018:
Already…. That’s why I stay out the runour (sic) mill and gossip!!! I’ve just found out that there’s things being printed about my health. I am healthier than I’ve been in many years. I talked this week to someone about things that had happened to me in 2018.
**IGN has a fairly positive review of WWE 2K22, which was officially released on Friday and sees the game as a major upgrade after the disastrous response to 2K20. From their review:
2K Games and Visual Concepts needed a win with WWE 2K22, and while it’s far from a complete ground-up rebuild, it’s quite possibly the biggest leap forward the series has ever seen. The year off has clearly paid dividends: Virtually all of the major bugs I experienced in WWE 2K20 have been squashed; the revamped combat is faster, leaner, and full of smart tweaks that make it approachable for newcomers and rewarding for veterans; MyRise takes the MyCareer mode into a bold new direction; and MyGM offers a very niche, but nonetheless well put together management sim that’s sure to be a blast if you can find a like-minded wrestling fan to play it with. All this on top of an impressive visual overhaul that makes all 160+ superstars look the best they’ve ever looked in a video game. It’s the rare case of a marketing slogan that actually rings true: WWE 2K22 hits different.
**Over the next several months, there will be 27 downloadable characters made available with each DLC pack containing multiple characters.
*April 26: Yokozuna, Umaga, Rikishi, Omos, Kacy Catanzaro
*May 17: Cactus Jack, The Boogeyman, Vader, Ilja Dragunov, Indi Hartwell
*June 7: Hurricane Helms, Stacy Keibler, Wes Lee, Nash Carter, A-Kid
*June 28: Doink the Clown, Ronda Rousey, British Bulldog, Mr. T, Doudrop, Rick Boogs
*July 19: Rob Van Dam, Logan Paul, Machine Gun Kelly, LA Knight, Xia Li, Commander Azeez
**FITE TV has announced that the streaming platform will host over one hundred hours of wrestling content throughout WrestleMania Week. There will be various bundle packages including GCW’s The Collective (all shows available for $139.99), WrestleCon shows ($74.99), and Reality of Wrestling (Booker T’s group that is running three shows including the Sherri Martel Classic and will be $29.99 for all three). FITE will also carry The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast live show on Thursday, March 31st, and a live show with Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy & Conrad Thompson on April 1st. There will also be live news coverage from the FITE TV team including interviews on location by Nick Aldis and SoCal Val.
**The New Japan Cup’s second round continues on Saturday with a show from Dolphin’s Arena in Nagoya and will be streaming on New Japan World at 3 a.m. ET with the following card:
*New Japan Cup: SANADA vs. Great O-Khan
*New Japan Cup: Will Ospreay vs. El Phantasmo
*New Japan Cup: Great O-Khan vs. Taiji Ishimori
*New Japan Cup: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. DOUKI
*Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, El Desperado & Taka Michinoku
*Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. EVIL, Yujiro & Dick Togo
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, YOH & Tiger Mask vs. Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Gedo
*Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Tomoaki Honma, Kosei Fujita & Yuto Nakashima
**AEW is launching a new digital series this Sunday hosted by RJ City, who recently hosted the Road to Revolution shorts that streamed last weekend. The Sunday morning series will be called “Hey (Ew)” and will stream on the AEW YouTube channel. RJ has been wrestling since 2006 and has been heavily involved in the comedy scene in Toronto for years while also having roles across various television and movie projects. He has found a unique place in the industry by successfully tying his comedic talents to professional wrestling, as seen in his projects with The Fight Network among other places. He became a frequent contributor on the WWE Network appearing on the New Day’s podcast and hosted a WrestleMania After Dark special last April interviewing various performers.
📺 Brand new series alert! Hey! (EW) hosted by @RJCity1 debuts this SUNDAY on https://t.co/lBSV4rTE11! pic.twitter.com/cyERUvKXRi
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 11, 2022
**NXT Level Up airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on the WWE Network with the following matches taped this past Wednesday:
*Trick Williams vs. Guru Raaj
*Brooklyn Barlow vs. Ivy Nile
*Brooks Jensen & Josh Briggs vs. Grizzled Young Veterans
**Game Changer Wrestling travels to Center Stage in Atlanta on Saturday for its ‘Astronaut’ event. The card will stream on FITE TV with Nick Gage & Matt Tremont defending the tag titles against Mance Warner & Matthew Justice (Warner’s first match since his injury last October), AJ Gray vs. Effy for the Extreme title, Jordynne Grace vs. Allie Katch, Matt Cardona vs. Mike Jackson (who is 72 years old and wrestled on IMPACT two years ago), Tony Deppen vs. ACH, AR Fox vs. Nick Wayne, Gringo Loco vs. Ninja Mack, and Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian.
**GCW has also announced a match between Minoru Suzuki and 2 Cold Scorpio for its return to Detroit next month. The match will take place at ‘The Old Me’ at Harpo’s on Saturday, April 23rd. They are advertising John Wayne Murdoch vs. Hoodfoot for the show and advertising The Briscoes, Effy, Bandido, Nick Wayne, and more for the event.
**Barry Horowitz is coming out of retirement next weekend to wrestle Joey Janela on the Wrestle Pro event in Rahway, New Jersey at the Rahway Rec Center, which will stream on FITE TV:
I’ve done some absolutely insane shit in Wrestling like starting a non existent Wrestling scene in Alaska..
But nothing will top me getting Barry Horowitz to come out of retirement after 13yrs to wrestle @JANELABABY at @WrestlePro on March 19th in Rahway, NJ!
LIVE on @FiteTV pic.twitter.com/tVIU8LqUnS
— KM / Kevin Matthews (@Superstar_KM) March 11, 2022
**Marina Shafir vs. Zeda Zhang is the latest match announced for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport on Thursday, Match 31st as part of The Collective during WrestleMania Week.
**Chasing a Dream: Pat McAfee’s Wrestling Story. They should air this on television prior to WrestleMania.
**OTT has its ScrapperMania VI card on Saturday from National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The show includes Mark Haskins vs. Jordan Devlin for the OTT title, Emersyn Jayne vs. Debbie Keitel for the women’s title, Danny Cross & B. Cool vs. Aussie Open for the tag titles, Shane Strickland vs. Michael Oku vs. LJ Cleary vs. Robbie X in an elimination match, Rob Van Dam vs. Scotty Davis, and Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Sammy D.
**The WWE stock closed at $56.60 on Friday.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC Fight Night weigh-ins took place on Friday with all twenty-eight fighters making the mark for Saturday’s show at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. There are some very intriguing fights on the card.
MAIN CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Thiago Santos vs. Magomed Ankalaev
*Marlon Moraes vs. Song Yadong
*Sodiq Yusuff vs. Alex Caceres
*Karl Roberson vs. Khalil Rountree
*Terrance McKinney vs. Drew Dober
*Alex Pereira vs. Bruno Silva
PRELIMINARY CARD (4 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*A.J. Fletcher vs. Matthew Semelsberger
*Gillian Robertson vs. JJ Aldrich
*Javid Basharat vs. Trevin Jones
*Kamuela Kirk vs. Damon Jackson
*Miranda Maverick vs. Sabina Mazo
*Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Guido Cannetti
*Tafon Nchukwi vs. Azamat Murzakanov
**Bellator also has a show Saturday with a show from the Family Arena just outside of St. Louis with the main card airing on Showtime and the prelims streaming on YouTube beginning at 6 p.m. ET.
MAIN CARD (9 p.m. ET on Showtime, YouTube in Canada)
*Adam Borics vs. Mads Burnell
*Phil Davis vs. Julius Anglickas
*Johnny Eblen vs. John Salter
*Jay Jay Wilson vs. Gadzhi Rabadanov
ON THIS DATE
The Steiner Brothers took on The Road Warriors on Monday Nitro in 1996:
The go-home episode of Raw before WrestleMania X8 in 2002 saw Steve Austin & The Rock team against Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall.
Three years, Batista knew what he wanted.
*****
POST DAILY NEWS: The Future of ROH w/ Lavie Margolin
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by Lavie Margolin from The Business of The Business podcast to discuss Ring of Honor and its future.
*****
BWE: Michael Oku vs. Luke Jacobs, NXT UK, Progress, wXw
Martin, Benno & Andy return to discuss the latest in RevPro, Progress, NXT UK and wXw. Martin makes an announcement.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring the debut of Jeff Hardy, the breakup of the Inner Circle, Moxley & Danielson teaming up, Sammy Guevara vs. Scorpio Sky for the TNT Championship, and more.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, IMPACT Wrestling, NXT Level Up, NJPW Strong, NWA Powerrr, NWA USA, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT 3/8/22: NXT Roadblock
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT: Roadblock featuring Bron Breakker vs Tommaso Ciampa vs Dolph Ziggler for the NXT Championship.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI: TNA Hardcore Justice (2012)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review TNA Hardcore Justice (2012) featuring Austin Aries vs. Robert Roode for the TNA Championship and Kurt Angle vs. Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a BFG Series Ladder Match.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW: Kevin Owens calls out Stone Cold
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw as Kevin Owens calls out Stone Cold Steve Austin for WrestleMania, Edge explains his beatdown of AJ Styles, and Logan Paul and Jerry “The King” Lawler return.
*****
POST PROFILE: The Man They Call Vader
John Pollock examines the career and legacy of the late Leon “Vader” White, including exclusive interviews with former colleagues Bret Hart and Jim Ross, Japanese wrestling historian & author Chris Charlton, and Jordan Breen of Between Rounds Radio.
*****
AEW Revolution 2022 POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Revolution 2022 featuring “Hangman” Page vs. Adam Cole for the AEW Championship, and CM Punk vs. MJF in a Dog Collar Match.
*****
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