POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-SmackDown will be live tonight at 10 p.m. ET as Wai Ting and I review Friday Night SmackDown & AEW Rampage and will do a quick preview of Double or Nothing. This show is available live for all POST Wrestling Café members and in your custom podcast feed to download later tonight. As always, Café members can call into the show after the reviews.
**On Sunday night, Wai & I will be live just minutes after AEW Double or Nothing on the POST YouTube channel with our thoughts on the show. Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the Café can call in after the review.
POST DAILY NEWS SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss:
– WWE moves Money in the Bank
– NJPW press conference on Kota Ibushi’s status
– AEW Dynamite ratings
– Tony Khan’s media call
– SmackDown & Rampage tonight
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE has moved Money in the Bank to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in five weeks. It’s a major move going from Allegiant Stadium to the smaller venue and will see all tickets put back on sale to avoid any overlap of tickets purchased with the new capacity. When Double or Nothing sold out the venue in 2019, they drew 12,000 as a comparison for what the venue can hold for a wrestling event.
Those that previously purchased tickets will have the first opportunity to buy tickets next Wednesday at 10 a.m. with tickets on sale for the public next Friday.
WWE’s advertising for the MGM Grand version of the show differs dramatically from the Allegiant Stadium advertising. The original promotional material featured Roman Reigns, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Bobby Lashley. The new graphic doesn’t feature any of those talents with Cody Rhodes, Bianca Belair, Riddle, The Miz, Street Profits, and Rhea Ripley featured prominently with Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins included.
**Tickets for “Ric Flair’s Last Match” went on sale today with prices starting at $39 U.S. for standing room only. Ringside tickets from Rows 3-5 are sold out, which range in price from $150 to $250, and were the most expensive seats available when the on-sale began this morning. Throughout the day, they have sold out all the other tickets with standing-room-only tickets still available at $39 per ticket. The card will take place on Sunday, July 31st at the Nashville Fairgrounds over SummerSlam weekend in the same city.
**Tony Schiavone and David Crockett will be reunited at Ric Flair’s Last Match to call it.
**ESPN’s Marc Raimondi (who just announced a major book deal this week on the influence of the N.W.O.) has a feature on CM Punk going into Double or Nothing. The premise of the piece is a 180-degree version of Hangman Page’s promo from Wednesday profiling Punk’s influence on the younger talent in the locker room and making himself available to anyone seeing his help. Punk looked back at his time in WWE as a wasted opportunity given the locker room environment and walking on eggshells instead of having access to the veteran talent to pick their brains. The ESPN feature includes comments from Powerhouse Hobbs, Darby Allin, Dustin Rhodes, and Dax Harwood about their experiences wrestling Punk. Hobbs wrestled Punk at Arthur Ashe Stadium and did the match as a tribute to his mother, who had just passed away with Punk instructing Hobbs to forget about all the people and just wrestle the match for his mother. Allin stated he was very nervous about the match at last year’s All Out show and was given advice from Sting. Punk had the strongest praise for the match with Harwood this match in March, which came together the day of the show and Punk called it “the most perfect match I’ve probably ever had.”
**Friday Night SmackDown takes place from North Little Rock, Arkansas airing at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. The show will air against Game 6 of the series between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. WWE has announced the following for tonight’s broadcast:
*Ronda Rousey vs. Raquel Rodriguez
*Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods & TBA vs. Sheamus, Ridge Holland & Butch
*The Kevin Owens Show
**AEW Rampage is live tonight with a 6:30 p.m. ET start time (3:30 p.m. local time for those attending the event) from the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The following has been announced for tonight:
*Owen Hart Cup: Ruby Soho vs. Kris Statlander
*The Young Bucks in action
*Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal
**The TNT site is listing the ‘Countdown to Double or Nothing’ special for 11:30 p.m. ET but that will depend on when the NHL game ends between St. Louis and Colorado.
**Stan Hansen’s trip to Japan is off due to a positive COVID-19 test. All Japan Pro Wrestling alerted fans in a statement that Hansen would not be able to appear at this Sunday’s show at Korakuen Hall. While in Japan, Hansen was also scheduled for an in-ring interview segment with Kenta Kobashi on June 15th at Kobashi’s Fortune Dream event at the same venue. We wish Hansen a full and speedy recovery.
**Stardom has its ‘Flashing Champions’ pay-per-view event early Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. ET available to purchase through the Pia site. Below is the full card and Karen Peterson will have a review of the show Saturday on the site:
*World of Stardom: Syuri (champion) vs. Risa Sera
*Wonder of Stardom: Saya Kamitani (champion) vs. MIRAI
*Artist of Stardom: Himeka & Natsupoi (champions) vs. Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid
*Goddesses of Stardom: Hazuki & Koguma (champions) vs. Giulia & Mai Sakurai
*KAIRI & Tam Nakano vs. Utami Hayashishita & Miyu Amasaki
*SWA World Championship: Mayu Iwatani (champion) vs. Fukigen Death
*High-Speed Championship: AZM (champion) vs. Thekla
*Unagi Sayaka, Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama vs. Suzu Suzuki, Akane Fujita & Mochi Natsumi
*Future of Stardom: Hanan (champion) vs. Ruaka
**The Best of the Super Juniors has two shows this weekend with cards on Saturday in Chiba and Sunday at Ota Ward Gymnasium followed by Tuesday’s card in Toyama before the finals at Budokan Hall next Friday. The A Block is led by Ace Austin with ten points with Taiji Ishimori & Alex Zayne at eight points and a four-way tie for third place. The B Block has a bit more parity with El Desperado, El Lindaman & El Phantasmo tied with eight points. The next level is a five-way tie between Robbie Eagles, BUSHI, Wheeler Yuta, DOUKI, and TJP with six points each.
Below is the card for Saturday’s show at 5 a.m. ET on New Japan World:
*B BLOCK: El Desperado vs. DOUKI
*A BLOCK: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Alex Zayne
*B BLOCK: Robbie Eagles vs. El Lindaman
*B BLOCK: El Phantasmo vs. TJP
*B BLOCK: Wheeler Yuta vs. Master Wato
*A BLOCK: SHO vs. Ace Austin
*A BLOCK: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. YOH
*B BLOCK: BUSHI vs. Titan
*A BLOCK: Taiji Ishimori vs. Clark Connors
*A BLOCK: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Francesco Akira
**There are no WWE live events this weekend with the company returning on Monday night with Raw taking place in Des Moines, Iowa.
**GCW is in Las Vegas for ‘Downward Spiral’ on Saturday night at the Silver Nugget Casino that streams on Fite TV at 11 p.m. ET. The card will include Joey Janela vs. John Hennigan (“Johnny Game Changer”), Matt Cardona vs. Blake Christian, Effy vs. Kevin Blackwood, John Wayne Murdoch & Alex Colon vs. Drew Parker & Rina Yamashita, Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Chris Bey, Jordan Oliver & Nick Wayne vs. Gringo Loco & ASF, and AJ Gray teaming with Mance Warner & Matthew Justice against Allie Katch, Billie Starkz & Sandra Moone.
**Warrior Wrestling on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fite TV has Davey Richards vs. TBA (a replacement for Will Ospreay due to his kidney infection), Athena defends the women’s title against Janai Kai, JONAH vs. Jeff Cobb, Adam Brooks vs. Warhorse, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Tootie Lynn, KC Navarro vs. Mike Bennett, Yuya Uemura vs. Alex Coughlin, and Mike Outlaw vs. Camaro Jackson from Collinsville, Illinois.
**The WWE continues to grow closing at $67.14 on Friday. The stock has grown nearly six dollars since Monday morning.
**Ariel Helwani interviewed IMPACT Wrestling producer Lance Storm for over an hour covering his career, starting off the invasion angle in 2001, the Sasha Banks/Naomi situation, and being among the first wrestlers to start what is now known as a “podcast” in 1999.
**Trevor Dame discusses the legacy of Owen Hart for Fan Byte.
**Tonight’s edition of NXT Level Up at 10 p.m. ET will feature Trick Williams vs. Dante Chen, Amari Miller vs. Arianna Grace, and Andre Chase & Bodhi Hayward vs. Damaris Griffin & Bryson Montana.
**The Universal Wrestling podcast recently spoke with WWE broadcaster Jimmy Smith and former creative team member Matt McCarthy.
ON THIS DATE
Scott Hall returns to WCW in May 1996 and kicks off the New World Order era:
Steve Austin and Randy Savage wrestle on WCW Saturday Night in 1995:
Most have tried to forget this:
*****
POST DAILY NEWS: WWE moves MITB
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss WWE moving Money in the Bank, New Japan’s press conference regarding Kota Ibushi, Tony Khan’s Double or Nothing media call, and more.
*****
BTWA #20: RevPro/NJPW Global Wars Night Two
Martin Bushby is joined by Rich Fann of the PWTorch to journey back to 2016 and RevPro/NJPW Global Wars 2016.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE: Double or Nothing go-home episode
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite: 3 Year Anniversary as Double or Nothing week begins from Las Vegas, NV.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK: Mercedes defends ROH Women’s Title
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, IMPACT Wrestling, NXT Level Up, NJPW Strong, NWA USA, NWA Powerrr, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT: Control Your Impulse
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the May 24th, 2022 episode of NXT 2.0 headlined by Bron Breakker vs Duke Hudson!
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (May 2022)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the May 2022 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
****
Browse the POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
